Words like unprecedented, life-changing and apocalyptic are being tossed around these days as we cope with the changes in our lives brought about by the COVID-19 Pandemic. The business of team sports is certainly not immune to this impact and we will continue to live with the consequences long after medical science figures out how to beat it.

Life, indeed, will never be the same.

The pandemic and all of its connected impacts on our daily lives – cancellation of public events, closing of restaurants and so many other businesses, no spring sports season in most of the country, the lack of social contact that we have always taken for granted – already seems like the norm. I was speaking with my younger brother yesterday – he owns a small business that was forced to close and lay off employees – and he commented how he was watching TV (something he never had the time for before) and was struck by scenes of people in an old sit-com sitting in a restaurant eating a meal together. Seems strange these days.

I checked my calendar and just one month ago to the day I was having coffee at Starbucks with a colleague in the morning, refereeing a youth basketball game in the evening and meeting my wife for dinner at night. A fairly typical day that feels like a lifetime ago.

I was also putting the finishing touches on our March/April issue of Team Insight that was focused on Girls’ and Women’s Sports. A week later, that restaurant where we had dinner was open only for takeout, the recreation basketball league followed the NBA in cancelling the remainder of its season and team dealers were busy dealing with modified and, even worse, cancelled spring orders for games that will never be played.

I have spoken with dozens of those team dealers since then as the scope of the impact became clear on a business that literally ground to a halt overnight. These dealers were all working remotely –as many of them did already, so that wasn’t that big of a change in lifestyle –but so were their customers. The athletic directors and their invaluable secretaries and assistants could not be reached in their school offices, coaches were even harder to track down as they socially isolated and vendors were even more difficult to reach than usual.

Yet these dealers have adapted, as they have through other business challenges throughout their careers. I was struck by the attitude that they all feel they will get through this and when sports inevitably do return to our parks, fields and courts, they will be ready to react to the pent-up demand.

Yet undoubtedly it will be a vastly different team sports landscape they will find upon their return. Yes, the demand will be there, but there is concern the funds will not be as schools that rely on gate receipts find they have dried up. Smaller vendors may not be around any longer. The men and women at the schools and clubs who buy their products will be harder to meet with personally, so technology will play an even larger role In their lives.  

Team Insight is certainly utilizing that technology to play our role in understanding, adapting to and reporting on this new normal. Our digital magazine complements our traditional print version of Team Insight that continues to land on your desks six times a year. And this Team Insight Extra digital newsletter can be your connection to what’s going on in the rest of the world of team sports.

We are, indeed, all in this together. Team dealers are a tough, resilient bunch that knows how to roll with the punches and get up off the mat to fight another day. (How’s that for a bunch of sports metaphors?) So stay safe, keep informed and we’ll see you on the other side.