Every time I head for the Olympic Park I pass this sign.
A sign which reminds me that the 'Next event' is now over a month ago.
The 'next event' in question was West Ham versus Wolverhampton Wanderers, a home match cancelled on 13th March along with the rest of the UK's professional football fixtures. Other 'Next events' which have failed to take place include West Ham v Chelsea on April 5th and the British Swimming Championships at the Aquatics Centre over the Easter weekend. This Saturday's match against Burnley is a future casualty, along with West Ham's last two home games of the season, the Diving World Series Final, Pro League Hockey, a tranche of netball and basketball games, the Street League World Skateboarding Championships, several 10K runs, a Major League baseball match and the Anniversary Games. Sport has never been so cancelled.
Sport's usually one thing guaranteed to fill the time of a considerable proportion of the population, be that debating selection, predicting outcomes, watching play or pontificating about results. Sport ought to be a perfect lockdown filler, but its total cancellation leaves stadia empty, sports channels blank and millions with nothing to engage with. And even though broadcasters have cupboardfuls of old sporting footage they could be broadcasting to pass the time, it seems repeating past glories just doesn't work.
It turns out sport's appeal isn't talent, nor rivalry, nor drama, but unpredictability. Sport only works when you don't know what the result is going to be.
A replayed Cup Final fills the time, but a provincial derby really matters. Two weeks of Wimbledon is only worth sitting through once, first time round. A virtual Grand National, run by computer, feels irrevocably premeditated. If an old cricket match is Googleable, why endure the repeat? Nobody ever bets on a rerun.
Sport won't be coming back until it learns to cope with social distancing, at least for safeguarding the competing players. Adding a crowd may take considerably longer.
In the meantime sport finds itself unexpectedly meaningless, a national obsession with no hope to deliver and no faith to reward. A new 'next event' is sorely needed.
