CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Danny Morrison uses a football analogy to motivate his staff at the Charlotte Sports Foundation during these unusual and uncertain times.
“Fumble forward,” he tells them, referring to the chaotic circumstances of a player losing control of the ball only to be rescued by an improbable bounce into the arms of a teammate farther down the field for a yardage gain.
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The message: Make something good happen in spite of the of the Covid-19 pandemic and constantly shifting circumstances.
Okay, it’s not “Win one for the Gipper,” but 2020 presents challenges unlike most years. Morrison, who became executive director of the nonprofit sports foundation last year, and his eight-person staff are coping with the challenges of the pandemic in one of the hardest-hit industries: live entertainment.
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This week the sports foundation relocated its annual regular-season college football game at Bank of America Stadium because of state health mandates prohibiting mass-spectator events. Notre Dame was to have played Wake Forest on Sept. 26 at the NFL stadium uptown, but with no fans allowed, the main mission of the sports foundation — driving tourism spending through sports — became impossible.
CBJ’s Erik Spanberg caught up with Morrison recently about how the Covid-19 effect is rippling through college sports and what that means for later games in Charlotte. Read more here.