A Question of Sport
Words by Dylan Mangan
One of the few true consistencies of the past year has been sport offering itself up as a distraction from the Big Thing that’s happening. With athletes continuing to perform, helping the rest of us make it through the long, boring days, a common question that pops up surrounding sport during a pandemic is whether or not it should be going ahead at all? A fair question, with more than one answer. Sport is an escape for millions at the best of times, an out in a world designed to make us search for one. This explains part of sport’s success since the turn of the century and the explosion of the internet in catapulting itself to the dizzying cultural heights it occupies. Of course, sport has always been important in more ways than one, but it has benefited from an increase in access and publicity more than perhaps any other industry.
People have played sports for pretty much as long as any other recreational activity. The first Olympic Games took place in 776BC, and a game similar in spirit to modern football was played in China in the 2nd and 3rd century BC. The 20th century saw the rise of professional sports, as improvements in technology meant more exposure for different games. The FA Cup final in 1923 saw approx. 126,000 people squeeze into Wembley to catch a glimpse of the action. With modern health and safety guidelines in stadiums, crowds of such a size are almost impossible to imagine - especially now because of, well, you know - but the amount of eyes on a game at any given time is almost certainly larger due to TV and Internet audiences. The most watched events on television are almost all sporting events, with 5.7 million people tuning into the BBC to watch one of football’s first games back from the pandemic induced break.
This is all a good thing, right? The more eyes on a game, the more important it is. The more important a game is, the more eyes will be on it. It seems to be a mutually beneficial circle, one that rolls downhill growing as it goes. People rely on sport, and as the number of viewers rises, sport begins to rely on viewers. Sport is on a pedestal, held high by those watching and, most importantly, those spending their money to watch. This is not necessarily a problem but, like most of the world we’ve created for ourselves, it has become a huge one in a pandemic. Television deals worth billions suddenly look if not insane, then misguided, and a lack of fans in stadiums has resulted in various sports across the world facing worse money problems than ever before.
The pressure to continue playing in light of these problems is massive. Stopping is not really an option when so much money is on the table, and so we stumble on, as professional sports across the world find a way to continue. And it’s largely been a success. The NBA Bubble and the Premier League’s Project Restart are two of the best examples of sports insulating themselves from Covid-19 and proceeding without spreading the virus. When it works, it works well, but the potential for derailment is always there, as both the Australian Open and the Six Nations have flirted with outbreaks in recent weeks.
Elite sport has the money and the will to continue, but do those of us who consume it emulate? It has become increasingly expensive to follow a single sport in the past decade, let alone multiple ones. It is hard to imagine a scenario where - having been financially hit by the pandemic - things become cheaper. Trusting those in charge of various organisations across the world not to hike ticket prices once fans can return would be naive beyond belief. In the rare situations where fans are allowed (excluding Zero Covid countries) they only serve as a reminder of the world outside.
As we approach year two of the pandemic, it’s hard to tell if public appetite for sports is growing or waning, only that sports’ appetite for the public is bigger than ever. It seems to depend a lot on the country you’re in and their general approach to tackling Covid-19 - Super Bowl LV went ahead with close to 60,000 people attending, a stark contrast to the reaction in Victoria as Novax Djokovic and co. arrived for the Australian Open.
Victoria is standing firm on hotel quarantine for tennis stars, after world No.1 Novak Djokovic issued a list of demands, calling for less time in isolation, and private housing. @NickMcCallum7 #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/lGbKhMBoYV
— 7NEWS Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) January 18, 2021
The great sports broadcaster Michael Parkinson once said that sport “is not war, or death, or famine – it’s not that at all. It’s the opposite of that. It’s to persuade us of a life outside of that… that’s why sport’s important.” And I agree. Sport has a wonderful ability to provide hope and a platform for change. Now more than ever sport is needed to persuade us of that life and to provide that platform, but if it’s not careful could start convincing us otherwise.
I might just go watch a film until this all ends.
