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No professional sport is played in Australia on Christmas Day. For most people, the thinking is that Christmas Day is for spending with family, and competitions can wait for another time. But every now and then someone suggests sport should be played.
In the last week, Sydney Thunder CEO Nick Cummins suggested playing a game on Christmas Day. It may be a piece of lateral thinking by Cummins, to run the idea up the flagpole and see who salutes. Probably nothing will come of it.
A few years ago, Shane Heal, who at the time was Sydney Kings coach, wrote here on The Roar that the NBL should play on Christmas Day. Yet no games have been played on Christmas, and Heal is no longer the Kings coach.
On SEN radio in Melbourne, Cameron Mooney suggested the A-League should take the plunge and play Christmas Day. Mooney, a former Geelong AFL star, has no official connection to the world game, but could this be an idea from outside that people from the round ball code will run with?
Maybe it’s a natural progression. In these increasingly professionalised sporting times, live sport is played over more timeslots than ever before.
Many of us remember the days when footballers trained at night and played in the day. Now, as full-time professionals, game days are spread over entire weekends and even going into Thursday or Monday nights. TV networks pay big dollars for the rights to show games, want to show them live, and not have multiple games of the same code on at the same time to split the audience.
In cricket, the appeal of night cricket has long been known. And in an otherwise lacklustre international summer, the resounding success of the prime-time Test at the Adelaide Oval guarantees we’ll see plenty more of the pink ball in the future.
There was once a time when Sundays were off-limits for sport. The Sabbath was a time for religion, rest and nothing else.
The early days featured in Chariots of Fire, when British sprinter Eric Liddell refused to run on a Sunday. Another event was found for him to run in that didn’t involve Sunday play. These days they’d struggle to find another event.
In Australia, it took longer for Sunday to be accepted as a sporting day. Even into the 1960s, the likes of Test captain Brian Booth refused to play on the Sabbath, which, by the time of his last season at first-class level, had reduced him to one Sheffield Shield game. A cricketer who wouldn’t play on Sundays in this day and age would struggle to get a game at any level higher than third grade.
It took the AFL into the 1980s to get into Sunday play, while rugby league was well set into Sundays before that.
Good Friday was considered off-limits for a long time. But rugby league took the plunge in the early 1990s and was rewarded with strong crowds. These days the NRL, Super Rugby and the A-League all schedule matches on Good Friday. The AFL remains resistant.
In the USA, Christmas Day play is a given for the NBA. Blockbuster matches are scheduled, and the TV ratings are strong. Could there be a market in Australia?
Interestingly, way back in the past, first-class cricket was played on Christmas Day. A Test match in Adelaide in 1951 included play on Christmas Day, but this was never repeated.
From the 1920s into the 1950s, much more conservative Christian times than today, Sheffield Shield cricket was played. A record that still stands was created on Christmas Day in 1928, as Alan Kippax and Hal Hooker put on 307 runs for the last wicket for New South Wales against Victoria at the MCG.
A typical family Christmas in this day and age will start early. Santa Claus has been overnight, and the presents are unwrapped early. As the parents work over the hot oven, the kids are playing with their new toys, then there’s the over-indulgent lunch.
By late afternoon, it’s a lazy day. But ratings figures show that less TV is watched on Christmas Day than any other day. The TV networks know it, and most of the content is recycled rubbish.
I can’t see Christmas Day sport being a big crowd-puller. It’ll be hard for an individual to drag themselves away from the family, or to drag a family away from their new toys, to get to a game. Whoever hosts the game would take a hit with the crowd figure.
And that’s the danger for Sydney Thunder if they were to put their hand up to host it. And with only four home games in a Big Bash season, if one of them is on an unattendable day, membership becomes a hard sell. For the Big Bash, the most family-friendly of the summer sporting events, Christmas Day is a bigger risk.
There are some who would welcome the chance to attend live sport. People without kids. People from non-Christian backgrounds who don’t celebrate Christmas. Maybe there’s a market out there who would jump at the opportunity. Many thought Good Friday wouldn’t work, but it did.
But by the evening; when the toys are played out, the stomach is overloaded and weariness is setting in, the chance to watch some live sport on TV would be welcomed by many. A live game or two would likely be a ratings winner.
The TV networks would be willing to show matches. The ratings they currently get on Christmas Day aren’t great, and we all know that live sport is a winner. They pay big dollars for the rights, and their influence sees big games played in prime-time slots. They’d struggle to get the ratings for any events that started before tea time, but after dinner there’s potential.
I’d struggle to get to a game on Christmas Day. But I’d welcome the chance to watch one on TV. What say you Roarers?
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