“When the Unimaginable Happens”- Sport Oregon Voices

Sport Oregon Voices:

Jim Etzel, CEO

It was unthinkable, hypothetical mostly. 

As we sat around a conference table for our regular weekly staff meeting in mid-February, we covered a number of the usual topics, developments and departmental updates. On this occasion, however, we were eagerly brainstorming fresh content ideas for our new website. Tons of great ideas emerged, but one that stood out, especially now, was the idea of a written piece about what our state would look like without sports. Ridiculous, right? Why would we write about that, as if it would ever happen?

Well, then it did. 

While we are fortunate that the sports world has returned in bits and bobs after pausing – although without spectators – we by no means are out of the woods yet, especially with our familiar fall sports now being affected. We dabbled in Korean baseball on ESPN for starters, and slowly but surely many domestic sports leagues adapted and have come back in some safer form. And we appreciate it, likely more than we ever have. 

Locally, we’ve eagerly watched from afar as our Portland Trail Blazers dramatically scrapped and fought their way into the NBA playoffs down in Orlando, Portland Thorns FC gritted their way into the semifinal round of the NWSL tournament in Utah, and the Portland Timbers hoisted another trophy with their incredible 40-plus day tournament stint in Florida. On the links, our semblance of sporting normalcy included the return of the WinCo Foods Portland Open and U.S. Amateur Championship at Bandon Dunes.  

 Yet, even with these professional teams and area golf events returning to the fold, we are faced with the sobering reality that our cherished fall sports seasons we had all hoped would be there for us as they always have – including high school and college football – will not go on as scheduled. Peel away the obvious surface disappointment and psychological impact of this, and you’re left with a stark economic reality that immeasurably affects our local businesses and overall economy. Hotels, restaurants, vendors, merchants, gameday and transportation workers, the universities and high schools…the list goes on and on of those affected by the suspension of our favorite fall sports traditions. Entire economies and yearly budgets are banked around the handful of home football games at the University of Oregon and Oregon State alone. Our state depends on these events in so many ways. 

The well-established professional teams in our area that have enjoyed such great success over the years are not immune, either, as the Trail Blazers, Timbers, Thorns FC, Hillsboro Hops and Portland Winter Hawks have all suffered an immense financial hit with partial or cancelled seasons and no one making their way through the turnstiles. Our youth and high school sports continue to be hard hit, too, after we’ve already seen the cancellation of the winter championships and spring regular and post seasons during the last school year as well as most youth and adult sports leagues.   

So, indeed, the crux of our discussion in February is more relevant than ever. Why are sports important to us, and what do they mean to our communities? We could spend hours and thousands of characters postulating and detailing, but the simple fact remains that, even if you’re not a sports fan or active participant, they do matter. A lot. 

On an emotional level, look no further than the Timbers, as an example. As Major League Soccer returned with a particularly compelling tournament format, the Timbers headed some 3,000 miles away, for some six weeks separated from their families and friends in Portland, isolated in their “bubble,” and came home with another substantial championship. But for us back home in Oregon, they, like the Trail Blazers and Thorns FC during their recent runs, have given us something even more special from their bountiful bonding stint in a far-away place. They gave us a much appreciated break – a release – and appointment viewing once or twice a week for a month and a half as we barked at our TVs, phones and tablets, perhaps in hopes of making it on one of the video boards at the mostly empty soccer stadium in Orlando. Somehow, we wanted our team to know we had their backs, and were with them in spirit, just as it is at Providence Park or the Moda Center. We needed a dose of normalcy in our lives, a social outlet despite our separation. And despite playing in empty stadiums and arenas, these teams and events have given us some of that, in their own unique and adaptive way. 

Because, you see, sports have the power to boost us, individually and collectively. It’s a badge of honor and gives us a bounce in our step to say OUR team won a championship…in the middle of a pandemic no less. We wore our Timbers mask with great pride that next day, because that trophy symbolized more than just another sporting title for our state. Sports is the unique constant that gives us a unified community rallying point that brings us together and provides us with this sometimes-frustrating, but mostly exhilarating outlet to build around – together, in good times, bad times, challenging times, uncertain times. And in this age of uncertainty and the seemingly minute-by-minute adapting to a “new normal,” sports continues to galvanize us, albeit in its own physically distanced way. 

But when you think about it, we were never truly without sports. From our quarantine couches, we tuned in for replays of old games of all sorts on TV, reliving some amazing moments and feeling those emotions all over again. Perhaps we followed (and were surprisingly interested by) a wide variety of quirky events that could be safely staged in the early going (professional corn hole anyone?). We have been scouring through news sites and Twitter keeping up to date on when our favorite teams, athletes and participant events will return, and in what form. Even as we navigated these uncertainties, though, we still had those collective past experiences as reminders of how important sports are to us, and how they make us feel. And we are counting on their full return, in ways we may not even be aware of fully.   

All this drives us even more at Sport Oregon. Like everyone, we have had to adapt. We’ve seen numerous large-scale events affected, including the NCAA tournament. But if anything, we have doubled our commitment to our mission. Our passion is continuing to improve the quality of life in our region through sports and in driving substantial economic impact for our great state, and that will never change, pandemic or not. Our state has so much to offer, and we are in such a unique position to make a difference as we navigate the present with an optimistic eye towards an exciting future of events and the full return of all the sports we love and depend on for our economic health.

We embrace our leading role. And we look forward to curating even more memorable and impactful sporting experiences through our work…and a return to our normal staff meetings.