COVID-19: U.S. public opinion on the impact on the sports industry 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic that spread across the world at the beginning of 2020 was not only a big threat to public health, but also to the entire sports industry. Several professional sports leagues, including the NBA and NHL, as well as most professional soccer leagues in Europe, took the decision to postpone or suspend their seasons in order to mitigate the spread of the disease. During a March 2020 survey, some 56 percent of respondents believed that the pandemic has had a major negative impact on the sports industry as a whole.