Managing a crisis in sport is important. Car trouble on your way to class is a crisis. It’s unpredictable. But you may be judged for just showing up late. Managing this crisis is important. You must manage your reputation. At least send an e-mail to your professor. Devising a plan is important. Sport organizations do the same.
Defining a crisis
Simply put, a crisis is a situation that can damage a sport property’s credibility. Also, this situation can harm the sport property’s stakeholders.
Think about it… imagine there’s a measles outbreak in the city. With this, word gets out that the outbreak started at the venue you work at. Would you want to go to work after hearing this? This really happened! See below:
In this scenario, a planned reaction is crucial. You don’t want to have this…
Sport is not immune to crisis. Actually, sport can breed it! Give a daily read of Sportsnet.ca and you’ll see at least one crisis.
Recent Examples
Porzingas Rape Allegations
Last week, the New York Post published a report explaining a police report. The report details a woman’s complaint that she was raped by Dallas Mavericks’ (then Knicks) superstar Kristaps Porzingis in 2018.
Cagliari-Juventus match
Also, racism in European soccer continues. Full story here. The problem continues.
The CWHL Folding
Furthermore, the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) folded on Sunday. Teams were shocked. We wrote an article about the folding.
Planning for Crisis
Crisis is not easily predicted. But it can be. Strong crisis management uses public relations to help. Let’s build a list of crisis management at all levels of sport in the comments below.
An example of a crisis in sport would be the Kobe Bryant Rape allegations in 2003, it was unpredictable and had a negative impact on the organization
But FIFA and Russia is a sport example
Okay
I don’t know who it had the most negative impact on. Kobe Bryant himself or the Lakers organization???
Definitely a loss-loss situation.
– FIFA and Russia Scandal
-Ronaldo Accused of raping a woman at the club
what specific case do you mean with FIFA and Russia?
World Cup Match Fixing
You sure it was match fixing?
Are you aware of how many “Russian Scandals” there was last year? 😉
Russia scandal? More details please.
Looool
He was accused of raping a woman in his hotel room, after meeting her at the club. It didn’t physically happen at the club though.
Penn State Sex Abuse
One of college football’s most celebrated programs and coaches failed to report and likely covered up when allegations of child molestation against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky surfaced. Fast forward, Coach Paterno has passed, Sandusky convicted and the NCAA imposed sanctions on Penn State including an unprecedented $60 million fine and the voiding of all of the football team’s victories over its previous 14 seasons.
I remember that example! Very bad scandal that impacted and still does impact Penn State to this day.
Interesting, I never heard about that story. Do you know the results of that situation?
Tonya Harding 2.0? During the Figure Skating World Championships USA’s Mariah Bell was on the official practice ice with six other skaters practicing before her short program. During her routine, Bell skated past another skater, Eun Soo Lim, who also trains with her in California under the same coach. Mariah hit Lim’s leg with her free leg as she skated past. Lim was clearly in a lot of pain and the South Korean Team Leader took the incident to the International Skating Union to be investigated. This was a big crisis that hit the skating world as it happened in… Read more »
One memorable crisis that recently happened in sport is the Toronto Blue Jays trading fan favourite centre fielder Kevin Pillar. At the time of the trade, Kevin Pillar was the longest tenured member of the organization. As some fans expected this, most fans and even players were shocked and saddened by the move. Other franchise favourites Justin Smoak and Marcus Stroman expressed their feelings on the move via press conference and social media, respectively. The Toronto Blue Jays are already struggling to bring fans into the ballpark, recording an attendance of 10, 400 people on Monday, a franchise low since… Read more »
I was really sad when that happened. And his interview was really sad because he loves Toronto
I don’t really think this is a crisis. A player getting traded happens all the time, regardless of the tenure or fan following of the player.
I don’t think this is a crisis as for the management team this would be expected and the Blue Jays could have predicted it. It also doesn’t have the severity as a usual crisis.
Sad to see but needed to happen for the rebuild
The situation that happens for NIKE when College basketball player Zion Williamson got injured because of his left foot completely tore through his Nike basketball sneaker. That cursed NIKE (NKE) stock dropped 2% premarket and was down more than 1% as of 12 p.m. EST.
NIKE later said in a press release:
“We are obviously concerned and want to wish Zion a speedy recovery. The quality and performance of our products are of the utmost importance. While this is an isolated occurrence, we are working to identify the issue.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nike-stock-fall-duke-basketball-zion-williamson-knee-injury-sneaker-rips-131425759.html
Interesting piece! That was really controversial for its time!
NIKE definitely suffered from this and I’m wondering if the design team got a massive talking to about what ensued.
