The emergence of the coronavirus has been a blow to the Asian economy and nowhere more than China, its epicentre.
Sport has taken big hits, with the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix shelved, the Asian Football Confederation scrambling to reschedule key Chinese national team fixtures and the Chinese Super League put on ice.
The Tokyo 2020 organising committee is putting on a brave face, working with the World Health Organisation to fortify its venue and country ahead of the Games in July. China’s Olympians and Paralympians have been advised to prepare for the Games away from home, less they be quarantined on arrival in Japan.
The key difference between this outbreak and, say, the Zika virus, SARS or swine flu, is that the ubiquity of digital media means sport can still reach the homes and mobile devices of Chinese citizens waiting out the outbreak.
In China, OTT sports and entertainment service PP Sports has revealed surging viewership numbers since it made its content available for free throughout China as a special measure during the coronavirus outbreak. The largest growth in audience occurred in Henan and Zhejiang provinces – up 245 per cent and 227 per cent respectively – hardly a surprise with both provinces hit by lockdowns during the initial spread of the virus.
And amidst the epidemic, the Shanghai Administration of Sports has launched an online program in which Chinese Olympic gold medallists showcase in-house fitness exercises designed for people of different ages and body conditions. What a show of solidarity it would be, if the stars of the English Premier League or the National Basketball Association did the same for its fans in China. It would certainly be far more effective than the painful attempts to curry favour with the Chinese market each Lunar New Year.
Another opportunity to earn brownie points with China and Chinese audiences is staring European football in the face, in the form of the beleaguered Chinese Super League club Wuhan Zall. Having travelled to Spain for the CSL pre-season, the team’s plans went up in smoke as opposition teams refused to play them, despite the fact the team has been nowhere near Wuhan for several weeks. To make matters worse its players and staff are stranded in Malaga, worried about family members locked down back home in China.
If sport wants to show it cares about China as more than a new source of revenues, there’s no better time – all it will take is some thinking outside the box.