Twenty20 cricket has been the undisputed leader of short format sports for more than a decade.
Cricket has a long history of reducing matches to suit the market.
Once upon a time there were timeless Tests which then were reduced to a maximum of five days and then along came One Day cricket, super eights and variations of different ‘over’ formats.
Twenty20 struck a chord and other sports have tried to cash in on that success.
But, as we discovered on Episode 3 of the Roar podcast, cricket isn’t the only sport to have deep origins in shortening itself.
The original rules of rugby stated matches would be drawn after five days!
Rugby Sevens is also booming with the Olympics helping to cement the sport as its own product outside the 15s game.
In this episode we speak with Sevens High Performance Manager and former Wallaby, Scott Bowen about the success of the Sevens and how it complements traditional rugby.
We’ll also look at the horror stories of sport changing for the sake of it and whether the market is big enough in the Australian context for all these short-form sports.
If you have any feedback about the podcast, flick us a line via our contact form (and if you really like it, chuck us a five-star rating on iTunes).
Of course, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic, so get the debate rolling in the comment section below!
Be sure to keep an eye out next Thursday for Episode 4 of The Roar Podcast when we’ll be looking at women’s sport.
NaBUru38
Guest
I have attended the Punta del Este Sevens several times. I can't remember if they sell beer at all. Anyway, it's a family-friendly event. Attendances aren't much to brag about, however.
catcat
Roar Rookie
The Rugby 7s might be short in time, but the tournament takes days. I went to the Sydney one this year. Personally it was a bit too boozy for me. Australia wasn't in the finals so not everyone watched and a lot of people were pretty smashed by by then. Reminded me of the cricket one dayers ...people get pretty messy after drinking all day
mds1970
Roar Guru
With cricket, the long form of the sport is so long that the short form is a similar length to other sports' long forms. I love Test cricket and can happily watch it for days. But it's a massive time commitment - too long for many people. In contrast, you can watch an entire T20 game from start to finish in a similar length of time as an AFL game. And that time - 2-3 hours - is probably the optimal length for a sporting game. Other sports' short forms are reducing that further.