Sport

When Too Much Sport is Too Much

By Peter Lewis

Anyone noticed the explosion of major sporting events in recent times? Life for the sports lover is becoming a constant stream of world cups; historical showdowns and fixtures of millennial import.

The cricket World Cup flows into State of Origin flows into Wimbledon flows into the Rugby Union tri-nation series as a run-up to the World Cup. There are test matches in every sport from volleyball to hockey and the new made for TV forms of golf (skins) and swimming (short-course).

For the nationalist, there has never been more to be proud to be an Australian about. Even as business departs the nation-state for the freedom of the global economy, we loyal sports-lovers are being encouraged to keep our identities locked within our traditional borders.

No matter that the players swap sporting nationalities like undergarments, a South African captain playing number eight for the Blues, and Australian opening the English bowling attack, a young Serb making her mark for Fairfield. We cheer those elite athletes representing our nation with an irrational sense of pride and identification.

Of course, the key driver to this is pay TV. International sports contests provide a product which is cheap to produce and has all the drama of a soap opera. Speaking all languages, there are need for subtitles; and the advertising logos displayed down the sidelines, or painted into the turf, are the same the world over. Mass production of media consumables at its best.

A compliant free media, often controlled by the same companies controlling the sporting event, beating up these events into matters of national significance, the sporting package becomes perfect fodder for the cable networks, struggling to fill their 36 channels.

World Cups are particularly effective for the pay-TV programmers. It may be true that the Olympic Games was first to recognise the importance of focussing the whole world's attention on a single event, but any sport worth its professional status is now following the model.

By creating struggles for global supremacy, Australian audiences can sit riveted to a match between, say New Zealand and Zimbabwe, knowing the outcome will be vital to our own team's chances. So you can produce a nationalistic element in a contest, even when your nation isn't involved!

The problem is, there comes a point of sensory overload, where the pronouncements of national importance lose their meaning. Who really cares what happens to the Waratahs, when we're still cleaning up from the last ticker-tape parade.

By trying to fill every game with excess meaning, the controllers of sport are taking a huge risk. They risk taking the meaning away from the whole package of international sport. The value of a 1940's Ashes battle was that it was a once in three year event. The moments of exhilaration during the contest were partly a result of the anticipation of the lead-up period. The value of each event in an endless stream is inevitably going to be diminished, we only have so much sporting passion to spread. Spread it too thin, and the magic disappears altogether.

Interestingly, amongst all these events, its the club AFL that seems to have maintained the most passion. Perhaps this is because of all the sports played in Australia, this one is constrained by national borders. The club competition is the pinnacle, players routinely pull out of State of Origin and the end of year contests against the Irish are more vaudeville than real sporting events.

Of all the games, it is the AFL which has maintained the club grand final as its high-point of the season. Sure, it's expanded nationally in the last decade - but this success can be attributed to the attraction of an Australian sport. It's interesting that the popularity of AFL really started rising when Super League started tearing Rugby League apart. In its efforts to become an international game, League lost its suburban soul, many of whom switched to the Swans.

As fanaticism fatigue sets in; I'm happy watching the Sydney Swans and leaving the rest of the weekend to more personal pursuits. All strength to club sport, but no more internationals! If I hear another national anthem, I'll throw up.

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  Issue 21 contents

»	Aussies To Go For Gold in Foreign Uniforms?
»	Howard Warned: Time Ticking On Entitlements
»	Hotels Charge Triple Time - Now for the Workers
»	Air Attack - Qantas Telesales Under Fire
»	The Hills Are Alive - With the Sound of Pay Cuts
»	National Trust Places Green(back) Bans on Unions
»	Body Hire Campaign Hots Up
»	Attack of the Killer Skips Rocks City
»	A Holiday With a Social Consience
»	East Timor: Emergency Public Meeting Called

»	Guest Report
»	Sport
»	Trades Hall
»	Piers Watch

»	Conference to Heal Rifts in the Labour Movement
»	Fabians Scour Poll Ashes
»	Holiday Confusion

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