This commentary examines the precedent of sports facilities being used as emergency response sites, for natural disasters (e.g. the Superdome being used as a shelter during Hurricane Katrina), health crises (e.g. emergency field hospitals during the COVID-19 crisis), and social resilience sites (e.g. large-scale voting sites during the 2020 U.S. presidential election.) Several benefits are identified to support the use of facilities for this purpose. Sport franchises may benefit from higher perceived social value, as their facilities would be used for social good. For their part, the cities may benefit from additional shelter and emergency response space that would otherwise be unavailable, for a lesser cost than building a new mega-shelter.
CITE: Orr, M. & Kellison, T. (2020). Sport facilities as sites of environmental and social resilience. Managing Sport & Leisure.
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