Pointless things in sport...

[Hot Pepsi]

As with fighting in hockey, it persists because many fans find it entertaining.

I don’t like fighting in hockey, but so do enjoy watching managers arguing with umpires. It’s always comical to see a grown man in a polyester knit outfit lose his shit over a kids game.

[Ginger Yellow]

Conferences between pitcher and catcher to 'get their signals straight'.

Somewhat relatedly, baseball players and especially managers arguing with umpires for minutes on end. It's especially weird how this is tolerated compared to the other big US sports.

[Hot Pepsi]

I’ve often thought basketball would be better has a best-out-of-seven seven minute games, than one 48 minute game. So more like volleyball. But then it wouldn’t work as well for TV, because the duration would be harder to predict.

[Gangster Octopus]

Basketball full stop.

[Patrick Thistle]

Fights in ice hockey. Just play the game you psychopaths.

More than one pundit on Match of the Day. I get why you need a presenter plus 1. But you don't need a second person to repeat the presenter's question back to them as an answer.

Cricket exclusively on Sky.

Basketball games as long as they are. If both teams are scoring about 100 points you'd get the same result over a 5 minute game.

[Sam]

After the way the last two have gone, the bits of the World Chess Championship that don't involve the rapid tie-breaks. During last year's I actually saw one or two commentators who were anything but casual viewers suggesting this, as well.

[HORN]

Handshakes. "I'm going to shake your hand while giving you an icy stare, after which I'm going to spend the duration of the game kicking lumps out of you/sledging/eye-gouging or anything else I can think of that might intimidate you and help me win".

[Hot Pepsi]

Game breaks in American Football.

That’s the whole point of the sport

[ad hoc]

The NRL =/= Rugby League

[Flynnie]

Australia doesn't take the international game seriously, well that's sort of a problem for the whole of rugby league considering they don't take it seriously and are still the best country in the world at RL, occasionally by a considerable margin.

And bully for Queensland rugby league, good thing the NRL waited until 1988 to give Queensland a club. And yes, I know it was still called the NSWRL at the time. That's part of my point.

There is no intrinsic reason for, say, Wales and New Zealand to prefer a historically amateur code to one that pays, except for the lack of proper international rugby.

[ad hoc]

The former wasn't entirely through choice, and the latter is particular to Australia.

It also discounts the thriving game as it exists in Queensland. There may only be about 3 NRL clubs there, but every small town and suburb has a very big RL culture

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I mean...that's what happens when you build a game to revolve around clubs in Northern mill or mine towns or neighbourhoods of Sydney (with a fairly lackadaisical approach to expansion, historically) and regard international footy as an irritating bother.

The former wasn't entirely through choice, and the latter is particular to Australia.

[Flynnie]

As the clip above shows, one of the main drawbacks of RL is that it has a very narrow fanbase, That empty ground is watching Wales v Ireland...

I mean...that's what happens when you build a game to revolve around clubs in Northern mill or mine towns or neighbourhoods of Sydney (with a fairly lackadaisical approach to expansion, historically) and regard international footy as an irritating bother.

Look at club and even provincial* rugby union, draw five figures and you're bossing it. It's the international game that people actually give a toss about.

*though the first decade of Super 12 and, in particular, Super 12 cohabiting the landscape with already existing domestic provincial competitions in NZ and SA shows rugby union got this badly wrong. Average attendance is down loads. By how much is difficult to quantify but I've seen people claim somewhere around 40%.

[Satchmo Distel]

Corner flags in football. The complexity of the offside rule for a casual viewer is a given.

In cricket, the arcane nature of so many of the rituals is part of its charm or its unattractiveness, depending on your POV. But I think the slowness of play is the clearest obstacle to a casual observer, and I don't mean over rates but generally the time taken to do anything, and interruptions like movement behind the bowler's arm or needing to move the sidescreen. The apparent lack of any haste to get the game back on after a delay, as noted above, must also bother crowds at the game. Blue sky, no play, WTF?

