Short attention spans are killing sport
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By sheek, 14 Oct 2009 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- BC Marathon, Cricket, Horse Racing, Melbourne Cup, netball, Sevens rugby, Twenty20, US Breeders Cup
Australian batsman Andrew Symonds in the Twenty20 match, Australia v New Zealand - AAP Image/Tony McDonough
I guess it’s the society we live in today – everything is instant gratification. If someone or something can’t get your attention in the first five to ten seconds, you’re outta here!
While playing around on Google, I looked up the US Breeders Cup horse racing series, looking for some related info for a possible upcoming article.
I noticed they have a new race called the BC Marathon, run over 1 and 3/4 miles, or about 2800 metres.
It would be a marathon for American horses, because the only graded race over that distance in the States is the grade (group) 2 San Juan Capistrano Handicap run at Santa Anita.
In the US, they have no races run over the Melbourne Cup distance of 3200 metres (about two miles). Not yet a marathon for our horses, but probably will become so in due course.
Once upon a time, the capital city cup in each state was run over this distance – 3200 metres – in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth.
But now the Adelaide and Perth cups are back to 2400 metres.
Sydney and Brisbane are in danger of doing same. Additionally, the Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane cups have been down graded to group 2.
Like the US, Australia is moving towards miles and sprints races. Staying races could be a thing of the past. For breeders and owners, shorter races provide a quicker return on investments.
Bugger the aesthetics of racing!
In cricket, the Test format is dying from boredom and lack of love. Leading all-rounders Andy Flintoff (England) and Jacob Oram (New Zealand) have retired from Test cricket, but intend to continue playing LOM & T20.
Both are still young enough to continue playing Test cricket for another four or five years. But there’s too much money to be had in Twenty20 especially.
In rugby, the Sevens version has been admitted into the Olympic games. With the broad dissatisfaction with 15 man rugby, especially in Australia, 7s rugby might become the new king.
Quite unexpectedly, it might also provide a ‘coming together’ point for both union and league, at the expense of both the 15 and 13 man games.
Even netball is experimenting with an abridged form of their game. And years ago, tennis came up with the tie-breaker to shorten games.
In twenty years time, the Sydney-Hobart ocean classic yacht race might become the Sydney Harbour to Port Hacking dash yacht race!
But just to confuse the issue of shorter sport attention spans, we’re being inundated on TV and radio with a multitude of erectile dysfunction ads.
Hello? Hello? Is anyone still reading this?
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Kurt said | October 14th 2009 @ 3:33am | Report comment
“But just to confuse the issue of shorter sport attention spans, we’re being inundated on TV and radio with a multitude of erectile dysfunction ads.”
I’m trying to understand it Sheek, I really am but can you please explain this last statement? Are we suffering from shorter attention spans due to our inability to maintain an erection? Or is the flow of causality in the other direction?
sheek said | October 14th 2009 @ 7:42am | Report comment
Kurt,
The experts say, part of the secret to losing weight is to have 5-7 smaller meals rather than 3 large meals. In this way, the metabolism is continually ‘fired’ which helps the weight-loss process better.
I’m going to guess the erectile dysfunction problem is connected to our shorter attention span. The blood is continually required to provide us with our miniture “grabs”. At least that’s my theory, & I’m sticking to it!
Tongue in cheek, BTW (I think!).
Kurt said | October 15th 2009 @ 1:23am | Report comment
OK, with you now. Thought perhaps you were making an ironic reference to the fact that we can’t concentrate on anything for more than 3 minutes so why are we worried about ‘longer lasting sex’!
Outswinger said | October 14th 2009 @ 5:47am | Report comment
Nice article sheek. Your perceived view of sport can also relate to modern life. We have become victims of Corporate Marketing. We have become mass consumers and succumbed to our marketing over lords. These clever marketers have taken over everything from Clothes, Sport, food, technology, music, television. You just have to look at kids these days. They are told what they have to like regarding the above. They have no time to develop any form of self thought before they are swamped by these greedy marketers/Corporations. Don’t expect for anything to revert soon especially with sport as there is too much money involved now.
Luke W said | October 14th 2009 @ 7:02am | Report comment
Isn’t it a little ironic that the biggest sport in the world turns a one hour game into a three hour affair?
