A NEW REALITY FOR SPORT FACILITIES: THE AMERICAN AIRLINES CENTER AS A LEARNING ORGANIZATION.

• Author: Lazo, Benjamin D., Sr.

INTRODUCTION

The word unprecedented best describes many experiences of sport organizations in 2020. Everything in the world that relied on human interaction was forced to change and adjust. The ability of any business to adapt to this new environment would determine their existence. Significant events are marked by dates. For the sport industry, the pandemic in 2020 will be remembered due to its effects and impact on how the business of sport is conducted. In March of 2020, one of the iconic images concern the effects of the pandemic on sport is the reaction of Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, to the announcement of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) announcement of the suspension of the 2019-2020 season. "This is crazy. This can't be true." (Haislop, 2020).

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the sport industry, globally and domestically, to evaluate and question everything due to its dependence on mass gatherings. This new reality of living in a COVID-19 environment has ushered in the challenge or opportunity for sport organizations to discover new means to survive, and possibly thrive, during a global pandemic environment. Navigating through this unprecedented and murky environment demanded sport organizations to change and be creative in their ideas. If sport organizations want to emerge and continue to exist in a post-pandemic world they would need to learn how to grow, expand, and mature more rapidly than normal. The ability to pivot quickly would require sport and its organizations to be dynamic in analyzing how the pandemic impacts their business and address changes in those aspects to create opportunities from challenges during the pandemic.

Organizations that embrace continuous learning are known as learning organizations. This study will utilize characteristics of learning organizations identified by Senge to analyze how the sport industry, specifically sport facilities, have met the demands of a COVID-19 laden environment. The use of content analysis and qualitative data will be used to answer the question, "How have sport facilities, and specifically the American Airlines Center in Dallas Texas, become learning organizations during this time of COVID-19?" The importance of analyzing the impact of the pandemic on sport facilities is due to the important contributions that sport facilities are and make to the economy of sport.

Sport facilities are part of the foundation on which the business of sport is built upon. Without a space and a place to host an event, to play and compete, and to create an environment that brings people together to create an experience, the ability of the organization or league to generate revenue opportunities through sport is impacted.

This study identifies unique business opportunities capitalized on by sport organizations globally and recognize the openings that could reconstruct aspects of a sport facility's business model. Moreover, this study assesses the sustainability of those business opportunities for the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.

BACKGROUND OF THIS STUDY

The Ecosystem of Sport

The ecosystem of the business of sport is cyclical; therefore, sport operates in seasons. Sport seasons can run in accordance with the seasonal weather patterns, such as football in the fall, basketball in the spring, and baseball in the summer, but some sports, such as tennis and golf run all year long. Regardless of the sport, the opportunities for involvement in sport is fostered by organized local, regional, and grass-root clubs that facilitate and support interest and participation in other sport communities and at higher levels. The challenge of evaluating, creating, and embracing new approaches to how the business side of sport fosters growth at all levels during a pandemic has affected all those that are involved in playing the game and supporting all the activities that surround it, from athletes, spectators, media coverage, sponsors, facilities, and facility workers (Hall, 2020).

The sport industry is valued globally at an estimated $756 billion (UN, 2020). In the U.S., the sport industry contributes approximately $100 billion to its economy (ESPN, 2020). At the beginning of the pandemic, sport at all levels began suspending their season's in March 2020 at an estimated loss of at least $12 billion in revenue, with approximately $2.2 billion of that loss coming from national television revenue, with nearly $24 million coming from NFL television rights deals (ESPN, 2020; Lange, 2020; Lieser, 2020).

Even sports betting was affected by the pandemic due to the postponement or cancellation of sport seasons. In 2019, Zion Market Research forecasted the global sports betting market value to reach approximately $155.49 billion by 2024 (Zion Market Research, 2019). With the postponement and cancellation of league play due to the pandemic, IBISWorld expects gambling and betting activities industry's revenue to fall by 27% (Mak, 2020). The continued growth of this market in the world and its popularity, due to lifting of regulations against sports betting, especially in the US, was halted.

When it comes to sport, one of the revenue generators that is easily overlooked are the organization's facility. Any facility's existence relies on the combination of hosting events and attracting spectators. Early in the pandemic, the impact of COVID-19 to facilities were estimated at $3.25 billion in losses that sport fans would have spent on professional sports, $371 million in wages, 20 million hours of work lost from stadium and arena employees, and $2.4 billion in sport tourism (ESPN, 2020). Approximately 3 million jobs associated with 524 occupations dependent upon sports, such as groundskeepers, dancers, umpires, announcers, security guards, etc. were affected because of the pandemic, either furloughed or lost (ESPN, 2020).

Learning Organization

In 1994, Senge wrote the best-selling book The Fifth Discipline. This book identified the five disciplines...