Over the past few weeks, throughout the world, the COVID-19 outbreak has taken the world by surprise and has brought great strain upon all parts of society including cities and organisations involved in the hosting of international sports events. In order to understand how cities around the world have been coping with the current crisis, what they expect to happen in coming weeks and what their concerns for the future are, the BCW Sports Practice developed a Host City Survey in order to collect their testimonies. This survey was sent out to an international selection of 100 host cities and was carried out over a one-week period from March 23-29, 2020. The following report outlines six key insights about the current sentiment landscape amongst host cities regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the future of sports events and on hosting strategies. - COVID-19 disrupts sporting event planning, but host cities expect a return to normal next year. - Financial repercussions will probably last beyond 2020. - Host cities are divided about the impact of COVID-19 on the general public`s support for the hosting of international sporting events in the future. - COVID-19 forces host cities to rethink their sporting event hosting strategy and to focus more on social development. - Host cities are very active in setting up new sports activities for their population in lieu of hosting sporting events. - Host cities are overall satisfied with the level of communications with event right holders, but are looking to become a true partner. Conclusion: Results from this survey show that cities unanimously expect the COVID crisis to have important and immediate negative repercussions on the hosting of sports events - some even predict that the financial impact of the crisis will last beyond 2021. While cities are unsure how this crisis will affect the general public`s future support for the hosting of sports events, they do however recognise that, in coming months and years, their city may host less international sports events compared to national or local sports events - a projection which may be reflective of the financial losses induced by the crisis and of the time cities will need to recover from it. A recovery in which host cities agree that sports will play an important role in terms of sports, social and economic development. Through these tough times, however, host cities are stepping up to the challenge and finding new ways of engaging with their populations through sports. Web-based training programmes have sprouted, and social media platforms have more than ever become the meeting point for sports communities and enthusiasts. Cities are engaging with their populations online, encouraging them to stay active by providing them with free and innovative alternatives to practice physical activities.The current epidemic outbreak is as serious for the world of sports as it was sudden and unexpected. While it will undeniably have a strong impact on cities` hosting strategies going forward, sports will learn from this challenge and will emerge stronger than before with the necessary tools in hand to confront future challenges which may come its way.
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