An Alarming Number Of People Say They Would Get Infected If It Meant We Could Get Sports Back

What would be willing to do to get all of our sports like baseball, basketball, racing, hockey, soccer, golf, and others back right about now? Money? Possessions? Your left arm?

I hear you. It’s rough out there these says for sports fans.

How rough is it? The folks over at ticket marketplace TickPick.com asked over 1,000 sports fans across the country how they are reacting to the pandemic, what fans are doing to fill the new void, and more.

What they discovered may surprise you. Then again, is there anything really left that can surprise us at this point?

Here’s a few states stat that probably won’t shock you: 84.3% of those surveyed said they began taking the pandemic more seriously after a sports event was impacted. 66% sais they were more stressed, to some extent, while only 28% were able to say their stress levels weren’t impacted at all by sports disappearing.

Basketball fans have probably been affected more than any other fanbase with the NBA shutting down and completely losing out on March Madness. However, fans’ opinions are very mixed on whether or not to continue the current season once the stay-at-home orders lift. 39% most commonly thought teams should resume the season exactly where it left off, while nearly the same amount (34%) thought the season should be canceled altogether.

In the absence of sports, more than half of the sports fans surveyed (56%) said they’re rewatching old sports clips and 47.2% said they’re relying on social media posts from their favorite teams and athletes for entertainment.

Facebook is the number one source for news when it comes to social media used to keeping up with teams and athletes with 34% of the respondents utilizing it’s platform, while Twitter comes in second with 27.3% of sports fans, followed by Instagram at 20.4%.

In addition to rewatching old games and clips, 72.8% reported branching out into movies and TV shows. Fifty-two percent said they are spending more time with their family, and partner intimacy increased, as well with 34% of sports fans saying the absence of events had led them to have sex with their partner. Oh yeah, 20% of those with and without partners have been watching porn during their free time. (That number is way too low.)

Back to our original question of what would fans do to get their favorite sports back on the playing field?

Would they let themselves get sick with COVID-19, stop having sex, or even lose a piece of their salaries? The answers were yes, yes, and yes. Even more often, fans said that they would be willing to forgo drinking alcohol for an entire year if it meant the return of sports.

Let’s not go crazy here, folks.