Why do people watch sport?

Sport holds a large space within today’s world. No matter whether you are deep within the sport’s world, a mere spectator and sports enthusiast or have nothing to do with sport, it is hard not to have knowledge of sport around the world in some capacity.

From large multisport international competitions such as the Olympics – summer and winter – and the Commonwealth Games, to World Cups and Series, there are not many who do not know a thing or two about sports. Following the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Internation Olympic Committee announced a record of nearly 5 billion people engaged with the event, further proving how important sport is to society.

Many leagues hold thousands upon thousands of fans and viewers, with both local and international fans and viewers. It’s not uncommon for the larger sport leagues, such as the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBL) and the English Premier League (EPL) to have fans from all over the world, despite taking place in the United States (the NFL and NBL) and England (the EPL). Fans from all over the world will sport their favourite team’s merch and gear, some of which is easily available in stores across many different countries.

But with sport at such a height in today’s society, one can often wonder why people watch sport. Why do people spend hours every week over six months of the year watching games? Why do we see people getting into friendly arguments over their favourite teams’ rivalries?

There are many reasons people will tell you why they watch sport and follow their favourite teams across different leagues. These reasons can be split into two categories: community and entertainment.

Tradition

A lot of people will follow a sport or team because of their family. More often than not, you can find whole families supporting a certain team, without knowing the exact reason why they follow that club.

From a young age, supporters will be decked out in their team’s colours and will continue to wear those colours for the rest of their life. Generation after generation will follow the same team and follow the same traditions made years ago.

Even leagues and teams will have traditions that they follow year after year.

Here in Australia, a large tradition that many Australian Rules Football (AFL) supporters have, if watching the AFL Grand Final from home, involves a barbeque – with the classic snag – and a couples of beers over the afternoon. The AFL grand final is such a big event in Australia, and more certainly in Melbourne, that the Grand Final became a public holiday in Victoria, with parades through the city of Melbourne.

Another tradition that a whole community is involved in is the Winipeg Whiteout. During the Stanley Cup playoffs in the National Hockey League (NHL), many Winipeg Jets fans will wear white during home games, especially if in attendance.

In following traditions that your family or community holds – in following certain teams or completing different actions for major events within a league brings people even closer together while watching their sport of choice.

Sense of community/connection

Sport, at its centre, is about community and connection. Teams work together and look after one another, fans go for their teams and support not only that certain team but the league and the players surrounding their favourites.

Individuals are able to talk to others who love the same sports as them and build a rapport with people who they may not have talked to otherwise.

Child Fund Rugby discusses how “sport is one of the fabrics that connect people and their communities to create positive social change”. Within teams, players are to put aside differences to achieve the win, and fans will do the same to cheer for their team. They further display how connection can be built immediately by noting how NFL fans can bond within seconds over the same team.

Huff Sports also discussed the importance of sport for communities and connection. They found that watching sport can teach us values and skills that are needed across a variety of spaces in life. Sports promote teamwork and respect, which everyone needs, and being able to tach children these values and skills from a young age in grassroots sports is important.

International competitions such as the Olympics and Commonwealth Games brings together people from different countries and cultures, to connect over a sporting event.

Inclusion in sport is important; it gives everyone a chance to participate in a healthy social activity. The Australian Sports Commission states that inclusive sports promotes positive social and health outcomes for those who participate.

Both for those who play sports, and those who are simply fans, sport can bring people together and build a community between individuals who come from so many different paths and backgrounds.

Friendly rivalry

Linked in with the sense of connection and community, is the ability to have a friendly rivalry between clubs within leagues, and even countries at international competitions.

On an international level, there are many sporting rivalries between countries. Whether it be for events during the Olympics and Commonwealth games, or specifics sports and their international competitions.

If we look at sport specific rivalries, there are quite a few that come to mind.

For cricket, the Ashes has held an ongoing rivalry between England and Australia since 1877, yet one of the more intense cricket rivalries has been between India and Pakistan which has been present since 1957.

Under the International Rugby League, Australia’s Wallabies and New Zealand’s All Blacks have held an ongoing rivalry since the early 1900s, and is one of the most well-known rivalries within both countries.

Watching any international swimming event, often we see Australian and United States swimmers and relay teams going head-to-head in the water, hoping for gold. The rivalry between the two countries is so strong, that they both participated in competitions such as Duel in the Pool together.

In different sporting leagues we see the friendly rivalries too. In nearly every sporting league around the world, you will find fans that happily describe the teams that they love seeing their own team go up against.

Overall, friendly rivalries seen in sport keeps the games and competitions more interesting and can bring communities closer together during the season.

Having played the sport

According to the Australian Sports Commission in 2024, a quarter of children in Australia play sports, which is roughly 1.3 million children, and over 11 million Australian adults partake in sports related activities. For those who are raised playing sports, grow up with family members playing sport, or begin/continue to play sports in adulthood, individuals have a higher chance of wanting to watch their sport on a professional level.

