Casual sports fans, how do you do it?

Roar Guru

2nd February, 2017

1361 Reads

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Where's Coutinho going? (Dave Howarth/PA via AP)

Nemesis

Roar Guru

2nd February, 2017

119

1361 Reads

Australia is filled with casual sports fans. People who enjoy flicking on the TV to watch sport, where any sport can tickle their fancy.

They may love their AFL or cricket but, by golly, they’re also willing to watch rugby league, rugby, tennis, American football, horse racing, netball, basketball, field hockey.

You name it, they’ll watch it – except for those out there who take a strange dislike to football.

But, that’s a topic for another day.

Now I consider myself to be a reasonably avid football fan. I’ll wake up at any hour of the night to watch a fixture. These oddly timed kick-offs are a godsend because there are never any conflicting commitments that may jeopardise my viewing.

However, during normal hours on the weekend, it’s not always easy to watch sport.

Weekends are complicated for any adult whether you’re single, or not single.

If you’re an adult, who is single and reasonably socially competent, you should have something to do on Friday and Saturday nights every week-end. It could be drinks at a bar with work colleagues, dinner with a special someone, or maybe you just swiped right on Tinder and your evening is occupied.

If you’re an adult, who is not single, your Fridays and Saturdays will be even busier since you have multiple commitments to juggle – not just your own commitments.

So, this got me thinking about how much sport a normal, socially competent adult can watch.

How does a person, who claims to be watching multiple sports, physically get the time to do it?

If a person claims to watch: AFL, NRL, rugby, cricket (BBL, Tests, ODI), EPL, Serie A, La Liga, netball, women’s AFL, tennis and golf, then can we believe them? Where do they get the time for all this viewing?

Recently a discussion on this website involved the Chinese Super League (CSL). There were big statements made about (poor) quality of football and (low) standard of players in this league.

I was intrigued.

Are these people making derogatory comments really watching a lot of CSL? Are they really sitting home on weekends glued to their laptop watching low-quality, pirate streams that constantly buffer and the commentary is in Mandarin?

Even if I wanted to be a casual sports fan, it’s impossible – there simply isn’t the time to satisfy my want.

So, I put out an invitation to the casual sports fans on this website. Please help me understand.

What does your sports viewing diary look like and do you ever yearn for a social life that moves beyond watching sport on your couch every week end?

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