Category: Main Feature

Main Feature — SportsTravel — News, Insight and Analysis for the Sports-Event Industry

Indians White Sox Spring Baseball
Fans were already learning social distancing during MLB's spring training. Photo: Gregory Bull/AP Images

Special Report: How COVID-19 has Changed the Sports-Event Industry

After months of waiting, you and your spouse are heading to the stadium. After a wait of what seems like forever to be at a game, your mobile tickets are loaded on the phone as you get out of your car and head over to the stadium entrance, making sure to stop six feet from […]

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Ripken Baseball
Photo by Glossy Finish

Case Study: Ripken Baseball Gets Back on the Field

The summer months traditionally are filled with travel for families. For families with young athletes, those trips are about more than seeing a new city. They are often about traveling for tournament action. As states increasingly relax regulations and allow public gatherings, youth organizations are restarting tournament play after a long period of inactivity. And […]

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Guidelines

Sports Event Guidelines for Post-COVID Competition

As sports at all levels prepare to come back from weeks or months on hiatus, sports organizations are releasing guidelines that can serve as a framework for how to host events safely and successfully. The following are links to various published guidelines across a range of sports that are designed for event organizers to consult […]

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Photo: USA BMX

Case Study: 5 Takeaways from USA BMX’s First Event Back

Few sports may be better positioned than BMX to return to events. After all, the sport’s participants wear helmets that cover their mouths and serve as almost built-in masks. But staging an event in the new pandemic era isn’t as easy as telling people to get on their bikes because their faces may be covered. […]

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Colonial Golf
Signs at various locations remind golfers of social distancing rules during the first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge golf tournament at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Sports in a Post-COVID World: Industry Leaders React

With so much unknown about the short-, mid- and long-term future of the sports-event industry, destinations, rights holders and industry suppliers have tried to prepare as best they can for what may lie ahead. SportsTravel asked leaders across the industry to give their thoughts about the remarkable past few months, what they are doing now […]

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KornFerry
Kristoffer Ventura putts during the final round during the 2019 Utah Championship, a Korn Ferry Tour event. Ventura won the championship in a playoff. Photo by the Utah Championship.

Case Study: How to Keep Events Scheduled During COVID-19

Four major events that will be broadcast nationally can be a good summer’s calendar for any sports commission. Being able to host those events in the summer as a worldwide pandemic rages on is another level altogether. The Utah Sports Commission is in the midst of a stretch where the Monster Energy Supercross tour is […]

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Virus Outbreak Golden Gate Woes
The Great American 5000 virtual race, organized by Sports Backers in Richmond, Virginia, will begin in San Francisco and chart a course to New York. Photo: Eric Risberg/AP Images

Case Study: A Sports Commission Rethinks its Events

The coronavirus pandemic has taken its toll on sports events at all levels. For sports commissions that organize their own events and rely on revenue from those events, the pandemic has been especially hard. That loss of events and revenue has raised a number of questions. When a sports commission exists to create events that […]

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Virus Outbreak Japan Daily Life
The Olympic rings float in the water at sunset in the Odaiba section of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Tokyo 2020 Moving to Simplify Games

Tokyo 2020 continues to move forward with plans for a downsized Olympic Summer Games in 2021, releasing a new timeline for operations planning that calls for an agreement on new service levels by July. The postponement to 2021 continues to have hundreds of moving parts, including the need to secure all 41 venues that had […]

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PFL Spectacle_Arena copy
The Professional Fighters League's 2019 season-ending championship was held on New Year's Eve at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The 2021 championship will be held at a new location to be determined. Photo courtesy of Professional Fighters League.

Professional Fighters League Going Global in 2021

Having decided to be one of the few professional leagues to cancel the 2020 season outright instead of staging a modified version, the Professional Fighters League has already moved toward planning for 2021 and extending its reach internationally. In 2019, the mixed martial arts league featured six weight classes, including a women’s division, with the […]

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Rose Bowl Football
Fans who have attended sports events in the past two years have indicated they are willing to return when events open again, according to new research from Enigma Research. Photo: Mark J. Terrill/AP Images

Survey: Sports Fans are Ready to Return and Travel to Events

More than three-quarters of people who previously attended live sports events are extremely or very likely to return once large gatherings resume, according to a survey of more than 2,000 people throughout North America conducted by Enigma Research. The results of the survey, which also included those who regularly attend festivals, fairs and trade shows, […]

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