Incredible (and incredibly frustrating) as it is, some sports are now entering their second season during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They’re able to carry on by being innovative, marrying self-discipline and respect for the health protocols among athlete participants and staff, and creating new league structures.
The NHL, which again returned to competition on January 13, has restructured its traditional divisions for the new season. The league divided 31 clubs into four new divisions – a 7-team North Division playing in Canada and three 8-team divisions in the U.S. Clubs will only play teams in their own geographic divisions in a 56-game season.
Last year, in executing a very effective playoff bubble, the NHL finished its Coronavirus-interrupted season by holding its playoffs in just two cities, Toronto and Edmonton. It was a brilliant pivot – the hockey action and television presentation was first-rate, made possible through an outstanding record on COVID testing. During the playoffs, the league administered 33,394 COVID-19 tests to the teams’ players and staff with zero positive test results.
That’s an absolutely astounding achievement showing, first, how much hockey players want the Stanley Cup (be stupid, test positive, and your entire team suffers), and second, the degree to which personal responsibility and self-discipline play in defeating this pernicious virus.
Similarly, the gritty, self-reliant gang at Professional Bull Riders is also moving forward again in 2021 by continuing to innovate following a pioneering season.
PBR had developed new safety protocols leading sports in North America back to competition in late April of 2020, only 41 days after the Coronavirus shutdown and more than three months before hockey dropped the puck to resume its season. The first pro athletes seen in masks in the arena were bull riders. The first pod seating to distance fans was introduced by PBR in July as fans came back into an indoor arena in Sioux Falls, S.D.
At the time, with so much still not known about the virus, fans in the stands felt borderline reckless. But PBR’s plan worked. Events were held safely. The door was opened for other sports to bring fans back, responsibly, in a smaller scale with new physical distancing and safety provisions in place.
Two months after hosting nearly 44,000 socially distanced fans inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas across four days, a pivot from its traditional World Finals in Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena, PBR is going back to its roots to start its 2021 season.
The bull-riding league opened its 28th season last weekend in a small outdoor arena in Ocala, Fla.
Also known as “The Horse Capital of the World,” Ocala is 1,032 miles and a universe away from the usual three-day season launch at Madison Square Garden, when each year a few cowboys head down to the New York Stock Exchange to ring the opening bell and visit shows like “Good Morning America” and “Fox and Friends.”
During the virus, you do what you can to survive. And if you’re smart marketer, you make the proverbial chicken salad. PBR has done that in billing their stay in rural Florida (Arcadia and Okeechobee are up next) as the Unleash The Beast: American Roots Edition.
After three weekends in the Sunshine state, the world’s top cowboys and bulls then head to Texas for three more retro outdoor dates.
By beginning the season with a retro swing across southern warm-weather outdoor venues, the sport has a much better chance events won’t be cancelled should local regulations on indoor gatherings change as the Coronavirus, which has infected more than 24 million Americans, continues to surge.
Even if the sport only hosted about 4,000 fans in Ocala last weekend versus the 35,000 usually drawn to MSG, and won’t be able to again sell out STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, as it did last February, it continues to give fans the action they crave, bring value to partners, and deliver a growing TV product to CBS. Of note, PBR on CBS viewership increased +8% in 2020, while other sports were down, some at historical drops.
PBR made an additional change. Events used to add up world points the riders scored by hanging on eight seconds to crown a weekend champion. A PBR weekend consisted of two or three days of bull riding, culminating with a championship round of the top 15 riders. The cowboy with the most accumulated points won the event.
Now, each day in a weekend stop to a place like Okeechobee is a single competition. There’s a long round of 30 riders, and a championship “short round” of the Top 12 scores from Round 1. The rider with the most points is that day’s champion.
Having standalone competitions awarding a Saturday and a Sunday champion (and Friday, too, if it’s a three-day event), allows PBR the option of cutting bait clean mid-weekend in case of changing local health regulations or an outbreak among its ranks.
It also gives fans a chance to see a daily winner every time they buy a ticket.
Whereas in the past the championship round would only be on Sunday afternoon, in Ocala, there was one championship round on Saturday and one on Sunday. Fans like seeing those rounds, especially because they feature the sport’s rankest bulls, and now they can celebrate multiple winners over a weekend while seeing more of their favorite bulls. It’s a big change for the sport, and most fans are saying they prefer the new format.
During a health crisis, necessity is the mother of invention, and sometimes she births a change that may well stick.
