We can name a million reasons why viewership for the Olympics is down anywhere from 25-50% this year. The COVID-19 Delta variant is distracting viewers. Cord cutters are finding it more difficult to watch live TV events. A significant handful of marquee athletes are sitting the games out after an exhausting last few months of competition. The list goes on.
But there's one reason that I think needs to be in the conversation more often: how the pandemic changed the narrative for almost all sporting events from the triumph of athletes to the triumph of institutions. The headline of this year's Olympics has turned from, "Look at how astonishingly talented all these athletes are," to, "Look at how quickly governments and private enterprises can organize something when the opportunity cost is billions of dollars in lost sponsorship revenue." I think this applies to the decline in Super Bowl and NBA Finals viewership as well: the championship matches felt less like celebrations of what the athletes accomplished and more like celebrations of how not even a pandemic can weaken the allure of ad revenue. It sucks so much sincerity out of the events. In all these cases, the athletes looked more like pawns of their respective institutions rather than self-motivated heroes to be championed for their work ethic. The tone change is subtle but present, and it may have been just enough to kill ratings.
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