Will sports entities lose butt financially to stay relevant in COVID-19 times?

The Acadie-Bathurst Titan enjoy a Memorial Cup win in 2018.

So how much money will sports teams be willing to lose to stay relevant in these coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic times?

Will it be millions and millions of dollars?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, money is the elephant in the room when it comes to sports organizations. It is pretty well known from a common sense type of view that sports organizations don’t have enough money to spend as the COVID-19 pandemic grips the world.

There is pressure on sports organizations to operate, because of the fear that if they are out of site they will be out of mind.

This fear is real in the sports world in Canada, and it appears millions will be spent by sports organizations to alleviate that fear. In far too many cases, sports organizations will be spending money they don’t have.

In Canada, you are seeing that with minor sports bodies, the CHL leagues and gate driven circuits like junior A hockey.

It is hard to know how much money is being lost outside of sports teams that are community owned, who make their financial statements public at an annual general meeting.

The Swift Current Broncos lost $791,000 on the 2019-20 campaign.

When it comes to the sports world, it should be noted that the sports industry in Canada is not like the sports industry in the United States.

From what I have been told, the sports industry in Canada is worth $2.6-billion. If anyone disputes that figure, I hope they feel free to pass on the source of what the correct figure might me.

On August 25, Forbes ran a column that said the sports industry in the United States is worth US$750-billion. It actually took a bit of work to search that figure out. The piece said the sports industry is the 11^th biggest industry in the United States.

In just comparing the worth of the sports industry in Canada and the United States, it becomes obvious that the sports industry is taken a lot more seriously in the United States and the sports industry in Canada is not even close to being in that realm.

Of course, one will argue the United States has 11-times greater the population that Canada has. If you do the comparative math to make Canada’s population close to equal to that of the United States, Canada’s sports industry would be worth $29.7-billion in Canadian funds in that scenario.

If Canada’s sports industry was like that of the United States, Jeff Willoughby would be making $100,000 a year to be the head coach of the Prince Albert Northern Bears female under-18 AAA hockey team as opposed to picking up a yearly honorarium to do a full-time job.

That is the reality of most coaches who work in the sports industry in Canada. They have to make careers in other industries and basically volunteer their time to help elite sport.

Most U Sports teams are not in action in 2020-21.

Circuits like major junior hockey and U Sports are the exception, but usually only the head coaches are paid full-time wages on U Sports teams.

It should be noted almost all regular season and post-season competition in U Sports has been cancelled to due safety concerns regarding COVID-19 and the fact the financing is just not there to play.

Most sports organizations in Canada have seen various revenue streams like sponsorships and fundraisers dry up significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations that are gate run leagues have to deal with crowd limitations due to COVID-19 restrictions.

In Saskatchewan at the moment, sports teams are only allowed to bring in 150 spectators to their venues at the moment. The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League was hoping to be able to have more spectators than that when that junior A circuit’s regular season began.

This past Tuesday, the SJHL announced its regular season would start on Friday, Nov. 6, which is about four days after the circuit had been targeting to start.

Due to the rise of new COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan, it appears SJHL teams will enter the regular season dealing with a spectator cap of 150. You have to wonder how much money each of these franchises will bleed.

Across Canada, junior A teams are leaning more and more on a model where players pay to play.

If each junior A team loses an average of $1-million on the 2020-21 season, would that justify taking the ice to play games to stay relevant?

The CFL couldn’t work out the logistics to hit the field in 2020.

On the junior A front, a $1-million loss on hockey season would be extremely tough to swallow.

The losses of the three community owned WHL teams in Saskatchewan are known from a 2019-20 campaign that saw the tail end of the regular season and all of the post-season lost due to COVID-19 restrictions.

On Sept. 29, the Swift Current Broncos announced they lost $791,000 on the 2019-20 campaign. On that same day, the Moose Jaw Warriors announced a loss of $391,299 for 2019-20.

On Oct. 7, the Prince Albert Raiders announced they lost $331,895 on the 2019-20 season. In the Raiders case, they would have easily made money had they hosted their final two home regular season games and from their home playoff dates.

