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: Liverpool vs. Arsenal is a hack of a game. Nice work by the British Premier League setting that up. If you work a 9-5 (or 6, as they seem to be these days,) set your DVR and watch the soccer when you get home. There’s no point in watching any NFL Preseason game, really, but the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers is truly pointless.
Tuesday: Do you enjoy watching little league baseball? I do. More than other sports, baseball is fun to watch for joy of the game, not skill of the players. Monaco vs. Valencia is the best of the early season UEFA Champions League play.
Wednesday: Manchester United looked strong in the first half of their two game series against the Belgian Team, Club Brugge. They won 3-1 and should easily advance in today’s soccer game. There’s more little league baseball in the afternoon and then a NWSL match in the evening. The Boston Breakers are in last place and the Seattle Reign are in first. The last time these two teams played, I was there in person, and the Reign won handily despite some very spirited defense from the Breakers.
Thursday: There’s nothing quite like a Canadian Football league game sandwiched between two little league baseball games. Think of it like a really weird sports ice-cream sandwich.
Friday: Date night! I think an NFL preseason game would be a hard sell, but a West Coast MLS rivalry game? Also… probably a hard sell. Neither one is a good hill to die on.
Saturday: Football, football, football, football. It’s not even time for the start of the NFL season yet and we’ve already got a weekend dominated by football. Watch some high school kids at noon and then the championship of the Arena Football League at seven p.m. The British Premier League schedule in the morning isn’t star studded, but the Tottenham vs. Everton game does feature two of the more popular teams in the U.S. market.
Sunday: There’s no hotter rivalry in United States soccer than that between the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers. If you don’t believe me, watch the match at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN. The final day of competition at the IIAF track and field World Championships should be a doozy, especially if Usain Bolt continues to struggle. I’m also interested in the last NWSL regular season game of the season on Fox Sports 1 between the Portland Thorns and Washington Spirit.
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.