Voice of Real Australia: The endless disappointment of sports fandom

Why do we watch sports when we know, statistically, the overwhelmingly likely result of investing time into them is disappointment?

Sport is one of my life's great loves and something I invest a great deal of time and emotion into - but fandom is an endless let down.

Look at the current FIFA World Cup as a prime example, which in its 92-year history has only been won by eight different countries.

In each yearly competition across the world, only one team and one set of fans lift a competition trophy that symbolises a (fleeting) victory.

And while jumping on the bandwagon (supporting teams while they are winning) is a common phenomena, most of us inherit our fandom or choose it at random and keep it forever.

After driving down to Melbourne in late September to watch my beloved Sydney Swans lose to the Geelong Cats in the 2022 AFL Grand Final by a gut-wrenching 81 points, I was left utterly dejected.

I felt physically exhausted by a long season, emotionally worn-out by a gruelling finals campaign and generally despondent after a display unreflective of our talent - without having played a single minute of the season.

In some sports, fans wait decades to see their team rise above mediocrity and lift a trophy and in others, like soccer competitions without salary caps, it will likely never happen.

Leicester City's 5000-1 English Premier League victory in 2015/16 remains one of the most unlikely sports stories in history and probably won't happen again in several lifetimes.

Spending money on soon to be out-of-date merchandise, buying tickets to sit in the wind and rain, and paying for criminally overpriced mid-strength stadium beers all sound objectively silly.

Especially when you factor in the repeated scarring of attaching oneself to flawed athletes and even more flawed, profit-focused organisations.

Without getting into the true societal problems surrounding professional sports, these reasons should be enough to turn anyone off the efforts of barracking for a team.

And yet, I've renewed my Swans membership for 2023 and by April I'll be ready to be hurt again in some twisted, Groundhog Day-style story of emotional impunity.

Because the 2005 AFL grand final, Ash Barty's 2021 Wimbledon victory and the John Aloisi penalty that sent the Socceroos into the 2006 World Cup are key moments of joy I'll never forget.

And because next year is our year, right?

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