Don't panic! Like most football fans, I'm still in a state of semi-shock following news earlier this week of Sky Sport losing rights to the English Premier League.
The theory is that competition is healthy, that Sky has not done a great job with football anyway, and that hardcore football fans will be better with this new service.
But explain to me how the average New Zealand sports fan wins.
We watch football and rugby and netball and cricket and the NBA finals and the NRL, and all sorts of other stuff.
Until now, we have had to accept Sky as the only option for quality live coverage of sport. In return for steadily rising subscription fees, we have been blessed with a sumptuous range of events.
Have we been spoiled? Possibly.
But I am certainly not turning cartwheels about the prospect of having to pay $150 on top of my Sky fee, for a streaming service that is reliant on mediocre broadband and can not possibly look as good on my large television as football has done in the past.
Ah, well. Let's console ourselves with the knowledge there will still be plenty of intriguing live events to watch on Sky.
... next season
In the past two months alone, Sky has had live coverage of:
• Premier League Darts.
• World snooker championships.
• Red Bull X-Fighters.
• GP2 and GP3 motorcar racing.
• Indy Car racing.
• Nascar racing.
• Indian Premier League cricket.
• A spelling bee.
• Asian Tour golf.
• Under-20 rugby league.
• Supercross.
• World Tour Masters tennis.
• World triathlon series.
• Ultimate Fighting Championship.
• Superbike World Championship.
• Women's college softball.
• European under-21 football.
• Criterium Du Dauphine cycling.
• X Games.
Who is going to miss the Premier League, eh?
Banking on the future
Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback on my column last week on the 27 reasons I still love sport.
A mate of mine - well, we've never met, but we have conversed via Twitter and email - called Alistair Banks, a teacher and father of four, was inspired to write in about his coaching experiences.
Al, who turns 40 later this year, is still playing basketball, for the mighty Earnscleugh Hawks, and is in a semi-permanent state of bewildered bliss because his beloved Manchester City can now pretend to be a big football club.
He gets much of his sporting satisfaction from coaching junior basketball.
''The kids are in there before school, lunchtimes and after school. I get one practice slot a week at Friday lunchtime, and last time I arrived, all 20 of my players were sitting down, waiting for me silently on the sideline.
''The kids I coach are like sponges. You see something not going right, you bring it up and do a drill and the next game you see it fixed. It's very rewarding.
''To say I'm excited about watching my kids develop as I stop playing would be a massive understatement.''
Major deficit
The BPNTHWAM debate is on again.
In golf, who is the best player never to have won a major?Adam Scott (Masters) and Justin Rose (US Open) have signed off from the group this year, continuing a trend of break-through winners.
By my count, no fewer than 14 of the last 18 majors have been won by first-time major winners. That's a lot of dreams coming true, reflecting both golf's fickle nature and the extreme difficulty of winning multiple majors.
Your leading contenders for the most unwanted title in golf are (world ranking in parentheses): Matt Kuchar (5), Luke Donald (7), Brandt Snedeker (8), Steve Stricker (11), Lee Westwood (12), Sergio Garcia (15), Jason Day (16), Jason Dufner (17) and Ian Poulter (18).
Kuchar and Day will, I am sure, join the elite club eventually. Stricker may have had his chance. Sergio? Who knows.
My pick, despite his ranking in that group, is Poulter. Great player.
Dave Cannan, my colleague and golf mentor, plumps for Donald because he has been a recent world No 1.
The best current New Zealander not to have won a major is Michael Hendry, ranked No 170 in the world.
Our Steven
This hoops fan is already delirious with excitement at the prospect of watching New Zealand's Steven Adams get drafted into the NBA next week.
People need to realise this is a MASSIVE deal, and we could be looking at the first professional steps of New Zealand sport's next superstar.
The respected Slam Online site has Adams going No 11 to the Philadelphia 76ers, and Nuggets talisman Mark Dickel - still well connected in his adopted home - assures me Adams will be a lottery pick and a future NBA star.
RIP Tony Soprano
Sad news this week of the death of actor James Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano, the greatest character in the history of television.
I'll justify a mention on this page by pointing out Gandolfini played basketball in school and was a regular at New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets) games.
A good friend
Hopefully, Sir Russell Coutts will not mind me passing on this story which sums up his loyalty.
The sailing great made a fleeting visit back to Dunedin recently to attend the funeral of a close friend.
Coutts darted back to San Francisco shortly after Allan Garbutt, the Otago Boys' High School teacher and yachting stalwart, was farewelled.
Birthday of the week
Kurt Warner, one of my sporting heroes, is 42 today.
The former NFL quarterback was a heck of a Cinderella story. Undrafted, he was stacking shelves at a supermarket not long before he got his professional opportunity, and within a few years he had won the Super Bowl with my St Louis Rams.
