5 Sporting Events That Cost Firms Billions
A recent report finds that the World Cup—starting next week—will cost at least $4.5 billion in lost productivity. What other events are sidelining workers?
Over the next six weeks, more than six million people are expected to attend live World Cup matches, while the rest of the world will watch upwards of 30 billion hours on television, digital, and streaming platforms.
Unfortunately for North American business leaders, most of that viewing will take place during working hours. Already one of the biggest cultural events—not just sporting events—in the world, this year’s World Cup is being hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico, meaning that games will be played mostly during afternoon hours. “The viewing windows are set up for a European primetime audience, so they fall right into U.S. working hours,” says Garrick Yu, co-leader of the global sports practice at Korn Ferry.
To be sure, a recent report projects that the World Cup will cost U.S. businesses alone $4.5 billion in lost productivity. But the World Cup isn’t the only major sporting event that costs firms billions of dollars in productivity losses while employees watch matches, track games, take PTO, and stay home “sick” the morning after. The World Cup is not even the costliest event. Here are five major sporting events and what they cost businesses in lost productivity.
Super Bowl
There’s a reason why surveys routinely show support for either making the day after the Super Bowl a national holiday, or hosting the game during President's Day weekend. Coined “Super Sick Monday,” an estimated 26 million people called in sick after this year’s Super Bowl, resulting in an estimated $5.2 billion in lost productivity. Business leaders, HR firms, labor associations, and other groups have publicly supported giving employees the day off after the game. “It makes sense given how unproductive the next day is for most people,” says Noah Glantz, a managing consultant in the global sports practice at Korn Ferry.
World Cup
Every four years, the World Cup is the Olympics' sibling as a sporting event with global appeal and participation. This year’s tournament partially takes place in the U.S. for the first time in 32 years. “People are treating it like a once-in-a-lifetime event,” says Yu. Given how much soccer's popularity has advanced in the U.S. since the 1990s, this year’s World Cup is also a chance to build momentum and further grow the game. That’s partially why the $4.5 billion in lost productivity expected this year is a billion dollars more than the 2018 World Cup in Russia and $4 billion more than the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. (The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was an anomaly, played in November and December, which overlapped with holiday vacations.)
ICC Cricket World Cup
Believe it or not, the Cricket World Cup is one of the costliest sporting events for employers, primarily because the tournament is played in India, home to one of the largest workforces in the world and major hubs for technology firms and other global corporations. More than a million people attended 2023 Cricket World Cup matches, and another 518 million people watched on TV in India alone. Add in the country's roughly 700 million internet users, and it's easy to understand why Indian business groups and economists estimate productivity losses of billions of dollars for businesses during the six-week tournament.
March Madness
Ron Porter, a senior partner in the global human resources practice at Korn Ferry, remembers a time when firms tried to block certain websites to prevent employees from watching the early rounds of college basketball’s annual tournament during work hours. “That didn’t work so well,” he says. Indeed, between filling out brackets, betting on outcomes, and streaming games, March Madness is one of the costliest events of the year for firms in terms of lost productivity, with estimates ranging from $3 billion to as much as $12 billion depending on methodology. “The office isn’t a sports bar, but firms have learned to look the other way on March Madness,” Porter says.
The Masters
Golf’s most prestigious tournament is unique among major sporting events when it comes lost productivity: primarily senior executives—and not frontline employees—tune in. The Masters is also a much smaller draw compared to the other events, with only around 14 million people watching this year’s final round. By comparison, the World Cup final averages more than one billion global viewers, while about 120 million people in the U.S. alone watch the Super Bowl. While studies have shown that upwards of 50% of golf fans admit to watching The Masters during work hours, no dollar figure for productivity losses has been attached to the tournament.
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