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Hey snobs, you’re killing Australian sport

14th March, 2017
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Cleveland Cavaliers former superstar LeBron James. (Source: Wiki Commons)
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14th March, 2017
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I was at the pub last week, meeting some friends to watch Australia take on baseball powerhouse Cuba in a critical World Baseball Classic group match.

“World Baseball Classic?” I hear you ask. It’s baseball’s world cup, currently being held in Japan, Korea, Mexico and the USA.

As you do, I started talking baseball with some people around me. They were incredibly knowledgeable about the game – they all had a Major League Baseball (MLB) team, watched that team’s games, and had their team’s caps and shirts at home.

I asked the barman to change the channel and there, playing to a worldwide audience on ESPN and mixing it with the world’s best, was Australia’s national team, 99 per cent of whom had either played in this season’s Australian Baseball League or were ABL alumni.

I asked the people I was with whether they followed an ABL team. A couple had a passing interest but hadn’t ever been to a game. Others said they couldn’t care less about it.

When I asked why, I got a range of responses from “It’s rubbish”, to “I just don’t care”, and “the players are no good”.

When the commentators started talking about the MLB clubs Aussie players were playing with or had played for, there was a lot of surprised swearing (well, we were at the pub). There’s an abundance of baseball talent in Australia and, believe it or not, it is in our very own league.

‘Sporting cultural cringe’ is a strange phenomenon, and it does not bode well for the future of Australian sports.

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Mike Tuckerman recently wrote on this site about football’s ‘Eurosnobs’ – people who talk down the A-League because they don’t think it’s as good as overseas leagues.

Wow, did Mike cop it! People piled on, showering the A-League with scorn. Sporting cultural cringe at its worst.

Of course the A-League doesn’t have the quality rosters of its overseas counterparts. Expecting any Australian sporting league to match or better its global equivalent is a fool’s errand – our leagues will never be able to compete financially, making it all but impossible to attract the world’s best.

The only Australian league even in the conversation as an elite league is the WNBL, this country’s longest-running professional women’s sports league.

The NBL recently finished season 2016-17. Crowds were okay, you could watch games on Foxtel, and all in all it’s a pretty good product that showcases a sport with one of Australia’s highest participation rates.

But right now, the league relies on one man’s money to exist, and he has to pay Foxtel’s production costs, which can run to around $40,000 per game. Gives a whole new meaning to ‘pay tv’, doesn’t it?

Believe it or not, Foxtel and the free-to-air networks aren’t in the business of knocking on a league CEO’s door with sacks of cash, asking for the season’s schedule.

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The NBL has been around since 1979 and across the years, more than 30 clubs (and the league itself) have gone broke or merged. Would things have been different if even half of the supposed basketball fans in Australia actually attended an NBL game or bought a membership?

You know them… the people getting around in Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry and LeBron James singlets. Walk through your local shopping mall and you’ll see dozens.

If they’re into basketball enough to buy a singlet for a team they have no connection to, why wouldn’t they get involved with the NBL?

There’s a ton of elite, world-class athletic quality in Australia’s sporting leagues. But without crowds, membership and the sponsors and media coverage that follows, there will soon be nothing.

We’ve seen leagues fall over and leagues on their knees. If there’s no local league, there’s no pathway to identify and nurture Australian talent into the NBA, MLB and EPL stars of the future.

So you’re a huge Chicago Cubs fan who was overjoyed when they won last year’s World Series? You’re a Golden State fan desperate for redemption after last year’s NBA finals flameout?

If you love a sport, buy all the merch, write on all the forums, and even go as far as to break the law to watch it, why wouldn’t you support the Australian version?

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It’s because you’re a sports snob… And you’re the worst thing for Australian sport.

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