Toulouse (AFP)
Major and amateur championships stopped, competitions postponed ... Rarely has the sports world been paralyzed to this point. One day, however, after the coronavirus pandemic, trials will resume. And football stadiums and other disciplines could be crowded, experts say.
"We have an inalienable need for sport. And this need will fill the stadiums," predicts Jérôme Boissel, teacher-researcher in management sciences at La Rochelle. "We will need to relive individual emotions but also social communion. However, the only place of social communion is the stadium."
"Yes, today we are suffering because we are lacking. But when the competitions resume, there will undoubtedly be a surge of joy, euphoria, solidarity. The weaning will have been so important that the stadiums or the rooms will be sold out, "urge this consumer specialist.
In the past, sport has often shown its saving and reconstruction virtues. Thus, after the two world wars, the significant idea has always been "let's profit from it", note historians of the sport.
The "return to normalcy will be based on the importance of sport in each country," said Fabien Archambault, lecturer in Limoges, taking the example of Italy in 1946, where the resumption of football had been hailed with this lyrical formula: "Brackets of enchanted sun".
- A "Roaring Twenties" spirit -
In France, at the Liberation, passion was focused on the exploits of Marcel Cerdan. Around radio stations, the French had accompanied the boxer in "his conquest of America" in 1946, then towards his world middleweight title against the American Tony Zale, the "King of KO", September 21, 1948 , until his death in October 1949.
"Cerdan, it was proof that France remained a strong country," insists Yves Morales, historian at Cresco (center for sports and body research) in Toulouse. He recalled that General De Gaulle "had used champions and teams a lot" to support "the return of national prestige".
This health crisis "will generate frustrations", adds sociologist Philippe Terral, director of Cresco. Without looking ahead, he imagines that in "our leisure society", the shortages will cause "needs for enjoyment, consumption" and could bring back to mind "Roaring Twenties" (1920-1929).
"The longer and more painful the period (of confinement, editor's note), the more important the events that will symbolize the end", augurs Yves Moralès, while for economists, changes to calendars, with meetings in July, could be pose as another beneficial factor.
- French resilience -
"There are going to be matches in the summer, usually on dates when the teams are not playing. It can attract a new audience. From a sociological point of view, we can really have people who have never been to the stadium" , argues Jérôme Boissel.
Sociologist Cyrille Rougier and economist Christophe Lepetit, however, temper this optimism. For two reasons. According to these two research officers from the Center for Sports Law and Economics (CDES) in Limoges, it seems complicated to predict "spectator behavior" when an economic crisis is looming and health risks could continue to weigh at the end of confinement.
"Categories will be more affected than others," fears Cyrille Rougier.
"I remember the French resilience after the attacks. I think it is this state of mind that will prevail when the competitions resume," replies Jérôme Boissel.
The president of the National Grouping of automobile circuits Jean-Pierre Mougin also believes in an uplift of spectators "quite interesting". But he worries about "the competition of events", consequence of the "multiplicity of competitions" in a limited period.
"We are going to have an extremely hectic, extremely busy schedule (...) in the second half of the year," he predicted, fearing that these traffic jams would limit the expected recovery.
© 2020 AFP