Watching Sport in a Different Time Zone

As a fan of sport throughout the world, I have travelled to a lot of different locations to watch some top quality live action. The problem is, you cant get to all of the events you want to. With so many sporting events happening worldwide, time and financial restraints mean that you have to settle for watching some on TV.

This can be the cause of a lot of sleepless nights, however, as events can happen at any time of night or day and as a result can throw your regular pattern into chaos.

This past week I subjected myself to some late nights while watching the business end of the 2010 Australian Open culminating in the mens final which saw Roger Federer take Andy Murray in straight sets. As the Australian Open is in Melbourne - my home town - it’s an event I go to every year, so it felt kind of weird having to stay up to all hours to watch it.

As an Australian, I’m used to having to watch some of my favourite sport at odd times. With so much top level sport happening in Europe or North America, its common for Australians to have to stay up late and night, or get up early in the morning to watch their favourite team play.

My earliest memory of this was getting up ridiculously early in the morning to watch the Australian cricket team play in matches throughout the Caribbean against the West Indies. As a youngster, it would always make me tired and grumpy for the rest of the day, but it was worth it to see some quality action.

With the Six Nations Rugby set to kick off in Europe on the weekend, expect to see some of the many Irish pubs in the world open past their usual times so that ex-pats throughout the world can watch Ireland, England, France, Scotland, Wales and Italy battle it out in Rugby’s best annual event.

I’ve found that sports fans in the US and Canada are less used to inflicting this sort of punishment on themselves. Not because they are less dedicated fans, but largely because the major sports here – Football, Baseball, Basketball and Hockey – are all sports where the best leagues in the world are based in North America, so there’s simply no reason to.

And even when there is a sporting event of interest to North Americans outside of prime, the money here seems to be able to change that. Many people will remember the controversy of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where a US broadcaster paid to have the swimming finals in the morning sessions rather than the evening, so that Michael Phelps’ record breaking eight gold medals could be shown during prime time in the US.

Lack of sleep isn’t the only issue when watching sport in a different time zone, however. Quite often the sporting event you want to watch is on while you’re supposed to be at work. While DVD and hard drive recorders these days means you wont miss any action when you get home, trying to avoid knowing the result can be torture.

This becomes an issue every year when its time for the Super Bowl, as it is this week. While in the US, the Super Bowl is on a Sunday evening, in Australia it is on a Monday morning. Though American football is not terribly popular in Australia, the Super Bowl always gets plenty of coverage, and it’s the one time of the year most Australians take notice of the sport many have dubbed “throw ball”.

Last year – in what turned out to be one of the most exciting Super Bowl games ever – I had a very hard time trying to not find out the result. All of the TVs in the bristro upstairs had the game on, while others were following the game online. It became like an episode of How I Met Your Mother as I ran out of the room any time anyone would start to talk about it and walked around with my head down any time I was in the same room as a television. Luckily for me, I managed to avoid the result, was treated to a great game.

This year I’m looking forward to watching the game live from a bar in Whistler Village where I’ll be based for the next few weeks during the Winter Olympics – another event I normally have to watch at all hours of the morning.

For the record, I’m hoping to see a win for the New Orleans Saints, as I think they’re city needs this after everything they’ve been through in the last five years.

On the whole though, I’m just looking forward to a good game – and one I can enjoy as it happens.

What is better than Sport and Travelling?

I Love Sport.

No kidding, I'm a guy. Not exactly a big revelation.

No I mean I REALLY love sport. Any sport really. It's got everything, heroes, villains, comedy, tragedy. Australian Rules Football was my first sports love, Basketball perhaps my biggest.

I'm also a massive travel junkie. Since I got my passport 5 years ago, all I've wanted to do is get out and see the world.

These two things would seem at odds with each other - how do you follow your footy team back home when you're away for two years at a time? They don't have to be though.

I've discovered in my travels, that, while I still love the sports, leagues and teams I grew up with, I become addicted to the local sports and teams when I get somewhere else. It has all of the same elements. While the game itself may be different, all of the good stuff is still there. The passion for your club, the historical (and often arbitrary) arch rivals, and people coming together for a shared goal.

The perfect example of how much of a travelling sports junkie I really am - and the inspiration to start blogging - came on the weekend just past, when I was in Calgary during the Canadian Football League's Grey Cup. I'd never heard of the Grey Cup - the CFL's version of the Super Bowl - until a week ago, while in Saskatoon, Canada, with some local friends watching their team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, win their way into the cup against the Montreal Alouettes.

When I arrived in Calgary, the host city, it was filled with football fans from all over Canada who were there to celebrate their game and enjoy the Grey Cup Festival. Even fans of the teams who didn't make the final were there proudly wearing their teams colours. This was a celebration of the sport and the game as much as it was about who was going to be the eventual champion.

I found myself well and truly caught up in the atmosphere, and while I still didn't know a thing about Canadian Football, I adopted a team - the Roughriders - and joined in the festivities.

The game itself was no let down. Montreal were the favourites, while Saskatchewan were easily the crowd favourite, with a sea of green in the stands. While the 'Riders got out to a good lead at half time, Montreal fought back and won in a fashion befitting a Hollywood movie. Damon Duvall, the Kicker/Punter for Montreal had a very dirty match, shanking a pair of punts in the third quarter to gift the 'Riders a score. He would have his chance at redemption however, lining up for goal with 2 seconds on the clock. He missed it. More pain. And yet another chance. The Roughriders had too many men on the field, so he would now line up from 10 yards closer, and this time there would be no mistake. He was now a hero. Where else can you get drama like that other than the sports field?

Throughout the game I cheered, booed, celebrated, rode every pass, every kick and ultimately was bitterly disappointed that the Roughriders lost, despite being a fan of the game for exactly one week. I couldn't have been more into it had it been my beloved St Kilda Saints losing a winnable AFL Grand Final. Oh, lets not talk about that.

I've been lucky enough to witness some amazing things happen in sport, in stadiums (and bars) all over the world. But I'm just getting started. Over the next two years I'm going to be living in Canada and trying to get to as many sporting contests as possible in North America (and hopefully Europe) with a big one first as the 2010 Winter Olympics comes to my new home, Vancouver in a little over two months.

On this blog I plan on talking about all things to do with sports throughout the world. The similarities, the differences, what makes each sport so important to each region and what lessons my favourite sports in Australia could take from all of this.

Most of all I'm gonna have some fun. After all, what could possibly be better then travelling and watching the top sports in the world?