We’ve all heard about the broadcast dollars that will be lost if sporting codes don’t go ahead in 2020, but there’s a longer-term issue worrying governing bodies behind closed doors: making sure people don’t realise they can live without sport.
Australia’s biggest winter codes, the AFL and the NRL, would likely never publicly declare this given it would open people’s eyes to it, but the coronavirus pause threatens to deplete their audiences.
The mainstream sporting cycle is engrained in Australians. We’re a sporting country after all.
Simply put, cricket dominates summer while football and basketball tick along like a neglected middle child periodically receiving attention. Tennis gets the spotlight in January, AFL, AFLW, netball, league and union (mainly NRL) take absolute charge for six to eight months across autumn and winter, then horse racing gallops through October and early November and we do it all over again and again and again.
(Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
But 2020 has completely thrown that out. Like an addiction we never knew we had, we’ve been forced to go cold turkey. As entertaining as replays from yesteryear can be, it’s not quite the same.
Over the past few decades Australian sport has expanded to dominate our weekends. Just look at the AFL and NRL broadcast schedule, with staggered games throughout Saturday and Sunday and the codes’ creeping into Thursday and Monday nights. It’s very different to the old simultaneous 3pm Saturday kick-off.
With no sport on, suddenly the weekend looks drastically different. There are fewer commitments. COVID-19 life has offered other hobbies to pursue, like cooking, more family time, DIY, puzzles, Netflix, podcasts, hiking, the outdoors and the list goes on and on.
This won’t be the case for everybody, but for a small percentage of every sport’s audience going cold turkey on attending matches or watching sport on TV will feel liberating. These newfound hobbies may endure in people’s lives long term over sport.
Plus not having your Sunday night emotional state dictated by the result of your team is quite emancipating!
(Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
You might say who cares about a small percentage, but if you consider 89.11 million people watched AFL matches on TV in 2019, losing three per cent, for example, equates to roughly 2.67 million fans. That’s not pocket change for a sport constantly trying to grow its audience.
For what it’s worth, I absolutely cannot wait to watch my team again, but I’ve also realised I’ve enjoyed not stressing on a Sunday afternoon about that player in my AFL Fantasy team who keeps on underdelivering. I’ve enjoyed not finding myself channel-surfing between games neutral to me on a Saturday afternoon or opening up my iPhone every 15 minutes while out with the family to get an updated score from that game where I picked a roughie in the work tipping comp.
Those little habits I’ve formed related to the weekend’s sport suddenly have been exposed and I’ve realised I don’t actually need them. I don’t profess to speak for everyone but I reckon I’m not alone.
They say after a break-up there are typically several grieving phases we go through, including denial, relapse and acceptance.
It’s been almost two months since the AFL and NRL both broke up their respective 2020 seasons. Both competitions have now set dates for resumptions. But I wonder in the meantime how many supporters have gone through these break-up phases and begun to find acceptance in life without sport.
You may rebut and believe absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it’s true the majority of fans will be craving sport’s return, but I’d argue it won’t be everyone.
Privately with a long-term view all sporting codes will be assessing the damage done after this coronavirus episode and how much people have realised they can actually live without sport.
Admiral Ackbar
Guest
I abhor this shutdown. All my friends are fellow Perth Glory supporters. Not being able to see my team has disconnected me from my people.
matth
Roar Guru
Dammit! Sweet Georgia Brown is going to be stuck in my head all day now!
JGK
Roar Guru
Fair point. I guess they do have an ability to front up each week - a bit like the Washington Generals.
Brian
Guest
This trend was happening pre covid. When I was a kid we had 5 channels, my kids have 1000s of shows to stream and they're not overly interested in watching sport. I briefly tried to get them to watch the footy with me only to get question after question on betting odds from my 7 year old. I decided that whilst I was a sports watching addict for life there is no net benefit in doing same for them. Sent them back to Roblox.
jamesb
Roar Guru
"COVID-19 life has offered other hobbies to pursue, like cooking, more family time, DIY, puzzles, Netflix, podcasts, hiking, the outdoors and the list goes on and on." You can still do all of those hobbies when live sport returns. You don't have to make a choice of pursuing hobbies or watching live sport. You can do both. Maybe what Covid has taught everyone is to have a balanced life.
matth
Roar Guru
Come on the Dragons never quite drown. They keep their heads up just enough to be able to come back and do it all again next week. You shouldn’t worry, there’s only two seasons of meaningless games left before they let Flanno take the reins.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
I'm going to agree with you Ben. We've been conditioned into a certain way of living, a weekly cycle that we've been caught up in. The AFL tells us it's an industry and they've shoe-horned us into their cycle of games, events, and post season draft BS. As if life doesn't exist without this hoo-ha. But families have suddenly experienced the pleasure of morning and evenings strolls together without having to rush off to the next pre-programmed 'event' in their weekly schedule. We're working from home (the lucky ones) and the business keeps ticking over. They'll be more working from home. Things will change. The sports 'industry' will change.
JGK
Roar Guru
It won’t take long for people to get interested again once it all starts back up. While I have, over the last two months, quite enjoyed my Dragons not drowning in an ocean of ineptitude each week, I am missing just watching NRL, particularly back to back to back games on a Saturday.
Ben Somerford
Roar Guru
Hah that feels very similar to the question I'm posing ?
Monorchid
Roar Rookie
This is an interesting article Ben. But I wonder if the real question is whether the current fan base can live without sport. I've never seen the results of any research. But my observation as an old bloke is that younger people are not being drawn to support sport, particularly after leaving school, the way they were in the past. You obliquely refer to this where you say that COVID has required people to pursue hobbies other than sport, even if only temporarily. So it's possible. It may be that younger people in significant numbers are being progressively attracted to pursuits other than sport.
Simon
Guest
I do miss sport, dearly. It gave me a sense of time and place and relevance that’s missing without it. What I do hope comes from this though, is the realisation that australian sport needs to be so much more community orientated. I don’t miss watching the bulldogs play in an empty Olympic Stadium, I do miss marking down the dates the tigers are playing at leichhardt. I don’t miss seeing international cricket tickets go for $250 despite the stadium being a quarter full. We’ve let money dictate every decision made in the last 30 years of sporting boardrooms and in my opinion it’s been to the detriment of all sports.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
I’m bored of the shutdown. I want to write race reports again. I want to podcast about what happened at the weekend. I want to feel the adrenaline of a live sporting event again. I want my stress-buster back. While it wasn’t too bad at the beginning of the shutdown, in those first few weeks, when it felt liberating (like you say) to not have any sporting commitments, I’ve discovered that sport is my life. I am empty without it. And now there’s dates for the re-start, I’m excited to see it back underway. I did have reservations about safety but I am growing more confident by the day that it’s alright to start playing professional sport again. It will be the mental health boost the world needs.