Is youth sports return too risky? Panelists weigh challenges, opportunities
No one has the perfect answer for how sports should return.
The COVID-19 pandemic is unlike any event in modern history. Not since World War II have organized sports worldwide been halted at this magnitude due to external factors.
The safety and health concerns associated with that return, along with the impact on social issues connected to youth sports, were two focuses of "COVID-19 & The Future of Youth Sport," a panel discussion hosted virtually by Arizona State's Global Sports Institute on Friday.
A Study of Race in Sports with Dr. Scott Brooks
It’s been a historic month of racial tension in America. In light of the tragic death of George Floyd and the recent protests that have gripped the nation, Dr. Scott Brooks joins The Upside podcast with Adam Finkelstein to discuss the impact racial issues have had on coaches, athletes, their families and their communities.
Dr. Scott Brooks is the Director of Research at the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State. He is also a senior fellow at the Wharton Sports Business Initiative and the Yale Urban Ethnography Project.
Marketers are embracing Black Lives Matter
Brands have been appropriating aspects of counterculture for decades — think the VW Beetle and flower power. But they’ve tended to shy away from explicitly embracing the actual aims of political movements that bring people out to protest.
And it’s not just Nike. There’s a rush to anti-racist messaging by consumer brands. Kenneth Shropshire, CEO at the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University, attributes this partly to the clarity of the incident: Floyd’s death under a policeman’s knee, captured on video, in a moment of pandemic.
“The severity of the incident, near-universal reaction and the time that people have, the focus that they’re paying to media,” Shropshire said.