Sport Hiatus launched on March 12, 2020 (the day after the NBA temporarily suspended its season) to celebrate leadership, creativity, and innovation during the temporary hiatus in live sports.
The organization's objective was to actively create, curate, and publish news and materials necessary to follow the temporary hiatus in live sports, by highlighting the best-of-the-best and those who are excelling in creative programming, innovative thinking, and high-quality development.
The organization looked at the temporary hiatus as a tremendous opportunity to leverage technology to change the way we experience live sports. The intention of the organization was to stay positive and focus on the great individuals and organizations who are leveraging the many tools at our disposal to create solutions that enhance fan experiences.
Sport Hiatus is focusing on creating original content, which consists of blogs, thought pieces, and roundtable discussions on various topics across the industry.
The "Office Hours" series was the first content published by Sport Hiatus, featuring live-streamed conversations with top industry veterans and executives, covering a variety of sports business topics related to this unique time.
The series included discussions on the resurgence and future of sports collectibles, impacts of the hiatus on the future of the sports business industry, and college athletics in the post-covid era, to name just a few.
The virtual, socially-distanced conversations featured a moderated discussion, curated questions from our members, and interactive engagement tools.
Many industry executives and personalities participated in the series, including Kenny Mayne, Charlotte Flair, Rachel Jacobson, John Brody, Darren Rovell, Muffet McGraw, Gabe Kapler, and Phil Hughes, among others.
Moving forward, the Sport Hiatus team will continue to develop orginal content focusing on innovators, creators and thought leaders from across the sports business industry. There are also plans to launch a job section on the site, as well as a "Share Your Stories" section, which could comprise of leadership quotes and inspirational elements and has the potential to create an avenue to help people in need.
Thus far, the Office Hours collection has views in the tens of thousands and continues to produce engaging content with professionals from across the sports industry.
At a time when sports fans were suffering from an unprecendented mass cancellation of global sporting events, Sport Hiatus offered viewers a safe and interactive way to engage with sports-related content from the comfort of their own homes. The "Office Hours" series took advantage of the opportunity to connect thought leaders from across the industry for meaningful discussions that would have otherwise never happened had it not been for the hiatus. These discussions led to new insights, new relationships, and new perspectives that will continue to shape the future of the sports industry long after the pandemic has subsided.
Sport Hiatus has continued to evolve throughout the course of the pandemic, and the organization will continue to release original content as the sports industry gradually returns to the "new normal."
While there may no longer be a hiatus in sports, Sport Hiatus took full advantage of the opportunity presented by the lack of sports programming earlier this year, and the team behind the program fully intends to continue building upon what has been an overwhelmingly successful launch.
