Sport-No standing still as innovation and change beckon in new sporting year

LONDON : As a jam-packed sporting year featuring a much-praised Olympic Games and four continental soccer tournaments rolls to a close it is tempting to expect that 2025 will be a more sedate one.

But that is not the nature of a sports industry continually evolving to sate the thirst of a demanding public that seemingly can never get enough of their chosen product.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that tradition and maintaining the status quo no longer cuts it in a competitive world intent on wringing every dollar out of sporting endeavour.

Novel ways of delivering sport to a high-tech generation are now paramount and the Christmas decorations will hardly have come down before golf, arguably the most conservative of all sports, welcomes the aptly-named Tomorrow's Golf League (TGL) which kicks off in Palm Beach in January.

Created by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, the new made-for-TV indoor team format featuring state-of-the-art golf simulators and shot clocks resembles a cross between an arcade game and crazy golf. However, the world's best are on board for a venture designed to hook a generation of fans who no longer have the time or patience to watch five-hour rounds.

"The most interesting and fun aspect about TGL is the fact that it is an arena and you get to see us up close and personal," American Wyndham Clark said. "We're mic'd up, you'll see our personalities. It's almost a totally different sport."

Golf ended the year with a contrived Showdown between PGA Tour players and those of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit in Las Vegas. Looking ahead, in September, American Ryder Cup players will, for the first time, be paid to take on Europe when the bi-annual clash takes place in New York.

BIG CHANGES

Other sports will