In my household, swimming is a sport that my family grew up around, with family members reaching national levels. More often than not, during large national and international events (swimming trials, the Olympics, Worlds and Commonwealth Games) we have the TV on to watch Australians race. Now that we are older, the family has been able to see people who are competing in these international competitions grow up – there is a personal connection, not just a feeling of national pride.

For Canadians, ice hockey is a highly regarded sport, with many within Canada believing that ice hockey is connected with national pride. There are over 470,000 registered ice hockey players in Canada according to Statista – with Canadians making up 2.5 million of NHL viewers for the 2024/2025 season. As many Canadians grow up playing ice hockey, or at least learning how to ice skate, it is easy to see that they would want to watch the professional leagues, especially if they have a chance of knowing and growing up with some of the players.

However, there are a large number of individuals, both adults and children, across the world do not have access to sports or physical activity. In 2022, the World Health Organization wrote that they are trying to ensure that sport is accessible to all through working with different sporting organisations and industries.

Betting/drinking

Sporting events enables behaviour that people may not partake in during their day to day lives, such as betting and drinking. These risk-taking behaviours are common sights during sporting matches, from at the stadium to in bars and home watch parties.

Kindbridge Behavioural Health has looked further into why people bet. During 2020, a UK study found that betting not only “increases excitement”, but it “makes the game more intense” and “allows gamblers to use their betting skills”. Betting allows for a further connection to the excitement and unpredictability of sporting events. For a lot of individuals, being able to bet on teams and sports, allows for further engagement in the game.

And a 2017 Statistica study in the United States found eight main factors for why individuals bet on sport. The top three answers were:

1.    “It makes sport more interesting” (43%)

2.    “Side-game to the main event” (38%)

3.    “Good way to compete with friend and colleague” (34%)

If have a look at Australia, we see that 72.8% of Australian’s took part in gambling at least once in 2022. When split into categories, horse racing (38.1%) was the second highest category of betting, and sports betting (33.8%) was the third highest in Australia in 2022.

Overall, gambling can be seen as a way to bring people together and closer during sporting events and further build a community.

Sporting events can also be an excuse for individuals to have a few drinks. Sports bars and pubs are popular third places to watch games and matches, while having a beer or two and a meal. Yet, there is very rarely no alcohol available when you go to any live sporting event.

From watching any form of football, to ice hockey and rugby, every venue will have a bar available to purchase a small variety of drinks from.

Drinking culture around sports can be risky, with heavy drinking a common occurrence among sports fans if their team wins. It was found, in the UK during 2016, that males between the ages of 45 and 60 drink heavily when socialising during and after sporting events.

The Victorian insights on sports bar culture found that “consuming alcohol and watching live sports contributes towards strong bonding among friendship groups and even strangers in the sports bar setting.” The community that drinking around sports can build is strong, and can bring people together, when they may not have anything else in common.

Alcohol can be found at almost all sporting environments. Recently, I went to a grassroots football game (Aussie Rules), and there were alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks available, and a trailer filled with empty cans.

With alcohol around most, if not all sporting events, there is a higher level of marketing for these brands and drinks. A study in New Zealand/Aotearoa shows that children between 11 and 13 can see marketing for alcohol at least four times a day, with exposure rates higher in Māori children.

While drinking culture in sports across the world can build connections between people, heavy drinking and exposure to children can be damaging to society as a whole.

Unpredictability, excitement and entertainment

There is a sense of unpredictability that comes with watching sport. For the majority of games or events you will watch within your sport of choice, the unknowing of what the results to be makes watching the sport that bit more exciting. Will your team win the next game, or will they miss it by a goal? Who will come out on top for this event or season?

For a large number of sports, the playing field is fairly even. Within individual sports, such as athletics and swimming, while a competitor can come from a well-known club or have a great coach, a lot of their wins will come from their own efforts. Yet with age, and newcomers, one can never know how their event can playout.

Yet for team sports, players work together and if you have a group of the best players within the sport on the same team, that unpredictability goes away. This is where salary caps come in.

A salary cap prevents a single team spending lots of money on all the best players still in the game. It allows for an even playing field across the board for every team within the league, and keeps that unpredictability for fans and players alike.

Popular sporting leagues that partake in salary caps, all with different caps, are the NFL, NHL, NBA and AFL, which is where we find a history of different teams winning seasons, with minimal consecutive wins across the years. However, the EPL and Major League Baseball (MLB) do not have salary caps, which has led to a select few teams to continuously win. Though you will find that the MLB does have a luxury tax, where they pay tax on salaries exceeding the set league salary threshold.

But take away the knowledge of salary caps, there is still the excitement and suspense for not knowing exactly how a game or match may play out. Even the best athletes have their off days.

Discussion

Everyone has their reasons why they continue to watch sport, whether it be a wide range from the topics discussed above, or alternative reasons.

Next up, we look at how people get into sport and the media types that surround sport.