Luke W said | October 14th 2009 @ 7:03am | Report comment
Actually, now I think about it, the NFL is actually the epitomy of short attention spans. Two or three minutes of action followed by five minutes of breaks and advertisements!
Kurt said | October 15th 2009 @ 1:26am | Report comment
Yeah, that’s exactly what it’s like. I actually don’t mind American football but have fallen asleep during the only two attempts I have made to watch Monday Night Football. It starts at 8pm and by 11 it’s still not over and I can’t keep my eyes open!
Spiro Zavos said | October 14th 2009 @ 7:25am | Report comment
This interesting article by Sheek raises the intriquing issue on the use of ‘time’ in a society. Most of our major sports were invented in the 19the century when the working classes had to work on Saturdays. That meant, for winter football sports, that when they became mass sports like rugby and football they had to be played within the space of a couple of hours in a Saturday afternoon.
Before football and rugby were regulated by committees of old boys from the Public Schools in the 1860s the football games at the various schools used to go on for about as long as players wanted them to last. And even earlier during the centuries leading up to industrialism, the village football matches could last weeks.
Luckily, therefore, a sort of time limit was put on rugby and football over a period of time and these sports can be played, even at the highest level within 2 hours. Football, for reasons I don’t know about but suspect because the code was pushed by old boys of schools other than Rugby School which had long drawn out wall games and so on, has longer halves than rugby. At Rugby School there was a big field which allowed a more free-flowing and tiring game than at the other Public Schools. Even in the match in ‘Tom Brown’s School Days’ there is a time limit on each half, which seems to have carried through to the modern game of rugby.
You can see where I’m coming from in all of this. The summer game of cricket preceded the industrial revolution and in Test cricket has retained the essential timelessness of those earlier eras. For instance, why is there a 40 minute break after the first 2 hours of play and only a 20 minute break for afternoon team. Why not just two 10 minutes breaks, or no breaks at all?
This ‘problem’ of the languidness of Test cricket is being solved with the development of shorter and shorter forms of the game to take into account Sheek’s point about the shorter attention span we have these days.
Unfortunately the remedy looks likely to kill the patient, which is not the outcome we really want.
Firestarter Bob said | October 14th 2009 @ 7:28am | Report comment
7s rugby will to do to rugby XV what 20/20 has done to Test cricket. Rather than popularise the full version of cricket, it is rapidly killing it off. Why won’t the same happen with rugby XV?
Klestical said | October 14th 2009 @ 10:30am | Report comment
Im not too sure.the difference between 7s and xv is far greater than 20/20 and test cricket…
id like to think 7s ‘wets the pallete’
sheek said | October 14th 2009 @ 7:49am | Report comment
Spiro,
Even I can’t watch a full day’s cricket anymore. When I was younger, I lived for test matches, but not anymore. I think most sports are suffering from the “contempt of familiiarity”.
When you have wall to wall sport on offer, you become blase about it all, & you disconnect & reconnect as you please.
The marketeers answer is to give us more quantity via shortened forms while reducing the quality. I would have thought it wiser to maintain the quality through the de Beers diamond principle – “artificial scarcity”.
What we’re witnessing, I think, is a case of killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
Brett McKay said | October 14th 2009 @ 8:06am | Report comment
Sheek, great article as usual. A great insight and also a poor reflection on society today. I wonder how long before a golf major is played at a pitch & putt course and decided in a day?? How long before the Olympic Marathon becomes a fun run??
Bay35Pablo said | October 14th 2009 @ 11:29am | Report comment
Don’t laugh Brett, there is talk about changing golf so people can play a shorter game, as none of the youngies has the time to play a full round of 18. Golf clubs are scared their membership is dropping due to time poor people. The $3K joining fee and annual fees, the inability to get a decent start time, etc, may have more to do with it …
Brett McKay said | October 14th 2009 @ 11:46am | Report comment
Pablo, I wasn’t really laughing, I can assure you…
I’d love to be able to play more golf than I do, but a combination of still playing grade cricket and being a fair-weather golfer (I get myself into enough trouble without letting wind and rain affect my game!) means that if I play more than 3 or 4 times a year, I’m doing very well.
