Following one sport is easy. Following them all, without missing the moments that matter, takes a bit of a map. Here is a season-by-season guide to the sporting calendar.
Early Year: Tennis and Cricket Take Center Stage
The year typically opens with a Grand Slam tennis tournament in Australia, followed closely by international cricket series and domestic T20 leagues gathering momentum. This period often produces early storylines involving the athletes to watch across multiple sports for the year ahead.
Spring: Football Title Races Heat Up
Domestic football leagues in Europe enter their most competitive stretch, with title races and relegation battles both intensifying. Formula 1’s season is also in full swing by this point, working through its long calendar of Grand Prix weekends.
Summer: The Biggest Global Showpieces
Summer is typically packed with marquee events, from Wimbledon to major international football tournaments and, in Olympic years, the Summer Games themselves. This stretch consistently produces the most-watched sporting events every year, drawing casual and dedicated fans alike.
Autumn and Winter: Basketball and Football Return
The NBA season gets underway in autumn, running deep into the following spring, while European football enters its packed midseason schedule of domestic and continental fixtures. Cricket’s franchise leagues in the Southern Hemisphere also pick up during this window.
Building Your Own Sporting Calendar
The easiest way to keep track is to anchor your calendar around the sport you follow most closely, then layer in the marquee moments from others, many of which double as genuine bucket list sports experiences worth planning around.
- January to March – tennis majors, international cricket
- April to June – football title run-ins, Formula 1 season build
- July to August – Wimbledon, major football tournaments, Olympics
- September to December – NBA season start, European football midseason
With this rhythm in mind, there is rarely a dull month left on the global sporting calendar.