The death of live sport
We all know many sports are struggling to attract decent crowds. Technology could be set to administer another body blow, with the sounds of the crowd and the cheering of complete strangers beside you brought into your living room.
Welcome to the world of virtual reality.
Sport New Zealand chief executive Peter Miskimmin believes it will be a game-changer.
“This is the disruptive technology keeping a lot of sporting administrators and rights holders awake at night,” he says. “It’s dramatically going to change the sporting landscape, and the experience you get through VR means you won’t even have to leave your home to watch the All Blacks.”
Former Australian netball skipper Liz Ellis, who’s moved into sports administration, believes VR will be the biggest challenge facing our traditional codes in the next decade.
“A lot of sports and even governments haven’t got their heads around it, in terms of what a difference that is going to make to people’s viewing of sport.”
You could be sitting in your home in Christchurch, I could be at mine in Auckland, and together we could be united in seats 54 and 55 in Eden Park’s North Stand watching a rugby test.
This kind of experience may not be far away. Pop on a pair of VR glasses, input your code — for a fee, of course — and suddenly the idea of leaving home in winter to queue for crappy food and beer in plastic cups at sports stadiums just got even less appealing.
Ian Taylor is our ground-breaking pioneer in sports animation. His company, Animation Research, made the America’s Cup watchable. He takes a different view on the VR debate and thinks it should be limited to stadiums only.
He believes sporting bodies, stadiums and technology companies should work together to give fans a live-sport experience they cannot get at home.
Kane Williamson brings up another test century — you pop on the glasses and the highlights of his innings flick into your eye line.
Or there’s a complete catalogue of his batting stats — the possibilities are endless.
For those in charge of filling stadiums, virtual reality could be a potential saviour in terms of enhancing the game-day experience — or it could kill it off. Watch this space. ● Was Irish flanker Sean O’Brien serious this week when he blamed poor management and overtraining on the Lions not winning their series in New Zealand? Is he
Sean O’Brien
kidding? The Lions could not have asked for more things to go their way. There’s always at least one player who has a good whinge after every Lions tour.
● Did anyone else feel uncomfortable watching Brisbane wing Corey Oates play on Friday Jimmy Spithill reminded us this week why we need characters in sport.
He’s never going to be on Team New Zealand’s Christmas card list or forgiven by elements of the Kiwi sporting public for the way he broke our hearts in 2013. But the way he’s handled defeat in Bermuda deserves recognition.
Sure, he’s a master at manipulating the message. This week, while launching his book here, there were some unsubtle barbs at Grant Dalton’s ability to move the America’s Cup forward and the potential of Team NZ to take it backwards with monohulls.
Having interviewed him twice this week, he wouldn’t look out of place in politics or selling houses. Not bad for a kid who was bullied at school and too shy to speak in front of people. night, just days after being knocked out and stretchered off?
● Why has it taken a month to formally recognise our world champion Black Ferns? Given the sports world has moved on, what if no bugger turns up next Thursday?