The losses of the Broncos, Warriors and Raiders were compounded by money they didn’t receive from the Sportsnet television contract for broadcasting CHL games. Sportsnet didn’t have to pay out for games that weren’t played due to the COVID-19 pandemic and from the Memorial Cup tournament that was cancelled in Kelowna, B.C., that annually determines a CHL champion.

Each of those teams’ losses included money that was put aside to settle a CHL-wide class action lawsuit that argued major junior hockey players are employees and not student-athletes and were entitled to employment standard compensation. The settlement for that lawsuit is undergoing further litigation.

A circuit like the CFL didn’t play any games, and teams there are bracing for big losses. Those losses would have been worse had the CFL played.

Saskatchewan U-18 hockey will start with capped crowds of 150.

As new COVID-19 cases increase across Canada, it is still a big gamble when it comes to playing games in any sports.

On Monday, all the sports facilities in Winnipeg will be closed for two weeks due to lockdown measures that were brought back in to reduce the rise in new COVID-19 cases.

During the month of October, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec brought back in restrictions. Near the middle of October in Saskatchewan, the provincial government limited private social indoor gatherings in the home to 15 persons.

Sports teams and minor sports organizations are going to have an increasingly tough time limiting the money they are going to lose.

When the pandemic ends, those sports teams and minor sports organizations are likely going to need sugar daddies or sugar mommies to pay off their unsustainable debts or be bailed out by governments. You get the feeling there will be a lot of organizations looking for a government handout.

On a money front, the debts these sports teams and minor sports organizations could be further limited by just not playing or by shutting down until the pandemic ends. Scrutiny will likely come to sports teams and sports organizations when those that don’t have an interest in sports will want to know if sports teams and sports organizations acted in an irresponsible manner financially and if that should affect any decisions on bailouts.

The Raiders will rely on their loyal faithful to minimize losses.

My late father, Dan Steinke, worked fairly successfully in the business world, and he had little to no patience for anyone that worked under him that operated in an irresponsible manner financially.

Right now, way too many sports organizations and teams in Canada have actively decided to take the risk to play to stay relevant. It remains to be seen if these entities will have to pay the piper when all is said and done.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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COVID-19 pandemic times lead to rediscoveries

Visiting my Dad’s resting place in Regina.

    It has been great to have weekends again for an extended stretch.

    That has been one of the many rediscoveries I’ve come across during these coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic times.

    For the last 20 years, I really haven’t had regular weekends over a lengthy span of time due to making a career covering sports events. When massive shutdowns started to occur on March 11 and 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, my weekends opened up.

    With all that noted, I miss covering sports events a great deal. The clock in my head keeps telling me the Saskatoon Hilltops should be well into their CJFL regular season.

I’ve enjoyed getting out to cut the grass during the pandemic.

    The 2020 CJFL season is one of many things that have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Even with local baseball and softball starting up in early July and the Saskatoon Stock Car Racing Association springing to action at the Wyant Group Raceway on Aug. 8, the last sports event I covered with a focus and intensity was the Saskatoon Contacts getting eliminated from the Saskatchewan Under-18 AAA Hockey League playoffs on March 12 at Merlis Belsher Place.

    The Contacts fell 5-3 to the Moose Jaw Warriors, who swept a best-of-five league semifinal series 3-0.

    Well over five months have passed since that game was played, and weekends have become actual weekends. There is anticipation when Friday arrives and a dread when Monday rolls around.

Yes, I own the DVDs to the “Disney” Star Wars trilogy.

    I haven’t had this many weekends in a row that have been actually weekends where you can have down time since the summer of 2000.

    During weekends, I will do things that need to be attended to at home like clearing snow or cutting the grass depending on what season it is. When the pandemic got real in Saskatoon, winter was still on in full force.

    It seemed like it didn’t start to get warm outside until the beginning of May, and it has been warm ever since.

    On weekends, I will do my workouts in my weight room in the basement. I’ve gotten used to watching movies on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

I used the Denver Broncos to win the Super Bowl in Madden.

    I’ve actually found a new joy in just hanging on the homestead on Saturday nights.

