Insights of a sports spectator

Soccer doesn't do it for me anymore. I've already experienced the greatest emotions (UEFA Champions League '95 and '99), and that can never be improved upon. (Ok... a World Cup victory this summer would be nice); That's why I don't follow Formula 1 or Indycar as religiously as before; the drivers at the top nowadays don't interest me in the least. I'm completely indifferent whether or not Kimi Raikonnen or Fernando Alonso win a Grand Prix or crash, and if Michael Schumacher retires or not.

For a sport to be successful, it needs to have the following:

1. strong emotional payoffs for players and the crowd
2. believable and appealing participants/characters
3. appreciation for history and story telling

Especially that first point, emotions are what makes watching sports worthwhile. The players and the story are just there to build the emotional gravity. It's what sells tickets, attracts viewers and raises the loudest crowds. If a sportscast doesn't grab your attention anymore and puts you into a rollercoaster of emotions, you stop watching. If a sport doesn't have anything more to offer than what you've already experienced, you stop going there.

Sports spectating can be quite emotional if you're totally into the sport, the players, the occasion. You can get shivers down your spine when your team or they athlete you're rooting for wins the World Title, the Superbowl, the World Series, the World Cup, the Olympics, beats a world record, or has a personal best performance. It doesn't even have to be about victories either... personal losses like Ayrton Senna's death in 1994 still spooks the bejesus out of me, as did Greg Moore's in 1999.

The American professional sports NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and the NHL, still have a lot of emotion and grandeur to offer that I've never experienced, there's some players and teams I still root for, and the media and the respective leagues have got the ability to turn an ontherwise meaningless match into a historic bout. You can partly attribute that to the Americans' obsession with statistics.

Purely based on the criteria stated I should call the WWE a successful sports league... and that isn't really true. Don't get me wrong, I find great value in watching, hearing, feeling 50.000 people get on their feet, when the underdog finally wins the big one; one of the old favorites makes his run-in, when a superstar's theme music starts; when he hits his finisher or does his signature poses... Yeah it's scripted, but the wrestling moves hurt just the same. But this scripted nature makes it more of a soap opera or a stage play masquerading as a sports event, despite the intentions of the hardcore fans and WWE itself to convince us otherwise.

I am a sports spectator because I will never be there on the field, in the ring or on the rink at any significant level. I don't have the physical talents, and I haven't invested time in training any one discipline. Still I want to experience part of the emotions and I don't really mind which sport (or sort-of) I get it from.

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