Bread and circuses. Whatever it takes to suppress the instinctual nationalistic ambitions of the people by redirecting their spirits and energy into /dev/null
If you think about it, how often do you hear good news? A war here, a disaster there, a mass murder,... And it is not because of the current world situation, it is always the case, we usually don't talk about things that go right. Go ahead, go to your favorite news website and see for yourself. Chances are that the only good news you see are sports related. The only other source of good news I can think of is science and technology with their new discoveries, but even there, plenty of bad news too, like with climate change and price hikes.
Sports is the only consistent supplier of good news. Of course, sometimes, you lose, but losses are easy to forget, it is just another blip in the sea of bad news. But with all the sports that is happening, there is always something to make your day: your local team winning in a local tournament, there are even some losing matches you can be proud of.