    On Saturdays and Sundays, I can often be found playing a game or two of Madden 2008 on my PlayStation 2, or I can be seen venturing on a long bike trip through the city.

    For the first time in like five years, I’ve started and completed a regular season of Madden inside of a calendar year. I can’t remember when was the last time I finished a Madden season inside of six months.

    I used the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers just to be different and have fun. The Broncos ended up winning the Super Bowl over the Panthers 56-28.

    Besides creating storylines on Madden, I got to have a little fun in the statistics department.

The Denver Broncos raise the Super Bowl trophy in Madden.

    With the Panthers, I signed a younger computer generated quarterback with a 99 overall rating and receiver Calvin Johnston, who was nicknamed in real life “Megatron.”

    Johnston had a 98 overall rating when he was signed and was boosted up to a 99 overall rating by the end of the season. I had Johnson catch 83 passes for 2,398 yards and 23 touchdowns appearing in all 16 regular season games.

    I’ve re-watched a lot of Star Wars movies including all three that are part of the “Disney” trilogy.

    I rediscovered the 1980s animated television shows for Transformer, G.I. Joe and Robotech. I viewed the Transformers shows off old VCR tapes I own.

    I started out watching G.I. Joe and Robotech episodes on YouTube.

A pandemic DVD purchase. Can’t go wrong with 1980s G.I. Joe.

    I later bought a couple of DVD sets of G.I. Joe television shows from the 1980s at Hi-Tech Gametraders in Confederation Mall in Saskatoon.

    I totally endorse shopping at Hi-Tech Gametraders, which is a good local Saskatoon business.

    I found the complete Robotech series on DVD for sale online in the United States and purchased it and had it shipped to my place in Saskatoon.

    The DVD sets were pandemic buys, because I likely wouldn’t have bought them had the world gone on like it normally would.

    I finally made a road trip for the first time in the pandemic traveling to Regina on Aug. 19 and 20. I brought my mountain bike to Regina, and biked there for the first time in 10 years.

    In a cool twist, the mountain bike I road in Regina was the same one I won following the University of Regina Cougars women’s basketball team to U Sports nationals in Thunder Bay, Ont., in 1999.

Another pandemic DVD purchase. Robotech is still cool.

    I won the bike hitting a half-court shot during a halftime competition at the tournament’s championship game.

    I’ve only hit a half-court shot one other time in my life since.

    During my Regina stop, I visited the resting place of my late father, Dan Steinke.

    While it was great to finally hit the highway again, I’ve discovered during the pandemic that I have grown comfortable with being a home body.
    I haven’t been a home body since I was in Grade 9.

    Still, it does suck that the world hasn’t progressed in a normal fashion specifically in North America since early March. When the pandemic does end, I hope I can become active again covering the sports teams in the hockey and football world that I’ve covered over 24 years before the pandemic started.

    There are no guarantees that will happen as that depends on how events in the world play out the longer the pandemic goes.

In the pandemic, I plan to keep making the best with the cards dealt my way.

    With that noted, I am going to continue to rediscovering doing a few things I used to do in taking advantage of the cards that have been dealt to me in the present.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Out of sight out of mind fear drives COVID-19 sports world

Andrew Harris runs the ball for the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

    If you don’t play, you don’t exist.

    It is that type of fear that is driving the sports world right now in the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

    Teams, leagues and minor sports bodies fear the old cliché, “out of sight, out of mind.”

    A cliché becomes a cliché, because it is grounded in truth. The teams, leagues and minor sports bodies don’t want to be forgotten.

    There is a fear that if people stop interacting with their favourite team, league or the minor sports body they are involved with, those people will find other ways or focus on other interests to occupy their time and forget about the sports world.

    As a result, there are many inside these teams, league and minor sports bodies who feel they need to find some way to play at all costs.

    That line of thinking often results in pressure to throw good money after bad money.

    At the moment in North America, the big four professional leagues have returned to play or are about to return to play in the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB. UFC and the NASCAR Cup Series have been motoring along since May.

    The WNBA has also hit the court, and out in Germany, the pro soccer Bundesliga completed its campaign in early July.

Most leagues in Canada have no where near the NHL’s resources.

