Ensuring That Women’s and Amateur Sports Will Be Here Next Year
Erica Vanstone, Executive Director, Women’s Flat Track Derby Association
Last month, the Trump Administration held a private conference call with major league sports commissioners in an attempt to both provide information to leagues nationwide, and call on them for continued support. Included in the call were representatives from the NFL, NBA, UFC, MLB, MLS — and even the commissioner of the Breeder’s Cup.
It’s no surprise that amateur and women’s sports weren’t equally represented — a fact that points to a continued lack of diversity in sports representation demographically.
Amateur athletics programs in the United States — sports that operate outside of the collegiate system, and outside of the professional ecosystem — account for a small percentage of annual attendance revenue across the industry. But they represent a robust and diverse population of participants of several millions of athletes nationwide.
Because of their smaller economic footprint, amateur sports, and in particular sports that serve women-identifying communities, are most vulnerable to the economic ramifications of COVID-19.
Nonprofit sports organizations like the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, managing nearly 50,000 participants in more than 450 roller derby organizations worldwide, face tough decisions that incorporate regions impacted in varying degrees by COVID-19. Tracking these regions and corresponding pandemic recommendations is time-consuming and resource-intensive — and not even mainstream professional sports have satisfying answers.
Adding insult to economic injury, the US Department of Labor has recommended that states consider billing nonprofits back for the unemployment claims that employees have been forced to file for in the wake of COVID-19 business closures. Particularly within the US, WFTDA members and teams — more than 70% of which are nonprofit — often rely on active game play to drive critical revenue, with cash flow models that might more closely resemble the concert industry than, say, the NHL. The ability for our members to host revenue-generating events has halted, putting many organizations in precarious financial positions.
The impact both on the sport of roller derby, and likely countless women’s and amateur sports, is so wildly uncertain that economic projections are nearly impossible to complete with any real degree of confidence.
Women’s sports, in particular, are used to doing heavy economic lifting within their own communities and will continue to do so. Many of our sports develop with equity in mind and include gender-expansive, transgender, and other under-represented community members among our ranks. Equity continues to be a focus for us as we contemplate re-start of game play in the coming months.
During the last 45 days, the WFTDA has been creating clear, consistent timelines around COVID-19 communications with our constituents worldwide. We’ve assembled a team of epidemiologists and healthcare workers to assist in the formation of guidelines for returning to play. But our governments, and the for-profit sports community, could make the load a whole lot lighter.
In the WFTDA roller derby community, our members were among the first to step forward and promote stay-home measures, social distancing, and important safety tactics. Our community continues to create at-home exercise and wellness content to keep our athletes focused on health and positivity. WFTDA skaters have crafted workouts, plank challenges, and off-skates practices for free to anyone who will watch and share.
Our athletes, our community, is still working hard at a global level to keep folks engaged through some very dark times.
This type of community sport-for-development work should be supported by every level of the sports industry, in government policies, and by the officials and legislators who work in the business.
Major league sports franchises and for-profit sports can reach out to offer information and resources to amateur sports lacking the same access to recommendations from sports physicians and epidemiologists. Franchises can help by setting up sports community calls around sharing information, which can cultivate trust and build new fans and supporters far into the future.
Similarly, local and municipal governments can offer direct communication to amateur sports on health information and data through local sports commissions. Shuttering rec centers, fields, rinks, and other facilities has been important to contain the virus, now cities can work with recreation departments to utilize amateur sports to aid in responsible returns.
For example, cities who are having to cut budgets due to COVID-19 can work with amateur sports to take on some of the burden of running municipal facilities. Got a rec center you can’t afford to keep open? Talk to a WFTDA league about “adopting” the space in the coming months, to care for and use the space responsibly.
Even sponsors and large brands can use this time to cultivate relationships with women’s and amateur sports they’ve been too preoccupied to initiate during a market saturated with live sporting events. And sports media will find a wealth of stories to tell on the impacts of shut-downs to seldom-covered sports and communities who are actively doing the same planning work as major league sports, but with a fraction of the funding.
Amateur athletes participate for the love of the game — women-identifying athletes in particular, continue to do so without the promise of equal and deserved pay. Our margin for error is small and the stakes for returning to play too early are catastrophic.
My ask is that, in this time of uncertainty, the sports industry — and the economic and legislative systems that support it — widen the circle. Share your thoughts, your information. Your facilities and your contacts.
Leverage the community-building that so many amateur and women’s sports have already done and continue to do, and it’ll make the fabric that much stronger. Health-wise, amateur sports can help keep communities engaged and accountable around COVID-19 restrictions, returns, and tracking. Doing so can save lives, and ensure the wealth and diversity of sport will survive well past the COVID-19 pandemic.
