Modified Sports - Shorter, Faster and More Exciting
There is a trend for some traditional sports to create a modified version of their game in order to attract new participants and audiences. It is a challenge to attract people who generally have less leisure time in the modern world, and have other things competing for this limited attention.
The changes that are made to the sports include reducing the game time, player numbers and field size, and modifying the rules to make the game faster with fewer breaks in play. All these changes are designed to make the games more entertaining, the spectators more engaged, and to reach a result in a shorter time. At the same time, the sports are looking to involve more people participating in the sports too.
Examples of Some Modified Sports
- Rugby Sevens — a variation of rugby union with fewer players and played over a shorter time-period.
- T20 Cricket — a fast-paced limited over cricket match played 20 overs per team.
- 3x3 Basketball — a variation of basketball played on a half-court with just three players on each team.
- Baseball5 — a five-on-five, five-inning street version of the game of baseball/softball that can be played anywhere
- Hockey Fives — a shorter and faster variant of field hockey played on a smaller field with fewer players.
- Sixes Lacrosse — a new smaller team faster-paced lacrosse format making the sport more accessible.
- Fast5 — a variation of netball, formerly known as Fastnet, with only 5 players per team.
Rugby 7s is a fast-paced shorter version of rugby unionSuccess Stories
Some modified sports have been very successful, and even becoming more popular than the traditional sport they derived from. T20 cricket is now the most popular form of cricket, and is being played at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Cricket would be looking to return to the Olympic program one day in this format. The five-day Test cricket format would never have a chance of that. The shorter faster and more exciting format of rugby union, Rugby 7s, earned a place on the Olympic program in 2016, and basketball 3x3 has also recently been added to the Olympic program.
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