3 Reasons to Become a Sports Fan Right Now

Sports is back.

Are you on the bandwagon? Enthusiastic about cheering from home? Or, unsure of what the fuss is all about?

Whether you’re a long-time fan looking forward to nightly games or a novice fan who’s just testing the waters of your sports fandom, there’s a benefit to being a sports fan. Actually, there are a number of benefits including connections and access that allow you to build relationships.

Sports fans talk to other sports fans regardless of job title, education or length of fandom. More than half of all Americans say they’re sports fans. If you put those two statements together you can position yourself to make sports small talk with more than 164 million people in the United States alone. Small talk is how relationships get started and it’s one way to stay on the radar and build relationships over time.  

So if you’re on the fence – or living with someone who’s not as excited about watching sports as you are - here are few things to think about.

3 Reasons to Become a Sports Fan Right Now 

1. “Did you see the game last night” is a great conversation starter. We all need to take a break from news headlines and conversations that circle back around to the pandemic and the "new normal." Sports is a relevant distraction that millions of people are eager to talk about. To make it even easier for you to talk to those sports-loving colleagues and friends, I publish a weekly blog filled with sports conversation starters. *Note: I know it’s possible to turn a sports conversation into one about the pandemic and other hot button issues, but you don’t have to go there and can keep the conversation strictly focused on game action.

2. You’ve got an easy entry point into fandom. In a normal year sports schedules overlap and there’s a never-ending barrage of highlights and headlines. This year every single sport was on hold at some point. That complete stop and four-month shutdown of baseball, basketball and hockey gives you an easy entry point to pick up the action. You haven’t missed anything and aren’t jumping in mid-stream. Even with basketball and hockey essentially starting with the playoffs, you don’t really need to know what happened before the shutdown because the teams look different (due to injuries) and the way they’ll approach an abbreviated schedule is different than the way a team would approach a full-length season. So now’s your chance to jump in at the beginning of the restart.

3. It only takes 5 minutes a day. You CAN watch hours of games and have sports running in the background 24/7 OR you can peruse sports heads, watch a few minutes of a game here and there and still be a sports fan who has a general knowledge of storylines and headlines. You don’t need to learn the rules of a game to become a sports fan. Fans don’t talk about the rules of a game. They talk about the headlines and it doesn’t take long to brush up on the headlines. Being a casual fan is still being a fan. (I've actually written a book about this.)

Sports is more than stats and scores. It’s also more than something to pass the time on TV. When used strategically sports can open doors, build relationships, improve communication and create community. Look for new Talk Sporty resources in the next couple weeks.