These teams also include a range of sporting teams including netball, soccer and basketballers many of whom earn not that much.
Plus lets not forget all the other work created in these tough times:
- Ground staff from the groundskeeper to the catering to door staff to security staff
- The physios and trainers
- Umpires
- Doctors and nurses
- The admin staff at the clubs
- All the staff working at the various resorts and hotels accommodating the teams
- Suppliers of sports clothing and equipment
- The bus drivers and airline staff
- Ticketing staff
- Businesses selling sporting fan gear and clothing
- Staff in the media including but not limited to journalists, photographers
- Staff at Foxtel including commentators, admin and sales staff etc (they have laid off many including one of my daughters, and would be a lot more without sporting content to drive subscriptions)
- People working in marketing and advertising
- etc
Wipe out all the professional sports from playing and you probably wipe out many, many other thousands of jobs beyond just the athletes themselves. In these tough times we need to keep as many industries active as we can.
Then there is the psychological benefit to many from watching some or all of these sports.