Coronavirus: Big revenue drop in sports industry

It has been less than six months since Roxanne Gan set up her yoga studio, Zoi Yoga, and the 30-year-old has had to grapple with a host of challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

She had to conduct twice as many lessons after social distancing measures to limit gatherings to no more than 10 people took effect on March 27, as classes sometimes had up to 18 attendees.

Her studio in Joo Chiat is now shut till May 4 because of the circuit breaker measures which began on April 7 - one of the many businesses in the sports and fitness landscape affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

While Gan cannot hold lessons at her studio, she still has to foot the bill for expenses such as rent, Internet and utility bills, which come up to about $19,000 monthly.

She has tried to cope by providing an online yoga subscription, which costs $9.90 a week. Subscribers get access to three yoga videos daily.

Gan admitted that it has been difficult given the number of free resources online, but that her members have supported her.

"Honestly there's not much I can do, likewise for all the other businesses, but that doesn't mean that I feel good about it," she said. "Every individual has to play (his) part and ensure that this doesn't have to be prolonged."

The cancellation and postponement of a plethora of sports events has also resulted in significant revenue losses for events and public relations and marketing firms.

Ronda Ng, owner of sports public relations and marketing firm Full Circle PR, estimates a revenue drop of at least 65 per cent for her company.

Its last event this year was the Jan 16-19 SMBC Singapore Open, but the April 26 Income Eco Run and International Champions Cup, which was scheduled to take place in the middle of the year, have been cancelled. Last year, the company had 24 events.

"(It affects) morale for sure - as the business owner, you don't want to let the stress trickle down to the younger staff so I try to be as positive as I can," said the 40-year-old Ng, who tried to avoid cutting her staff's pay but will finally have to implement reductions this month.

Event management company Infinitus Productions, which usually organises an average of 20 events annually, has had none this year.

One of its events, the May 23 Osim Sundown Marathon, was cancelled in March.

After reporting record revenues last year, managing director Jeffrey Foo, 47, was hoping that this year would be another successful one.

But, due to the pandemic, revenue is down by at least 80 to 90 per cent and he has introduced measures such as shorter work weeks, which means a reduction in salary for his company of 26 staff.

He said: "We are definitely hit hard because after all, we're in the events space and this spans the whole events industry, from meetings and conference to family days to mass sports participation."

Individuals have not been spared either.

Freelance instructors and coaches are a mainstay of the sports industry and with academies, schools and studios putting programmes on hold, many are wondering where their next pay cheque is coming from.

Football coach Razif Ariff used to earn about $2,500 a month from training three schools, but is now doing food delivery to make up for the loss of income.

The 33-year-old said: "We just have to deal with it. The safety of everyone is well protected this way, so I'm not worrying about football at the moment.

"I'm hoping that everything will go back to usual soon."