Sébastien Audoux is head of digital sports at Canal OTT and has some experience with professional golf coverage, so three of his points are of interest to those wondering what happens to sports post COVID-19.

The entire piece is worth reading, but here the points of note for the golf business…

1- The sponsorship crisis will expose fundamental business model flaws for many sports leagues
ROI is often a dirty acronym in sports sponsorship. This global crisis is already forcing companies to drastically cut sponsorship spending. If a league cannot provide evidence for the direct value they create, with analytics to support their claim, chances are they will lose their sponsors. In sports, sponsorship has often been mistaken with patronage. Patronage will mostly disappear, at least for a few years, post crisis. I see big-time sports leagues suffering from this, and new leagues emerging with innovative sponsorship ideas. 

This was something we covered on this week’s State of the Game with guest Richard Gillis:

9 - Consolidation among sports league will be triggered
The need for a world tour in golf is something the industry has been talking about for more than 30 years now. The Premier Golf League might not happen but the PGA Tour will use the crisis to take over its European counterpart and it will happen quickly. The PGA Tour of Australasia, Asian Tour and others would benefit from being regrouped under the same umbrella, as well. We might see other mergers and consolidations happen, NBA and Euroleague? UCL becoming a semi-closed league in a new joint venture with the biggest football clubs in Europe?

On that topic, The Guardian’s Ewan Murray noted how the idea of the Premier Golf League hasn’t gone away and may even be more viable due to changing world circumstances.

Anyway, back to Audoux’s piece, he does end this on a bright note that seems logical: sport will be even more valued. At some point.

10 - The future is bright - Overall, sport will be a big winner post crisis. We miss it so much that it actually increases the value of pro sports for the years to come. Leagues will be forced to undertake the changes they kept postponing, schedules will be revised, enemies will start working together, weak leagues and sports will die and be reborn under better leadership. Content will add more value than ever to all sports properties.