The day of parochialism in sports is over. The world is too small for what people like to call 'the good old days.' Fans want the best, wherever they come from.
Nobody can really dominate like Stephen Hendry or Steve Davis. The players are just too good for that.
The players today reflect how much the game has evolved and changed both in style and culture. [...] The game now has a wider appeal to a larger market.
In the modern era, with the rewards the top players have during their career and the risks involved moving into management, more will look at it and say they don't need it.
The 24-hour news cycle is kind of insatiable. Players in the '80s and '90s didn't have to deal with that scrutiny.
In typical sailing races a long time ago, you'd come in and go out, and the first thing you'd do is probably have a cold beer. The first thing we do now is have a protein shake and our recovery drink.
In my day, the players used to work their socks off. It's all changed now, obviously.
Now in the digital age, in the age of social media, all of the wrestling audiences are so much more connected. I cannot stress that enough, how much more connected wresting audiences are around the world.
The entire existence of the NFL - and of football at any level, for all of that - rests on whether or not the game can keep fooling itself, and its paying fan base, that it is somehow superior to boxing and to the rest of our modern blood sports.
But I think there is a space for a second league, which is UTS, that is more modern, and is targeting a difference audience.
Certainly it is a different world for players nowadays. But it depends on the individual.
The Olympic stadium may have been built only in the early 1970s but it was clear for a long time it had no future. For many reasons it is not good enough for modern football and today's fans.
