How Are Sports Fans Taking The Coronavirus Cancellations?

With the NBA, the NHL, MLS and the NCAA shuttering operations because of the coronavirus outbreak, what’s a sports fan to do? Will fan passion sustain, wax or wane?

We asked a national panel of over 650 fans just these things, plus a few more questions to find out if being an optimist or a pessimist changes anything.

Sports fans are at loss. As one fan put it, “with all the bad news and political bickering, sports was my outlet to focus on other things.” Another noted: “The worst part is the youth sports activities that are being canceled. This is really hard on teenagers.” Many said they are willing to wait it out. Some admitted they will “drink more.” Others said they “will still support my teams, just from the safety of my home!”

How will fans cope?

Compared with the last 30 days, here’s how fans across the country expect to change their participation in the next 30 days to cope with the loss of their favorite sports. With few exceptions, fans are making major changes in how they spend leisure time.

1. More exercise alone than with others, indoors (40%) and outdoors (21%).
2. More studying and reading (44%) and more binge-watching (58%). But about one-fifth (18%) plan to take self-selected online courses, as well as online college courses (14%).
3. Far less going out to the show (64%) or to the museum (56%).
4. Far less dining out (63%), and many avoiding restaurants altogether, with 38% saying they are less likely to order out or have food delivered.
5. Far less taking cruises (59%), flights (61%) or road trips (52%).
6. Less church attendance (37%), but more spiritual growth (25%).
7. More social media (40%) and alone time (48%).

Now is the time to engage fans

The good news is fans of the NBA, the NHL and MLS say they are likely to be at least as passionate, if not more passionate, toward their favorite teams over the next 30 days. Even better news, not only are the vast majority willing to engage with the team, many are even more likely to respond to team surveys to stay connected. Let’s break it down for each league.

NBA fans

Passion: 87% report they will be at least as passionate, including 10% even more passionate. [Season ticket holders: 94%/24% respectively).

Engagement: 94% report they will be at least as likely to respond to team surveys, including 34% even more likely to respond. [Season ticket holders: 95%/58% respectively).

NHL fans

Passion: 86% report they will be at least as passionate, including 11% even more passionate. [Season ticket holders: 80%/22% respectively).

Engagement: 91% report they will be at least as likely to respond to team surveys, including 25% even more likely to respond. [Season ticket holders: 83%/36% respectively).

MLS fans

Passion: 86% report they will be at least as passionate, including 15% even more passionate. [Season ticket holders: 81%/48% respectively).

Engagement: 90% report they will be at least as likely to respond to team surveys, including 23% even more likely to respond. [Season ticket holders: 85%/38% respectively).

Does an optimistic outlook matter?

In a word, yes.

Fans completed a life orientation scale (ranging from 0-100) that measures optimism and pessimism. How does life orientation affect fandom?

First, there’s the NHL. NHL fans who reported they’d be less passionate toward their favorite teams were significantly less optimistic in their life outlooks than other fans. Similarly, those less likely to respond to a team survey are slightly more pessimistic in the way they approach life than the others who are just as likely or more likely to answer a survey request. There aren’t many of these (only 9-14%), but odds are the reason they are unhappy about the team has more to do with other things in their lives than what’s going on with the team.

Second, accounting for everything else, fans may not attend church as much, but fans who plan to spend more time on spiritual growth are 21% more optimistic than those who say they’ll spend less time in this area. Conversely, those fans saying they’ll spend more time on social media are about 9% more pessimistic than those who say they’ll spend less time on social media.

Finally, optimistic fans are significantly more passionate toward the NFL, MLB, NCAA basketball and NCAA football. In general, fans of one sport are likely to also be fans of other sports. Taken together, leagues and teams are better off playing toward the optimism of the majority of their fan bases than to the pessimists, who are likely to be fewer and less likely to be passionate fans in the first place.

Location of fans in survey & how passionate they are about the NBA

_{Survey data collected 3/13/20 to 3/14/20.}