Most businesses have grown by expanding or modifying their product and offering variations to attract new customers. For example, Apple used to offer one phone, but expanding its line to include SE, Pro, and Max versions of essentially the same device has helped grow its customer base. Sports have evolved in much the same way by adding more variants.
Today, the 100-meter sprint is perhaps the most exciting event in the Summer Olympics. Few can forget the sight of Usain Bolt at the Beijing Olympics, cruising to the finish line with an untied shoelace and unbridled celebration and being labeled the fastest human on Earth.
But the 100-meter race wasn't always the most popular sprint. That honor used to belong to the "Stadion." The Stadion was a unit of length (approximately 200 meters) and the name of the building that hosted the race. This 200-meter race was the accepted sprint distance, and it was so well established that it gave the English language the word "stadium."
In 1896, centuries after runners raced the Stadion, the world witnessed the first 100-meter race, and sprinting has never been the same. Today, while the 200-meter race remains an exciting event, the world's fastest human is the one who wins the 100-meter dash. The 100-meter race has replaced the 200-meter distance as the sport's most popular event.
The fans who love the sport of running love it at all distances, from the 100-meter sprint to the 26-mile marathon. And while athletes in each race do the same thing, putting one foot in front of the other, each distance has a different strategy and requires different skills. Fans don't mock one race over another just because the finish line comes sooner; they appreciate and enjoy each distance.
LIV Golf, a new professional golf league, introduced a three-day version of the game, where all players are required to be on the course simultaneously. This three-day âshotgunâ start version is a significant change from the traditional four-day format that featured staggered starts, where some players play in the mornings and others in the afternoons. If history were a guide, one would have assumed that golf fans would have embraced the new format as fans of every other sport have. But the reverse happened. Fans disparaged the new, three-round golf format as not being "real golf," and the game became more divided. Factions were created, and the sport, which had always shown cracks, has now reached a breaking point.
Every sport has its variants. Swimming, cycling, or horse racing have different distances, skiing has its own variations, and a tennis match may have three or five sets, depending on the tournament. But every sport and every business has grown by offering multiple variations of its products to satisfy different customers' needs.
For over 100 years, cricket, the second most popular sport in the world, was exclusively a five-day eventâfans who followed high-level cricket committed five days to each match. In 1971, a shortened one-day version of cricket was introduced, and the sport changed forever. When the abbreviated format was initially announced, purists and sports writers believed that it took away from the legacy and traditions of the game and would fail. Not only did the new format survive, but it also thrived and allowed innovations in the sport, such as the introduction of the World Cup, one of the game's most eagerly anticipated events. The one-day format did not replace the five-day format; it was additive, and each format scheduled events around the other so fans could enjoy both. The new shortened format grew the game by injecting a more consumer-friendly and exciting variant into a sport that had resisted change for a long time. Fans loved it.
Cricket did not just stop there; as consumer preferences kept evolving, so did the sport. In 2003, the sport introduced a new three-hour variation of the game, called T20 cricket, which revolutionized the sport once again. The three-hour version of cricket made the game more exciting, fast-paced, and television-friendly, and allowed the game to keep up with the changing dynamics of sports viewing and consumption. It led to the creation of a new professional cricket league (IPL), which in turn brought in more viewers, new revenue streams, and the concept of team owners and guaranteed contracts, changing the sport forever.
Today, all three variants of the sport happily coexist, and the best cricket players in the world compete in all three formats. Fans watch the world's best players perform under different conditions and employ different strategies. These multiple formats have brought in more fans, engagement, and excitement for the sport, consequently growing the game. Today, even the baseball-obsessed United States has a major cricket league, bringing the sport to a new audience.
Golf and cricket have similar histories, but the present could not be more different. Both sports were initially played around the 16th century, with cricket originating in England and golf in neighboring Scotland. Both sports became global, with millions of fans playing each sport. However, over 2.5 billion people today follow cricket, compared to 450 million who follow golf.
Cricket has grown with the introduction of new game variations and with the best players continuing to compete against each other regardless of the format. On the other hand, golf has rejected new formats and has become factious and divisive, with the best players forced to choose sides and rarely seeing each other in competitions.
The natural lifecycle of business growth involves expanding their lines of offerings; they modify their core product to meet their customers' changing needs. Historically, sports have followed the same pattern, and every sport has grown by bringing new versions to fans. Some of them, like the 100-meter race, even became the new standard. Like every other sport, golf would do well to introduce and promote new formats and ideas to grow the game and attract more viewers. And golf fans need to embrace these new variants just like the fans of every other sport have. If they don't, the sport becomes stale and eventually declines. The game's future is not in the hands of the golfing organizations; it is in the hands of its fans.
