According to a study conducted by the University of Michigan, professional sports teams prioritized outreach to their local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than solely concentrating on safeguarding their business models.
The investigation, spearheaded by Kathryn Heinze, an associate professor of sport management at the U-M School of Kinesiology, analyzed the responses of men’s professional sports leagues following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers discovered that, as a reaction to the crisis, leagues began to adjust their community outreach to prioritize individuals and enterprises directly affected by the pandemic.
“This has often represented a lingering question: How swiftly can organizations adjust during a crisis? The data indicate that in the initial months, sports leagues adjusted their community engagement strategies during the peak of the pandemic, rather than neglecting their local communities,” Heinze remarked. “These professional teams did modify their community engagement tactics, even while confronting their own business challenges, such as canceled and postponed seasons.”
The researchers employed the pandemic as a “natural experiment” to explore how sports organizations might respond to disruptions in their usual operations. Heinze noted that the project originated with lead author Goun Ji, who was pursuing her doctoral studies at U-M amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heinze and Ji both investigate corporate social responsibility in sports and recognized that existing research in this domain typically occurred during stable periods. They chose to use the COVID-19 pandemic as a lens to examine how the practices of sports organizations could evolve during a turbulent time.
By analyzing press releases from teams in the NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA for six months prior to and following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers categorized team actions into specific focus areas and types of engagement. These areas include youth sports and development, education, health, equality, environmental sustainability, and cultural appreciation.
The findings revealed that leagues focused more on local businesses and frontline workers, investing in food security and mental health initiatives. Teams shifted to provide some outreach programs virtually and participated in virtual volunteering, according to Heinze.
Additionally, some teams utilized their websites as “information hubs,” consolidating local resources related to health and wellness, and sometimes educational resources.
“It was not that these matters were entirely overlooked by sports leagues prior to the pandemic,” Heinze stated. “It was merely that we observed increased engagement with programs and events related to those areas compared to the period before the pandemic.”
Some of the most compelling discoveries were that teams devised innovative solutions for community outreach. For instance, Heinze mentioned, certain teams purchased food from local restaurants facing declining sales and donated it to organizations addressing food insecurity or to assist frontline workers.
In several instances, teams collaborated across leagues within the same city to offer support for the local community. The Los Angeles Clippers, Lakers, and Kings initiated a shared funding program to aid youth education. The Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche partnered to bolster an educational initiative. The San Francisco Giants and 49ers contributed to the production and distribution of masks for fans, frontline workers, and community organizations.
Simultaneously, the researchers noted a slight decrease in emphasis on environmental sustainability and cultural appreciation—possibly because most of the leagues’ outreach resources were allocated to organizations with urgent needs during the pandemic.
The researchers expressed a desire to revisit the topic to ascertain how long these types of shifts endured after the initial phase of the pandemic.
“We do not wish to exaggerate that there was a significant transition between these two periods. It was more about a redirection,” Heinze explained. “Leagues indeed had to cancel or defer certain programs and events, but overall, the responses were quite heartening.”