When Sport Event Work Stopped: Exposure of Sport Event Labor Precarity by the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has exposed major weaknesses in economic, governmental, and social structures that many have taken for granted in everyday life. The sport industry, which has gained unprecedented popularity in recent decades, is no exception. Decisions, driven in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, to suspend play in major sports leagues across the globe have exposed the precarious nature of the work situation that hourly event workers find themselves in. As the games stopped, so did the earnings of workers who impact essential aspects of the sport spectators’ experience. These workers include the part-time front of house staff for public assembly facilities, including ushers, concessions workers, ticket takers, and security personnel. This essay, drawing on ideas from C.W. Mills, Arne Kalleberg, and Guy Standing, will examine the impact of the pandemic on the employment of these workers by looking at the state of labor associated with sport and sports events. Furthermore, the essay will explore the challenges facing a class of workers who depend on numerous part-time or seasonal sports event jobs to scrape together an existence when sport suddenly stops. Finally, the essay will address the potential aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic on sport labor and consider how sport work could change as a result. This scholarly commentary lays the groundwork for further study and analysis of an important, yet rarely remarked on, aspect of employment morality and sport labor studies.

Critical analysis of pandemic impact on AEC organizations: the COVID-19 case

“…In total, 127 valid responses were collected as classified in Table 3. While Shortage of labor (Borland and Charlton, 2020;Tredinnick and Laybats, 2020;Costa Dias et al, 2020;Walmsley et al, 2020;McGann et al, 2020;Fana et al, 2020;Sen et al, 2020;Menon, 2020;Sanderson and Brown, 2020;Sheptak and Menaker, 2020;Araya, 2021; interview) P03…”

“…Reduced demand on construction-related works (Sheptak and Menaker, 2020;He et al, 2020;Sanderson and Brown, 2020;Savych and Shkoda, 2020;Ivanov, 2020;French, 2020)…”

Risk Management: Exploring Emerging Human Resource Issues during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Many female workers have lost jobs, suffer from food insecurity and have had to return from urban to rural areas. Sheptak and Menaker (2020) have concentrated on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on workers in the sports event industry, claiming that the hourly workers as precarious labourers are facing grim challenges as their income plummets, given that the events have been stopped suddenly.…”

“…Industry transformation and lack of financial support from the government have caused severe job losses in the transportation industry (Blit 2020;Williams and Kayaoglu 2020). Industries such as healthcare, transportation, arts, and entertainment and recreation, as well as non-government-organisations (NGOs), have also encountered issues with flexible workforce (Tekeli-Yesil and Kiran 2020; Comunian and England 2020) and loss of human capital (Tierney and Boodoosingh 2020;Sheptak and Menaker 2020) directly caused by the lockdown strategy under the pandemic (Singh and Neog 2020).…”

Strategies of German Bundesliga and English Premier League clubs for the COVID-19 crisis: the case of international broadcasting fans

“…Individuals tend to be tolerant of certain changes but simultaneously expect to see an alignment of the new happenings to their relevant institutions (Ödlund 2010 ). For example, during the COVID-19 crisis, fans expected that sport leagues could reach salary agreements with their players in a way that to allow the team to adjust to the financial issues of the clubs while keeping the players and staff employed (Sheptak and Menaker 2020 ). In this context, consumers’ evaluations of the legitimacy, justifiability, and trustworthiness of a league’s decisions come into play.…”