Various sports use some vernacular related to the mechanics of the opening play to refer to the start of the match:
“Puck-drop (or opening face-off) after this message.”
“Tip-off at 8:07.”
“First pitch coming up.”
Some (like kickoff) have gained figurative meanings as well (although I can’t vouch for the etymology). “The conference kickoff will feature a cat-juggling expert.”
What are some other examples that are used not just as the technical term for the opening play, but commonly used to refer to the match start? Not just sports, but games and other activities as well.
Not quite the same as your examples, but in horse racing, “post time” can refer to the time a particular race starts: “Post time for the fifth race is at 3:05 PM.”
But it also means the start of the racing day, for all races: “Hey, join us at the track on Saturday. Post time is 1:15 PM, but we plan to get there about 12:30.” Meaning that the day’s card of six to ten races will start at 1:15 PM. Similarly, a radio or TV commercial for the local races will make mention that “Post time Saturdays and Sundays is 1:15 PM; it’s 5:30 PM for Friday evening racing.”
A game of Australian Rules football is started by the umpire bouncing the ball down at the centre of the field and players from competing teams then vie to secure possession of the ball. This is the
“bouncedown”, and the word is in regular colloquial use as a term for the start or starting time of any event.
The end of each quarter of play is marked by sounding a siren, and “siren” is used to refer to the end of play. But I haven’t heard it used for the end of any other event.
Is that the start of the event, or the end? Either way, I don’t see that there’s much scope for this one to acquire a broader currency, since the image of lights going out is already in metaphorical use to talk about adverse developments. (“The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our life-time”.)