That’s a great crisis in sports. Because Zion is such a big prospect in Basketball.
This can be seen as a crisis moment for Nike because the image of the company is at stake. For example, the potential loss of customers and the amount of revenue loss would be a huge blow for the company.
In 2016, after a couple of years of being in the red with revenue to the team, The Brampton Beast of the ECHL submitted a request on Brampton City Council for funding to keep the team in operation. Initially the team requested $1.5 million, but the Council agreed upon commiting $500,000 + taxes to cover foreseen losses o er the next 3 years. In 2019, the Brampton Beast are currently in this situation again, as the have just about to finish this 3 year commitment from the city, and now the future of the team is uncertain because Brampton’s City… Read more »
https://globalnews.ca/news/5123989/rick-zamperin-alliance-of-american-football-sacked-in-inaugural-season/
Interesting piece! These examples remind me a lot the Aliance of America Football League who recently announced they would fold after 5 weeks of playing. This was Completely unprecedented to everyone in the league as now team players, coaches, and executives will expect to be out of a job by the end of the month. This was completely unexpected as the league was given a recent $250 Million Dollar investment by Tom Durdon .
Interesting to note this occurred after solely 5 weeks of playing – crazy.
A crises in sport is when the CWHL announce that they will cease operations. This is a crisis because it was unpredictable with the teams. They had no idea that this was happening, so hundreds of thousands of people are out of jobs, and young girls everywhere who wish to play in that league cant anymore. A young 8 year old girl wrote a letter to league displaying her disappointment, so it affects more than one party.
Inter Football Club Strips Star Player Mauro Icardi of Captaincy Back in February, after ongoing contract negotiations and poor behaviour in the dressing room and off the pitch, Inter stripped their star player of the captains armband which sparked a serious crisis at the club in multiple aspects. Inter had to deal with the aftermath of this situation which was certainly unexpected and wasn’t planned for. Suddenly, this situation garnered massive media attention and was the talk of the club for months in interviews and press conferences. Negative comments from the coach and from the players agent/wife furthered the debate… Read more »
2. Throughout the two months this crisis was occurring within and around the club, I don’t feel it was managed very well from club directors and especially the coach. The club first confronted the crisis through an official statement via their club website announcing the decision to strip Icardi of captaincy, followed by subsequent interviews from their general manager Beppe Marotta and pre/post-match press conferences from their head coach Luciano Spalletti. It was very clear Spalletti was constantly taking jabs at Icardi during his press conferences by making comments such as “He should have been in the dressing room with… Read more »
3. It was reported that when Icardi said he was ready to play after his “knee injury”, the club held a meeting with club directors, Spalletti, Icardi and his wife/agent Wanda Nara Icardi to discuss the point of action that will be taken which included slowly introducing Icardi back into training and then into the matches; as well as a discussion with everyone on the team to put this situation in the past. I believe the post-mortem was absolutely necessary to add clarity to the situation and finally put an end to this crisis.
An example of crisis in sport is way back in 1972 for Olympic basketball when it was Russia vs USA (gold medal game). USA would have taken the win and the gold but a referee added 3 seconds to the game clock costing USA the win. To this day the USA players and coaches refuse to pick up their silver medals.
Waaaaay back
Mauro Icardi, an Argentinian international soccer player who plays for Inter Milan football club in Italy. He is the star of the club and has been the captain for over a year. His wife and the club president had a live conversation on the most popular football radio on how his wife and agent think that he deserves a better contract and isn’t being treated well at the club and calling out the team. He was also stripped his captaincy and has been reportedly faking injuries. The manager of the club came out during a press conference making the situation… Read more »
Conor McGregor arrested for assault on a fan who was trying to take a picture of him. Conor slapped the phone out of the fans hand and smashed it on the ground.
Connor gets away with everything though because hes dana white’s favourite.
Tennis player Richard Gasquet tests positive for cocaine in system during a drug test in may of 2009. French professional tennis player Richard Gasquet had tested positive for cocaine in a drug test in 2009 which lead to a 10 month band from the ATP. The cocaine traces had been found in his urine sample in march in 2009 in Key Biscayne around the time of the Miami Open. Gasquet had claimed to never consuming any cocaine and had stated that he had kissed a woman who was doing cocaine which lead to his drug test turning positive. This had… Read more »
One of the biggest crisis and scandal on sport history was the FIFA corruption crisis. In 2015 the soccer world governing body got involved with corruption charges . The federal justice of US arrested more than ten top executives from FIFA including the President Joseph Blatter. This big scandal helps to doubt the FIFA credibility.