    One thing all these circuits have is major resources noting that the WNBA is backed by the NBA. That doesn’t mean these professional circuits are immune to the impacts of COVID-19.

    In the MLB, the Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies are still dealing with the after effects of being rocked by positive COVID-19 tests. Both clubs were last in action when they played each other in Philadelphia this past Sunday and haven’t seen the field since.

    There are fears the MLB season won’t be played to a conclusion.

    On the economic side, the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks gave a written termination notice to 49 people working full time in business operations. As it is unknown as to when the Canucks will host home games, they couldn’t keep those employees on staff. That story came out in the Vancouver Province on Thursday.

Will gate-driven circuits like the WHL find the conditions to play?

    The Canadian Elite Basketball League is in the process of conducting a month long Summer Series tournament to crown a league champion playing out of a bubble environment at the Meridian Centre in St. Catherines, Ont.

    The CEBL isn’t flush with cash, so Mike Morreale and that circuit’s leaders deserve big credit for getting that circuit going. Still, running a basketball league isn’t the same as getting a football league back in action in Canada.

    If the storied CFL takes the field in 2020, it will do so in the bubble city of Winnipeg. That league is still facing numerous hurdles as far as playing games go including getting players living in the COVID-19 ravaged United States into Canada and getting the CFL and CFL Players’ Association to come to terms on a deal to play this season.

    The CFL is still seeking money from the Government of Canada to take the field again and no results have occurred on that front. The CFL was looking for $44-million to play this year and was seeking $150-million in federal government assistance if the 2020 season is lost.

CFL great Charleston Hughes (#39) is focusing more on the working world.

    At the moment, players from the United States that live in Canada like Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive end Charleston Hughes are focusing more on opportunities in the working world. Hughes lives year round in Regina.

    On the minor sports front, minor sport bodies are content to get registration that reaches just 25 per cent of recent years in order to spring into action. Still, those bodies are facing the reality of needing like three years to recover economically from 2020.

    Even with that in mind, people are thinking about you, if you are out there playing.

    No one knows what the future will be like for gate driven leagues like the CHL major junior hockey circuit that includes the WHL, OHL and QMJHL.

    Same goes with junior A hockey that includes the SJHL or the professional NLL circuit.

    U Sports could look drastically different after the pandemic as opposed to before the pandemic. That circuit won’t hold any national championships in fall, and most of its conferences have shuttered fall competition. The odds aren’t great action will resume in January of 2021.
    The Government of Canada wouldn’t allow the MLB’s Toronto Blue Jays to play out of Toronto in front of no fans, so what are the odds that gate driven leagues will be able to operate with fans.

Will U of Saskatchewan Huskies football be hurt by not playing in 2020?

    Governments in Canada at the federal, provincial and municipal level don’t seem to be in a rush to allow sports events where around 1,000 people attend let alone attendances that surpass 10,000. In Saskatchewan, stock car circuits are racing in front of gatherings that are allowed to top out at 150 people.

    I have been thinking what my father, the late Dan Steinke, would do when it comes to the business side of the sports world, because he had his share of success in the business world.

    I suspect he would treat the COVID-19 pandemic like the world was in the grips of a world war.  

    Concluding that governments in Canada don’t have a will to allow sports teams to play in front of mass gatherings of people and most avenues to generate revenue have been significantly hurt, my late dad, if he was the owner of a sports team, would likely layoff all the staff and cut everything down to the point where he held just the intellectual property of the team.
    He would put the intellectual property of the team into storage ready for it to be brought back when the pandemic ends.
    My dad would suggest owners of sports teams to follow that course of action, because he would see no value in continually throwing money into a black hole as the end date of the pandemic is uncertain.

What will Makena Kushniruk and the Saskatoon Stars see in 2020-21?

    He wouldn’t like following this course of action, but he would do what needed to be done. If you think about it, 143 days have passed since the sports world in North America proceeded like normal.

    With that in mind, the leaders of teams, leagues and minor sports bodies are working their hardest to figure out the best path in this uncertain time. No one knows what the correct answer will be to get through these pandemic days.

    A bigger than major reboot for the sports world especially in Canada might be unavoidable.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.