The fact that the slowest period is often the first hour, when you typically might get 11-12 overs, is also a disadvantage.

Some general things that can easily be dumped: national anthems, medal ceremonies

[tee rex]

Oh, if we're in grumpy grandpa mode, flowers thrown on the ice after major skating events. Just clap and cheer loudly, it's free, environmentally-friendly, and saves time.

[tee rex]

Oh, add doubles tennis to the list for endless unnecessary fist bumps and high fives.

Yes, all of those. Why do these point-by-point team touches become obligatory in some sports, but not others? I'd like to see the wicket-keeper and first slip fist bump after each delivery (once the ball is dead). There's no evident link between the quality of the volleyball point and the ensuing gesture. It could be a superb smash or a glaring error, the routine doesn't change. So the cricket fielders could do it after a six ... the bowler would love that.

[Janik]

I'm not much of a rugby fan though I see a fair bit from time to time (union). My hot take would be to get rid of the ridiculous nonsense of both the scrum and the lineout. The scrum is a shambles, always done wrong and serves no purpose, other than opening up the rest of the pitch a bit. Opening up the pitch would be better served by reducing the game to 12 or 13 a side, but I digress. The lineout is similarly ludicrous. Apparently there are more laws governing the lineout that the whole of football, likewise for the scrum. Replace the scrum with a penalty or similar and the lineout with a soccer style throw in that can't go forward. Sorted.

Football is a bit disingenuous on the simplicity of it's laws. There are only 17, but it takes ~60 pages to lay them out due to the various sub-clauses. And then a further 80+ pages of clarifications to explain how they are meant to work.
And having looked at the Rugby Union rulebook, there is only one law on the lineout, no.18 out of 21. It just takes 14 pages to explain all the various dimensions of it as the advice and worked examples are incorporated within it rather than listed as an apendix. It takes 10 combined for Football to explain how it's offside rule is meant to work. The most space in the FIFA rulebook (2015/16 version) was devoted to Assistant Referees. It takes 22 pages to explain their role and duties! In fact, the two rulebooks are remarkably similar in total length - 144 pages for Football and 145 for Rugby Union.

[Greenlander]

With the toss in cricket being such an advantage in getting first dibs, instead of a toss determining which team gets the choice the captains should toss the coin with, say, heads being we bat and tails we bowl. Let fate take its course.

[nmrfox]

Game breaks in American Football.

[Kevin S]

As the clip above shows, one of the main drawbacks of RL is that it has a very narrow fanbase, That empty ground is watching Wales v Ireland...

[seand]

Hmm, 13 a side without lineouts you say?

*inserts winky thing*
the attritional nature of rugby makes it a grim watch for the most part

[Kevin S]

I'm not much of a rugby fan though I see a fair bit from time to time (union). Opening up the pitch would be better served by reducing the game to 12 or 13 a side, but I digress. The lineout is similarly ludicrous. Apparently there are more laws governing the lineout that the whole of football, likewise for the scrum.

Hmm, 13 a side without lineouts you say?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYcLBexSsCY&t=25m12s

[seand]

Third and fourth placed playoffs. Bronze medals for both in the Olympics, otherwise just leave it.

[seand]

I'm not much of a rugby fan though I see a fair bit from time to time (union). My hot take would be to get rid of the ridiculous nonsense of both the scrum and the lineout. The scrum is a shambles, always done wrong and serves no purpose, other than opening up the rest of the pitch a bit. Opening up the pitch would be better served by reducing the game to 12 or 13 a side, but I digress. The lineout is similarly ludicrous. Apparently there are more laws governing the lineout that the whole of football, likewise for the scrum. Replace the scrum with a penalty or similar and the lineout with a soccer style throw in that can't go forward. Sorted.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Dunno how you could be disappointed in The Boat Race. Its name tells you exactly what it is.

I’m disappointed any year when it doesn’t turn into wild water swimming after a crash