A memorable crisis was the 2011 NBA lockout which lasted 161 days. This lockout occurred because the CBA from 2005 expired and they couldn’t reach a new deal before the start of the new season. This also forced the regular season to decrease to 66 games instead of 82. This lockout caused NBA cities to lose revenue and television networks losing ratings and advertising revenue
Crisis Scenario: Jimmy Butler speaking out against the Minnesota Timberwolves and forcing a move to the Philadelphia 76ers
Steve Smith looks set to be permanently stripped of the Australian captaincy and could face a ban of up to a year from representing the country following his leading role in the ball-tampering scandal that has engulfed the tour of South Africa. Smith, who has already lost the captaincy of Rajasthan Royals for the upcoming Indian Premier League, is expected to learn his fate from Cricket Australia on Tuesday evening along with the vice‑captain David Warner and opening batsman Cameron Bancroft
Crisis with Russia being caught cheating the during the Olympics. WADA under fire by not well managing all the samples during the games
An example of a crisis in sport was when Michael Vick was convicted in 2007 for illegal dog fighting it is a crisis because at the time it had a negative impact on the Atlanta Falcons then later on him signing to the Steelers
An example of a crisis is when the New York Islanders lost John Tarvares to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
An example of crisis in sport, was when ronaldo/messi were caught with tax evasion. It was a big scene in soccer, where alot of players that were linked to playing in “La Liga – Spain” were being caught with evading taxs. Some of the cases were severe, as the players were being sentenced to prison. Later, cleared as it was only a first offence and told to pay a small fee
Ron Artest back in 2004 in Detroit when he got into fights with fans on the court and jumping into the stands to lay more punches to others. Also other Indiana Pacers players jumped in to punch a few fans as well. A good amount of fans were injured and it’s really effected the NBA at the time. A lot of game suspensions and fines were placed onto the players. Every since then , the NBA has done a great job on protecting the players and fans from letting incidents like this happen again.
An example of a crisis in sport is the New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft being charged with two counts of soliciting prostitutes. The stakeholders will question his credibility, and his reputation being tainted and effecting the team’s bottom line.
New videos may emerge that could cause the billionaire businessman “irreparable harm” if the media and public get access to the police surveillance videos that show him being sexually serviced by women at a Florida massage parlor.
An example of crisis in sport is during the 2014 Olympics members of team Russia were caught using performance enhancing drugs and those who won medals were striped of them after investigations occurred. This later resulted in a serious sanction by the IOC which resulted Team Russia to be disqualified and kicked out of the 2018 Olympics as a nation. The Russian team was called the”Olympic Athletes from Russia” that year instead of Team Russia.
The Patriots deflated football situation. The colts took a football after an interception and when analyzed it was decided that it had been deflated. This was apparently the biggest deal ever even though it was complete BS. They got a bunch of draft picks taken away, a massive fine and Tom Brady was suspended 4 games to begin the season.
Earlier this year Dwight Howard was exposed on twitter for having sexual relations with a transgender man. The now woman exposed Howard of threatening her that if she came out and told the world something bad would happen to her. This was a major crisis for Howards PR and public image.
Before the start of the 2019 regular season, Chicago Cubs infielder Addison Russell was accused of verbally and physically abusing his girlfriend. News surfaced from fans finding the girlfriend’s social media posts. Since the accusations were made, the Chicago Cubs suspended the player while investigations took place. Russell used to be a fan favourite, but is now hated all around the sport for his alleged acts. The posture of this crisis is diminishment. The actions of Addison Russell are beyond the control of the Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball. The ball club emphasized that the actions of the infielder… Read more »
Magic Johnson stepping down from president of basketball operations from the lakers
Came out of nowhere, didn’t notify ownership, questionable comments such as “had more fun before”
Opened himself and the lakers organization to mass critisicm
The lakers were quick to cover their tracks by stating that Johnson never committed long term
There was also many sources stating that Johnson was never around much in the first place
I think a good example of Crisis in Sport is when DeMar DeRozan suddenly got traded to San Antonio Spurs after being told he would not be traded that year. This goes to show that sport is purely a business and not about the fans. Or how do we feel the media handled the situation? Did they focus more on the bright side that it was by referring more to the beginning of something new with Kawhi Leonard? Was the incoming of a new star more important than the departure of a legend within our city? Definitely a crisis worth… Read more »
A great example is when former Manchester-united and current Everton striker Wayne Rooney was arrested for drinking-driving after a night out when he was also linked with a young woman he met at a bar. In summary, He showed a remorse by admitting that his actions were wrong and issued a public apology based on the fact that this actions could affect his personal reputation and endorsements as a professional soccer player. In addition, based on the story, it happened that a random individual recorded Wayne Rooney during the incident of his misdemeanours.