It is a peculiarly Melbourne spirit. Channel Seven floundered for years on Sunday mornings after scrapping World of Sport, and began to recover only when it put Rex Hunt to air fronting a program of calculated maladroitness that looks very much like World of Sport reincarnated. Channel Nine had already demonstrated in the wildly popular Footy Show that Melburnians generally are suspicious of slick and chic. They like their sport to be real and earthy. The sublimation of sport into the business and entertainment worlds sits uncomfortably with many Melburnians.
Sport here is a more profound matter, closer to art than business or entertainment.
It is important that Melbourne cherishes and builds upon its sporting spirit without exploiting and destroying it. Even if we could have the Hopman Cup, as recently mooted, we don't need it. Moreover, not every event secured by the Major Events Corporation is definitively a major event. To win the Commonwealth Games, an antiquated meeting anyway, we beat a field of one. Melbourne ought to be wary of rushing change thoughtlessly.