If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.
This does not include MLB baseball games. There are so many of those every day that another approach is needed. That approach is our special Daily MLB Forecast.
Download a full-size copy here.
Monday: If you didn’t get enough British soccer on Saturday or Sunday of last week — maybe you were away at a Scrabble convention — there’s one final game from the opening weekend of the British Premier League.
Tuesday: Two Spanish soccer teams play in the UEFA Super Cup which is a matchup of the winner of the UEFA Champions League (the most prestigious club soccer tournament in the world) and the UEFA Europa League (a glorified consolation tournament.) In the evening, watch some little guys (and maybe a gal or two) play baseball.
Wednesday: Errr, there’s some more Little League baseball, but otherwise… take the day off.
Thursday: The Rogers Cup is the Davis Cup of Tennis — which means it’s a team tournament where players who are used to playing only for themselves play on national teams. That makes it sometimes fun to watch, especially if you’re free during the day. In the evening, you can choose between Canadian American Football and American International Football.
Friday: Date night! Head off to your date after watching a good British Premier League soccer game or head off for a date night of watching some of your favorite women’s soccer players face off in a nationally televised NWSL game!
Saturday: Soccer, tennis, golf, and football! Who could ask for anything more? Really though, ignore the football. Even the most dire of sports fans who pay attention to preseason football risk their finely balanced sanity.
Sunday: The highlight of the day is the first friendly game on the U.S. women’s national soccer team’s victory tour. They take on Costa Rica at 1:30 p.m. in what should be a massive celebration. Manchester City vs. Chelsea should also be a humdinger of a way to start your Sunday morning.
Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.