ON the subject of fees, I’ve noticed a lot more local clubs waiving joing fees, or offering 2 for 1 deals etc, so yeah, falling numbers is obviously a concern…
Grimmace said | October 14th 2009 @ 8:08am | Report comment
Bob,
I recon that Rugby 7′s won’t affect the XV man game in the T20 has test cricket. All forms of cricket are essentially the same thing. 11 players, batting, bowling and fielding. The fundamentals are similar, although the tactics and style fo play differ. Don’t get me wrong, I love cricket
7′s and 15 man rugby are two vastly different beasts. Although, similar to my cricket example above 7′s is still based on rucks, mauls, scrums, lineouts etc- they are all a watered down version. 7′s doesn’t have the combatative element that 15′s brings. 7′s doesn’t suit the ‘Game for all shapes and sizes’ ethos that 15′s embodies. Benn Robinson and James Horwill aren’t going to be playing at the Olympics.
The two will be able to coexist, going to a Rugby Test will remain what it is- a big occasion between the best from two countries. Going to a 7′s tournament will remain (in my view) similar go going to a cricket test- sport all day over consecutive days. They both bring something to the table
Firestarter Bob said | October 14th 2009 @ 8:23am | Report comment
I daresay cricket lovers would have mounted the same argument Grimmace. Swap Test cricket’s endurance for rugby XVs combativeness, and the argument oi the same. Time will tell. I suspect that Rugby 7s & Olympic medals might appeal to some athletes, but not to fans and tv in the way that 202/20 has.
therealalekid said | October 14th 2009 @ 10:19am | Report comment
“In cricket, the Test format is dying from boredom and lack of love. Leading all-rounders Andy Flintoff (England) and Jacob Oram (New Zealand) have retired from Test cricket, but intend to continue playing LOM & T20.”
Andrew Flintoff primarily retired because he was increasingly getting injured, his body could no longer take it. Also in England after the Ashes interest dropped off far too many meaningless matches. it is the Ashes that are still the big draw up here.
“In rugby, the Sevens version has been admitted into the Olympic games. With the broad dissatisfaction with 15 man rugby, especially in Australia, 7s rugby might become the new king.
Quite unexpectedly, it might also provide a ‘coming together’ point for both union and league, at the expense of both the 15 and 13 man games.”
This is primarily written from an Australian perspective and I’m getting a little tired of the view that your world is the whole world. Rugby Union hasn’t been more popular in Ireland after the grand slam win, rugby union in ?France is growing ever richer, even in developing countries like Russia and Georgia the game is growing well.
Then there is the cannard about sevens becoming the standard form, without any substantive evidence. in truth their is very little relation between 20/20 and Sevens. 20/20 is the short hand format of a game that is played over five days, sevens is a short hand version of a game that last 80.
a sevens match last 14 minutes, in a day their are usually multiple matches involving several teams. this is almost nigh impossible to professionalise, how are you going to pay nearly 100 rugby players of the back of one crowd. Even in the super rich premier league with all it’s TV deals it is the attendances that pay the wages. As further evidence the USA Rugby to go down this road by selling the professional format off to a businessman called Bob Latham, it didn’t go anywhere because it wasn’t viable.
What will happen to sevens is not so different from what we have now, the USA are going down the road of centrally contracting players who will go on IRB tournaments.
Working Class Rugger said | October 14th 2009 @ 11:42am | Report comment
Therealalekid
You make some very good points. But to be a little pedantic ( sorry I can’t help it) it’s Bob Tatham not Latham.
sheek said | October 14th 2009 @ 11:01am | Report comment
Therealalekid,
You’re right – this is written from an Australian perspective, for Australian audiences. Feel free to contribute on that score.
Flintoff is likely to get more injured in the helter-skelter of T20 & LOMs. We all know his retirement from test cricket was so he could cash in on T20, & preserve his body for that form of cricket. good luck to him!
Finally, I’m just expressing my opinion – why bother with facts? How 7s will effect 15s or 13s was purely a ‘speculator’.
Extra finally, I’m just having a bit of fun, in case you missed the tone! (Which I think you did).