Too Much Sport

It does not matter what time of the day it is or where you are in the world, there is always some professional sporting contest taking place. This is great if you are addicted to sport – or a betting agency – but most mere mortals want a break at some stage.

It gets to the point where there is so much cricket, tennis and golf (and you can even throw in football/soccer tournaments into the mix), that the average pundit does not even know what tournament is being played and more importantly why is it being played.

Without a doubt the major tournaments of tennis and golf still resonate, but recently after a momentous cricket World Cup One-Day international success by Australia, they were forced to stay in India for another two weeks to play a meaningless T20 competition. Unsurprisingly, Australia lost with a weakened side.

One of the reasons both the AFL, and to a lesser extent the NRL, are so successful is that the season runs only from March to September/early October. Sure both sports do their best to stay in the news in the off-season with drafts, players moving clubs, coaching changes and the like, but the action on the field will not commence until March meaning fans get a chance to miss their sporting heroes in action.

It also gives hope to diehard supporters whose teams may have struggled the year before, thinking that they can magically resurrect their fortunes in the forthcoming season.

The other extreme is the plight of rugby union, both domestically and the Wallabies, where until recently the super rugby sides played overseas for half the season meaning that fans hardly ever saw them live.

The fact is that most people love their sport. The fact is that most people love to have balance in their life and participate in other activities beside either playing or watching sport. Sporting administrators need to consider the theory that ‘less is more’ and giving people the chance to miss their favourite sporting team or individual, is not a bad thing. It might even have the opposite effect of encouraging them to actually attend a sporting contest rather than watching sport on TV from the comfort of their lounge room.