Sports & Societies
15 MARCH 2021
Open Season on the Open Frances Howe, LLB
The Australian open is predicted to face total financial losses close to 100 million Australian dollars, according to director Craig Tilley. This is due to the tournament taking place this year amid Covid-19 restrictions in Melbourne. The annual tournament was interrupted by a statewide five-day lockdown that began on the evening of 12 February. The lockdown was introduced by Victorian State Premier, Daniel Andrews, in an attempt to curb the spread of the UK Variant of Covid-19 in Australia. Andrews affirmed that the sports events would continue without spectators. Spectators were allowed into the venue on the 12 February on the condition that they were home before 11:59pm that night in accordance with the start of the lockdown. The lockdown ended on 17 February at 11:59pm.
According to the Australian Open organisers, full refunds were available to those who held tickets within the fiveday lockdown period. The tournament was made available broadcast-only from 13 February. Seven-time Australian Open winner, Serena Williams, responded to the announcement by stating ‘it’s rough, it’s going to be a rough few days for I think everyone.’ She also stated, ‘It’s been really fun to have the crowd back, especially here. It’s been really cool. But at the end of the day we have to do what’s best.’ The tournament had already capped its spectator limits at 30,000 fans per day in order to facilitate social distancing measures. Spectators did not have to wear masks when seated whilst the stadium roof was open but did when it was closed. Competitors were forced to quarantine for 14 days inside hotels before the tournament began. Anastasia Potapova took to her twitter to post a video from within the Grand Hyatt hotel in Melbourne which featured hitting tennis balls against the hotel window. Pablo Cuevas also posted a video on his Instagram story in which he used a hotel mattress as a target for his tennis practice in quarantine. These quarantine measures have invited public scrutiny over the ethics of detaining competitors before serious competition. A letter written by Novak Djokovic to Australia Open officials on behalf of 72 other players demanding better quarantine conditions was leaked to the press. Another detrimental impact of the event closures was felt by those working at the Australian Open. The SOAS Spirit reached out to Joe (last name withheld for privacy) who is an employee of a third party event company at the Australian Open. According to Joe, he lost a significant amount of work due to the ban on spectators which was not compensated for.
‘When the events were shut down because of the snap lockdown, the client really didn’t have any clue how to handle it, and basically cancelled what was supposed to be the first day back. I ended up working for 4 out of what was a promised 14 days and turned down a lot of other work in order to do this one.’
"When the events were shut down because of the snap lockdown, the client really didn’t have any clue how to handle it." Despite this, Joe said he didn’t feel like the decision to host the tournament was the wrong one: ‘I think it wasn’t a bad decision to go ahead with the tournaments this year considering it did provide a lot of work and the case numbers at the time of the open being confirmed were at 0 daily. The AO managed the pandemic quite excellently and the contact tracing and checking in that was adopted by the AO and also by my employer was serious.’ However, Joe did recognise the disparity in approach by the Victorian State Government to sports events as opposed to other industries such as the arts: ‘It was an offensive remark, in my opinion, that during the snap lockdown the matches still went ahead because the tennis players “can’t work from home” but all arts practices and other workplaces were forcibly shut.’ The Australian Open ended on 21 February with Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic walking away as champions.
Putting Stock in Vaccines
Graph One: Key English Covid Dates vs MANU Stock Price (Credit: Artemis Sianni-Wedderburn)
Artemis Sianni-Wedderburn, BA Politics and Arabic Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on lives, health and the economy. This is reflected through the stock of English football team Manchester United (MANU on the New York Stock Exchange) and the positive correlation between key Covid dates (lockdowns, death toll milestones and vaccine approval) on the stock price. These two variables and their interaction can be used to track consumer confidence in England, and allow for a succinct prediction of the country’s economic future. Consumer confidence - how much a person is willing to invest and spend - makes up 50-75% of England’s GDP, which is on par with many other countries globally; this means that a drop in confidence is catastrophic for the market. In this case, the jobs that are produced by the Manchester United football team, and revenue from sales. It is an accurate measure for predicting the future of the market, allowing for targeted financial planning which is key to
WWW.SOASSPIRIT.CO.UK
Graph Two: % of English Population with First Dose vs MANU Stock Price (Credit: Artemis Sianni-Wedderburn)
avoiding an economic recession after the pandemic. MANU was chosen as the stock in this article due to its prevalent outdoor and active nature as opposed to Esports, which have an exclusive online presence. With the primary revenue being generated from ticket and merchandise sales and a dividend based investor profile, the MANU stock and its price on the NYSE reflects the reality of lockdown - no matches, rallies or celebrations after a game. The price will therefore allow for a true prediction on the impact of vaccinations nationwide. The first date on Graph One (30.1.20) marks the first Covid-19 related death in England (blue) - pinpointing the highest stock price for the next 14 months. The first two orange bars, dates that the country entered lockdown, mark the biggest drop in stock price suggesting early on the catastrophic impact of Covid-19 on the population’s willingness to spend. The share devalued 28% in 2020 alone, reflected in the fact that the club did not manage to sign high-profile players Jodon Sancho and Gareth Bale due to exorbitant transfer
costs. Games that were cancelled or postponed further impacted this, especially given the aforementioned revenue model. The third lockdown (6.1.21) does not generate such a dramatic blow, perhaps because a tolerance had been developed, and alongside it a vaccine. The final bar on the graph (22.2.21, green) marks the highest point since the first Covid19 related death; this is the date that Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the plan for the UK to exit lockdown by 21 June. A concrete exit plan based on increased vaccination (the UK in the lead globally in terms of the percentage of the population it has vaccinated) gives hope that the end is in sight. The development of vaccines and the subsequent boost in share price foreshadow the positive correlation between the two. This can explain the high share value when the third lockdown was announced (6.1.21), as the approval of the Pfizer and AstroZeneca vaccines a few days before inspired investment. The death toll milestone of 100,000 does not have the expected impact when compared to the previous 20,000 and 50,000 milestones - a phenomenon that can be explained once more by the development of a vaccine after the November lockdown. Graph Two shows an upwards trend of the MANU stock against the percentage of the English population that had received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine (AstroZeneca, Moderna or Pfizer). Since the first dose to the first person in the UK was administered, the stock price increased, leading to the highest value on 22.2.21. This is because the distribution of the vaccine allows for playing to resume - outdoors - impacting ticket sales alongside merchandise. We can predict, based on this, that fans will feel a renewed zest for their team after a long hiatus. Consumer confidence increases apace with vaccination, meaning higher investment in general - and not just for the
31
