Not everybody is a sports fan. But, there are still ways to talk about sports to get discussions started about other things. Talking about games is a great way to connect with people, and even if you don’t play them or follow them, there are still ways that you can connect with the people who do.
You can talk about things like the fastest growing sport, or charitable contributions by athletes, or the price of sporting event tickets, or even what the next big event is going to be (like a championship game or marquee competition). Using this frame of thinking, non-sports people and sports people can still share some common ground.
Fastest Growing Sport
If you ever want to start a conversation with a sports person, one of the easiest ways to tweak their interest is by talking about what the fastest growing sport is. And the answer right now might surprise you. It’s actually rugby. Because football is on the decline, people who still want that aggressive style of a sport are turning to rugby, and rugby is actually much safer. Because you don’t use pads, everyone plays under much more control, all the way from beginner through advanced levels.
Charitable Contributions By Athletes
Another thing to talk about when it comes to the sports world is what kind of charitable contributions athletes make. Baseball players set up charities all the time. NFL players give their money to their former high schools. Soccer players support community events. It’s a very interesting cultural thing that people who make a lot of money in the athletic world tends to put that money back into social programs that they feel they should support. Sometimes it’s because they came from those social programs, other times it’s because they feel compelled to buy some external circumstance.
The Price of Sporting Event Tickets
Everyone loves talking about how much sporting events tickets cost. The numbers are astronomical on the surface. And this isn’t even necessarily when it comes to big events. Even small events cost a lot for a person or a family to go to. You have to factor in the ticket cost, driving, parking, food, and all of those other tangential experiences. Conversations are very free-flowing when you start talking about that kind of dynamic.
The Next Big Event
And there’s always room to talk about the next big event. It might be the World Series. Or the NBA championship. Or the World Cup. Even if you don’t follow sports, you should at least keep a finger on the pulse of the sports world when it comes to the huge events that everyone will be talking about. You don’t have to have a lot of knowledge to be excited about the best athletes in the world coming together to compete against each other.