COVID-19 Impacts on Track and Field Sport Clubs in Finland and Sweden

Abstract

The field of sport business experienced a rapid and sudden stop because of the coronavirus pandemic, also known as COVID-19. Sport businesses and sport organizations have massively been impacted from the follow up to this pandemic. Many competitions and events have been postponed, cancelled, or rescheduled including events such as the Olympics and the UEFA EURO championship tournament. On the follow up to this, the aim of this research was to examine the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the Finnish and Swedish track and field sports clubs’ operations. More in detail, the economic and social point of views and their impacts was studied. The research was assigned by the Finnish Athletics Federation. The research was conducted using the mixed methods model since the topic was such recent at the beginning of the research and with limited research data. Hence, qualitative semi-structured interviews gave foundation to the quantitative online survey used within the research. Altogether, four Finnish track and field executive directors were interviewed, and 26 quantitative survey responses were collected and analyzed. Although relatively small sample sizes were used, the amount of information and findings from such a current study can be emphasized. According to the research results, substantial evidence of economic and social impacts was recognized. Also, the shift to a more digitalized sports industry was noticeable. New trends and applications to adapt to the pandemic were seen and can be applied towards the future as well. The Finnish Athletics Federation and Swedish Athletics Association can take advantage of the results presented and implications on how clubs could expand their operations in the future was presented. The research results also provided a basis foundation and comparison to relevant countries operations.