By Adam 
After the Covid-19 epidemic started to take full effect, large sports agencies and leagues began to halt business and cancel seasons. While it was in the best interest for the athletes and fans for this to happen, it left a gap that used to be filled with Sunday and Monday night football, and the playoffs! March madness was completely cancelled! So where did everything go? When will it come back? And where can I watch my sports now? Well, there are still a couple options as to how we can get our sport “fix”.
Anticipation, Excitement, And Uncertainty
It’s interesting to see how sports have evolved and how they get their viewers to spend time watching what basically equates to a bunch of grown men (or women) throwing a ball around. How can an organization that, at its most basic function, does nothing that is long lasting or beneficial to society? There is a long answer and a short one. The short one is, in reality sports actually benefit a lot of different charity organizations through donations, publicity, and time donated by athletes. The fact that people love the competitive nature of sports and seeing a human being excel so extraordinarily in a situation against another draws a huge amount of interest, and seeing these celebrities performing acts of kindness and sacrificing time increases peoples likelihood of watching the sport.
Virtual Reality!
With advancements in technology, new avenues for both athletes and fans are being opened as well. It was just brought to our attention that this includes Virtual Reality soccer as well. Although it might seem a bit odd at first, it’s quite interesting the way they’ve made it. While not every league is open to this idea, many other football leagues, or soccer leagues, are opening their doors to added spectators through virtual reality.
If you have a VR headset, it’s more than likely that you can take part in this newfound device as well. With the VR hardware and downloaded software, you will actually be able to jump into the stadium and spectate a live soccer match! Not only this, but you’ll also be able to watch Basketball, Mixed Martial Arts, and a variety of added sports, as the NBA, WWE, Fox Sports, and Live Nation have all already signed on Virtual Reality spectators. And on top of that, if watching sports isn’t enough, you’re also able to play with others through Virtual Reality.
With the virus that is going around, once sports start back up, you can bet that many viewers will be watching from afar through virtual reality.
There are always new events going on in the world and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo has been heavily affected by the recent Covid-19 outbreak, as pretty much everything you can’t do in your own home was either cancelled or postponed. Using news coverage of important events is something that sports organizations use all the time to get more media exposure. Lots of people were wondering if the Summer Olympics of 2020 would take place this year as well, or if they would be cancelled.
Even though the Olympics in Tokyo will not be this year, the Olympic committee is using the postponement to pre sell tickets and to build up the anticipation of the games. The Tokyo games have been rescheduled and it’s been announced that the opening ceremony will take place on the 23 of July, 2021. Although we’ll have to wait another 12 months for the Olympics, it seems like it was in the best interest for the athletes and spectators that it was pushed back. You can prepay for tickets and reserve entrance for the days and venues that you might want to visit in this milestone Olympic year.
Hopefully if you have ever wondered how or why sports get so much publicity, you feel a little more caught up after reading this, and just keep in mind that sports have been around since humankind evolved enough to recognize that the guy on the other side of the cave is competition to our survival. The amount of attention and press that professional sports programs get (seemingly for free) has been generations and centuries in the making. It is human nature to be drawn to competitive situations. Add in the possibility of winning thousands of dollars, the excitement of seeing your team pull through right at the end, or just seeing amazing physical feats, all add up to a recipe for major attention.
SME Paid Under
Digital Editor