Scott Powers
Whatever sports do to restart competitions at some point in the coronavirus crisis future, fans aren’t eager to attend in person until a COVID-19 vaccine is developed, according to a new poll by Seton Hall University.
The Seton Hall Sports Poll finds 71% of American adults said that they would not feel safe attending games without such a vaccine, though the opposition to attendance drops to 61% among those respondents who identified themselves as sports fans.
The poll, conducted by phone April 6-8 of 762 American adults, offered overwhelming support for the suspension of professional sports seasons, and for the rescheduling of the Tokyo Summer Olympics to 2021, from 2020. Most respondents believe the NFL should not start its season on time this year, and two out of five believe sports should not be played at all for the rest of the year.
Still, three quarters of the respondents said they would be willing to watch TV broadcasts of games played in empty stadiums.
In the second week of March, just about all major sports shut down indefinitely, perhaps the first major shock to
American way of life from the coronavirus crisis.
Regardless of political desires, the reluctance of sports fans to attend the return of sports could portend deeper concerns, covering a wide range of entertainment and leisure activities, and potentially suggesting a disturbing message to Florida and its tourism-based economy.
“This virus has the attention and respect of the nation,” said Rick Gentile, director of the Seton Hall Sports Poll, which is sponsored by the Sharkey Institute within the Stillman School of Business. “Those who identify as sports fans, at all levels of interest, line up closely with the general population in regard to their own safety and that of the players.”
The poll was done Sharkey Institute within the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall in South Orange, N.J. Seton Hall says the survey has a margin of error of 3.6%.
Medical experts have repeatedly put the timeline for approval of a vaccine into 2021, although they have not ruled out an existing drug proving effective for treatment this year, Seton Hall noted. In the survey, 74% of Americans thought it was possible, likely, or very likely that sports would be canceled for the rest of this year.
On the other hand, sports fans sympathize with those being put out of work by the demise of sports. Asked whether teams have an obligation to pay daily arena and stadium workers for time missed because of the virus, 59% said yes and 33% said no.
Among other findings:
— 72% said they wouldn’t feel safe attending games without a COVID-19 vaccine. Overall, 12% said they would feel safe with social distancing while 13% said they would feel safe attending games as they had in the past.
— 76% felt professional sports leagues in the United States acted at the right time to suspend their seasons, while 16% thought the leagues didn’t react quickly enough. Only 6% said the decisions were made too quickly.
— Asked if the International Olympic Committee acted too quickly rescheduling the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to 2021, 84% of respondent said no.
— 70% said the NFL shouldn’t start in the fall to ensure the safety of players, even if some form of social distancing is still in place. And 20% said the season should start with players being allowed to choose not to play, while 6% said the league should start as planned.
— 40% said sports shouldn’t be played for the remainder of 2020. For those who said sports should be played, 12% said it should happen with fans present, 23% with restricted attendance and 21% with no fans present.
— 76% said they would have the same interest watching a broadcast of live sports played without fans; 16% would be less interested and 7% would be more interested.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
One comment
Dan
April 20, 2020 at 4:32 pm
I hope you see why your polls don’t mean crap. 762 people or 0.0002% is an irrelevant sample. This sample size is arbitrary and stops when the sample agrees with the irrelevant biased writers opinion of uninformed or ignorant sampled people. The FAKE poll is created to set an agenda, not actually find the population’s opinion. So their irrelevant majority would take a Gate’s vaccine who wants to depopulate the world through vaccines so they would attend a sporting event. How foolish and idiotic, but follows the Socialist Oligarchy elite’s desires.
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