VOA常速英语2020--疫情冲击高校体育（在线收听）

Colleges and universities, many already under financial strain, could face additional funding hardships if they cut sports programs. And you know there's never a good time for a pandemic, but for college sports, I think this was particularly bad, because it happened right at the beginning of the Men's Basketball Tournament. And the Men's Basketball Tournament is the largest source of revenue for the NCAA. According to figures from the National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA, college sports make roughly one billion dollars annually in ticket sales and promotions for the universities. Athletic dollars from basketball, football and baseball can contribute more than half of a school's operating budget. That loss of revenue this year will be felt not just this year, but for the next several years to come. Some of that money trickles down to students through financial aid.

目前有许多学院和大学面临着财政压力。如果这些学校削减体育项目，那么他们将面临额外的资金困难。无论什么时候爆发疫情都是不合时宜的，但这场疫情给大学体育带来的影响尤为糟糕，因为它发生在男子篮球锦标赛开幕之际。而男子篮球锦标赛是美国大学体育协会的最大收入来源。根据美国大学体育协会的数据，大学体育每年从门票销售和大学推广中赚取大约十亿美元。篮球、橄榄球和棒球的体育收益可以贡献学校一半以上的运营预算。今年的收入损失不仅会影响到今年，而且在未来几年也会持续带来影响。这些收益中的一部分会通过经济援助的形式发放到学生手中。

There are more than 20,000 international student athletes enrolled in competing NCAA schools. These schools provide more than 2.9 billion dollars in athletic scholarships to students annually. Prior to the pandemic, I was pretty confident that I would be able to get a scholarship, with the improvements I would have made during the season. But because of the ending of the season that it happened, hopefully in the end I'll be able to still get a scholarship, and still be competitive at the college level. Some schools are pushing to go ahead with their college football season, a move that will require a huge increase in Covid-19 testing for their athletes. They don't necessarily have the right resources to do all the testing. So it's a concern because I don't know of a university football team that hasn't had positive cases. But Thomas Ford, who is working with colleges and universities to increase their testing capacity, understands the push to not cancel sports. The economic impact to the universities is huge as you can imagine. I think the budget for football is like 500 million dollars for Texas. And so it's not a small fee. What do you do with season ticket holders, what do you do with people that have already bought tickets. Can you refund all that money or have you allocated it somewhere else already. Whether schools will delay sports seasons or be forced to cancel them entirely is yet to play out.

有超过2万名国际学生运动员注册进入竞争激烈的美国大学体育协会所属的学校。这些学校每年为学生提供超过29亿美元的体育奖学金。疫情爆发之前，我对于拿下奖学金信心十足，因为我在这个赛季会取得一些进步。但赛季结束了，我还是希望我最终能拿到奖学金，希望我在大学里仍然有竞争力。一些学校正在努力推进大学橄榄球赛季，这一举措将需要大幅增加对运动员的新冠肺炎检测。但这些学校不一定有合适的资源来进行所有的检测。我不知道有哪支大学橄榄球队还没有出现过确诊病例，所以这很令人担忧。不过，托马斯·福特正在与学院和大学合作，提高他们的检测能力。他能够理解这些学校不取消运动项目的努力。你可以想象得到，取消会对大学造成巨大的经济影响。我想，德克萨斯州的橄榄球预算大概是五亿美元。这可是一笔不小的费用。季票持有者怎么办，已经买票的人怎么办？你能退还所有的钱吗？或许你已经将这笔钱分配用于别的地方了。学校是会推迟运动季，还是被迫完全取消运动季，这还有待解决。

Isha Sarai voa news Washington

美国之音记者伊莎·萨拉伊，华盛顿报道