FOS PM: Olympics On The Line?

Less than 200 days from the Tokyo Olympics, Japan has declared a second state of emergency after another wave of COVID-19 cases.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga expects to lift the emergency order on February 7. Others, including Japan’s top virus advisor, are less optimistic about lifting the state of emergency by that date.

The Tokyo Games were first delayed in March 2020. Olympic organizers say that if the events cannot happen in 2021, they will be canceled.

Even a scaled-down version of the Tokyo Games would likely require testing and quarantines for athletes and fans, as well as logistical changes to the events.

The bloated $15.4 billion budget for the games could continue to inflate. Multiple independent audits have projected costs amounting to double the current figure. 

• Costs specifically related to combating COVID-19 total close to $1 billion.
• Top sponsors have already contributed over $3 billion to date, at least twice as much as any previous Olympics.

Due to the health concerns and rising cost — the majority of which is funded by taxpayers — anti-Olympics sentiment is growing among the Japanese public.

Despite the hurdles, Prime Minister Suga said he is “determined to hold the games” as he announced the latest restrictions.  

Despite an unexpected bump in the road, Motorsport Games boosted its IPO size.

The Miami-based racing games developer was preparing to sell shares on Tuesday, when CEO Dmitry Kozko was accused in a lawsuit of “shortchanging investors” after acquiring an additional, discounted minority stake in 704Games — Motorsport’s largest revenue driver.

The accusation didn’t slow down the IPO.

Motorsport raised $60 million with shares priced at $20. With an initial market cap of $340 million, the stock started trading on the Nasdaq today. Shares jumped as much as 83%.

Along with developing games, Motorsport is a publisher and esports ecosystem whose titles include the official NASCAR video game franchise. It also acquired the exclusive rights for the British Touring Car Championship games.

Through the first nine months of 2020, the company reported a 68% year-over-year revenue increase with $2.4 million in net income, up from $4.2 million in losses the year prior.

College football isn’t immune to viewership woes plaguing major professional leagues. 

Alabama dominated Ohio State 52-24 Monday night in the College Football Playoff National Championship, which had the lowest viewership for any title game since the start of the BCS era 23 years ago. 

The matchup averaged about 18.7 million live viewers across the “MegaCast” on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, down 27% from last year’s title game. That’s also fewer viewers than the 18.8 million average for the two New Year’s Day semifinal matchups.

While the final numbers will include streaming and ESPNews viewership, the official tally is expected to barely pass 19 million viewers, which is still 2 million fewer than than the 2005 Orange Bowl, the previous least-viewed championship. 

Viewership for multiple major sports events was down over the last year.

• NFL regular season: -8% 
• MLB World Series: -30%
• The Kentucky Derby: -43%
• NBA Finals: -49%
• Final round of The Masters -58%
• Stanley Cup Finals: -61%

Experts are divided on why fewer fans are watching sports, but agree that the overlapping post-restart schedules contributed. 

On Monday, fatigue may have been the issue. The CFP title game was not only up against a new episode of “The Bachelor” — which drew 4.74 million viewers — but it was the seventh nationally televised football game in 72 hours.