Response and Value creation on the pandemic of COVID-19 in Professional Sports Club

Abstract

The concern over COVID-19 related crisis in professional sports has risen. According to reports from all over the world, the economic loss is 274.7 billion yen in Japan, 432 billion yen in major European soccer leagues, and 1.3 trillion yen in North America including college sports. Under these circumstances, little research has been done on the business management that professional sports organizations should take to overcome this crisis. It is important to come up with a response to withstand and create added value in this situation which will be urgently discussed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to organize the knowledge, issues, and possibilities for overcoming this emergency, and to share it widely with society, using the case of professional sports teams in Japan, Europe, and North America to which the authors belong. The subjects of the research were conducted from the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks (Japan, Professional Baseball), Sint-Truiden VV (Belgium, Soccer), and Washington Wizards (USA, Basketball), and the analysis was carried out using the method of the case study.