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Canberra Today 24°/28° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Give peace a chance!

TIM GAVEL says the focus should be on the game, not the noisy pre-match entertainment

WHY, at this time of the year, does sport almost always become ambushed by show business?

There is an exception to this, but I’ll get to that later.

In Australian sport there is a misconception that people going along to watch sport need to be entertained by more than the sport itself.
We had the debacle of Meatloaf at the AFL Grand Final, where the pain of the performance was etched on the faces of those watching – and the artist himself.

Kelly Clarkson.
The NRL fared better with Kelly Clarkson and Eskimo Joe.

But is it really necessary?

It has got to the stage where some people actually remember sporting events more for the botched pre-match entertainment than the sport itself.

Entertainment at sporting events has been around for a while. In the 1980s and early 1990s Canberra’s male basketball team, the Cannons, had a band playing during games. There was also a large cannon firing balls into the crowd with the court announcer continuously yelling: “defence, defence, defence”.

At Canberra Stadium we have had people trying to catch high balls with milk crates. We now have mascot races and the like.

Then there is the eardrum-piercing music as the teams come on to the field followed by the ground announcers telling us when to cheer for our own team.

Surely, the time has come to say enough is enough. We have come to watch a sporting event not to get a headache.

If it is necessary to have pre-match entertainment why not some feel-good music? The sound of 60,000 people at Eden Park in Auckland singing along to a Van Morrison song piped through the speakers at the stadium before the Australia-Ireland World Cup game will live in my memory for a long time.

A positive I have observed at the World Cup is the absence of the pre-match entertainment.

There are no live stage performances; there is not a mascot relay in sight; and there are no ground announcers telling you when to cheer.

Instead, there is a bit of music, usually including songs that are familiar, followed by the two teams coming out and singing the national anthem. Then a game of rugby follows. The focus is on the game and not on the pre-match entertainment. It’s a massive change from what we have had to experience.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Tim Gavel

Tim Gavel

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