Billions lost as fans denied Kipchoge vs Bekele clash

What you need to know:

  • Liverpool players and fans have waited decades for the English Premier League title, and with only six points and a few games away from their dream, the league may be cancelled, careers ended, dreams shattered.
  • If the league is terminated, will Liverpool be crowned champions? Will Norwich be relegated? The coronavirus has even stopped the “Doing Business Under Coronavirus” conference in New York and in Kenya, the novel coronavirus has stopped “reggae”! We are in unchartered waters.

You would probably have to go back to the Second World War to find similar impact to what the novel coronavirus is currently visiting on global sports.

In football, the English Premier League has been postponed. European Football Association (Uefa) has announced that all Champions League and Europa League fixtures have been postponed while Serie ‘A’, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga matches have been stopped. Chelsea and Arsenal players are in self-isolation while Everton, Watford and Bournemouth are following similar steps.

What is the social-economic impact of all the cancellations and postponements we are seeing? A EY Economic Impact Assessment of the English Premier League 2016/17 season established that the 20 clubs contributed £3.3billion (Sh429 billion) in taxes to the UK economy.

Further, the clubs supported over 100,000 jobs, nearly 700,000 people travelled to the UK to watch games and a whooping £7.6 billion (Sh1.1 trillion) of gross value was added (GVA) to the economy.

Meanwhile, the football Kenya Federation, which has made negative contribution to the Kenyan economy, had to be stopped by the government from staging their matches.

Elsewhere, the Boston Marathon, now postponed to September, contributes $211m (Sh21 billion) to Boston annually.

According to David Cutler, a Harvard economist, the economic impact of the coronavirus in Boston’s home State of Massachusetts will be devastating.

For example, one of the biggest hotels, the Marriott Long Wharf, a 412-room facility, has closed down entirely and it’s possible that the USA will enter into a recession.

According to the Sports Industry Research Center at Sheffield Hallam University, the London Marathon, now postponed to October, generates over £110 (Sh130 billion) of UK economic activity whilst spending by runners, spectators, organisers and visitors was worth £32m (Sh3.3billion).

The research shows that each runner spends about £452 (Sh60,000) on running shoes, kit and training whilst spectators spend on mainly on accommodation, food and drink. Pubs, or bars as we call them, along the London marathon route report their busiest day of the year during the marathon.

This year’s race, initially set for April 26, in particular, had added interest with the world’s two fastest marathon runners on the start list — Kenya’s world record holder Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian legend Kenenisa Bekele.

The first major victim of the virus in Kenya was the Magical Kenya Open Golf Championship that was due to held from last Thursday to today at the Karen Country Club.

The event, which includes 144 players, 100 caddies and another 150 European Tour officials and media, mainly from Europe was cancelled by the Kenyan government, an action that seemed overly cautious at the time.

But since then, the European Tour and the PGA Tour have cancelled or postponed the Hero Indian Open, the WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play, Texas, the Masters in Atlanta, the Maybank Championship, Malaysia and the Volvo China Open, China, among many other competitions.

Following the cancellations, many international golf professionals were unclear of their travel plans given the travel restrictions announced by President Donald Trump. The cancellation of the first major of the year, The Masters, was surprising, but not unexpected, given the mass cancellations across sport.

This will be the first time since the Second World War that the Masters has not been staged as scheduled. The Masters delivers an economic impact of over $ 120 million (Sh12 billion) annually in hotel rooms, home stays, retail, golf rounds and so on.

The LPGA Tour have also cancelled their first major, the ANA Inspiration that was due to be played in Rancho, California in April. In issuing the cancelation, the LPGA said they were adhering to the State of California directive to limit non-essential gatherings to “no more than 250 people.”

The Ministry of Health in Kenya has issued similar but less specific directives, banning all public gatherings and banning Church Crusades but not Church services.

Over 100 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the City of Boston, USA, and as a result the city has shut down all museums, all sporting events — hockey, basketball, Major League and the St. Patrick’s Day parade has also been cancelled!

Many firms in Boston have asked staff to work from home and students have been sent home early. Harvard University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute —where our second born son goes to school — have shut down their campuses, moving all courses online for the duration of the spring semester.

Away from the hard economic numbers, the impact of the coronavirus will affect athletes and those who work with and around them tremendously.

The postponement of the Boston and London marathons throws preparations for the elite athletes into disarray, the new dates announced — September and October, respectively — demand new planning regimes and to complicate it even further, there is the Tokyo Olympics.

Should the athletes and coaches draw up new training plans based on the Olympics, which are very unlikely to take place, or should they focus on the world major marathons?

How can these athletes stay focused in the face of so much uncertainty?

Further, Kenya is a Class ‘A’ country under the doping rules, meaning our athletes must undertake a certain number of in-competition and out-of-competition doping tests.

With the lack of organised races, will our athletes meet the World Anti-Doping Agency requirements and qualify for the Olympics and other races? Will the rules be suspended?

Liverpool players and fans have waited decades for the English Premier League title, and with only six points and a few games away from their dream, the league may be cancelled, careers ended, dreams shattered.

If the league is terminated, will Liverpool be crowned champions? Will Norwich be relegated? The coronavirus has even stopped the “Doing Business Under Coronavirus” conference in New York and in Kenya, the novel coronavirus has stopped “reggae”! We are in unchartered waters.

Gacheru is a director at IMG Kenya. IMG Kenya organises the Beyond Zero Half Marathon, Mt Kenya Run, Ndakaini Half Marathon, the Magical Kenya Open Golf Championship, the KCB Karen Masters and were involved in the IAAF World Under-18 Championships in 2017.