Forget The Big Two Take A Look At Minority Sports Reviews
By Dominic Donaldson
Sometimes, if you’re reading the sports reviews in the back pages of any of the national newspapers, you might find yourself thinking that the only sports that anyone’s interested in are football and cricket. From September through to May, the subject given the most coverage by all the red tops and many of the broad sheets as well is football; come to think of it from May to September there’s still the coverage just less actual sports reviews concerning games and results!
During the summer months the obsession with football eases off slightly and thoughts turn to cricket; with no less vigor and disregard for other sports that are just as worthy of news coverage. With the monopoly that these two sports have on the nations daily reading habits it’s hardly surprising that activities like swimming, basketball and hockey are sometimes referred to as ‘minority sports’.
The only time we get a break from this blanket coverage and don’t seem to be bombarded with the same regurgitated sports reviews is during the Olympics. The Olympic Games comes as welcome relief from the over hyped and overpaid footballers and cricketers who seem to have forgotten how privileged they are to be doing something for a living that many millions dream about but never achieve.
The Summer Olympics, and to a certain degree The Winter Olympics, offer a chance to see events and read sports reviews that focus more on the activity in hand than all the peripheral issues that seem to dominate the bigger sports like advertising, money and girlfriends. From this perspective they so called minority sports, it could be argued, are far more thrilling for spectators and so deserve more coverage and more sports reviews in the national papers. So what are the most thrilling and therefore deserving minority sports?
Skiing - In many European countries skiing completely eclipses the coverage given to any other sport. Switzerland, Austria, Italy and the Scandinavian countries all obsess about it and the sportsmen and women who represent those countries are treated like film stars. In the UK the sport only garners the odd paragraph once in a while; sports reviews about anything to do with skiing or winter sports usually involve a brief run through of the winner’s names and little else.
A good place to start looking for skiing coverage is on the internet. There are sites dedicated to following the skiing season and many show live or recorded footage of recent events. One of the biggest occasions each year in the skiing calendar is the downhill racing at Kitzbuhel in Austria. The course is known as the Hanenkamm and is one of the toughest on the circuit. The race scores more sports reviews in Europe than any football or cricket match ever could.
Baseball - Although traditionally an American game there are variations on it, and similar sports to it, played throughout the world; most notably cricket in the UK. But the similarities end with the bat and ball comparison as Baseball wipes the floor with cricket in terms of entertainment and excitement.
It’s becoming more popular outside the USA but the majority of sports reviews concerning the sport are still to be found in American newspapers, so again, for all the information you’ll need on the sport it’s worth going online. There are however a few late night programmes, and programmes on satellite and cable channels appearing, due to the growing interest in the sport.
The highlight of the baseball season is the World Series. This seven match play off between the two top teams in the US takes place every autumn and some of the country’s best writers submit sports reviews to newspapers and magazines while it is taking place.
Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the sport and leisure industry.
Find out more about Sports Reviews and world sports.
