I am finding sports more and more difficult to give a hoot about ...

[alarmguy]

I guess Ill never understand the affinity and money spent watching someone play a sport. Ill never understand the passion to the point of being upset over tickets, seats and the expense of stuff like that. I just dont get it and I will never understand sitting in my home watching TV in the middle of the day when I can be enjoy being out in the world rather then someone play with a ball or hockey puck.
Yup, I am odd for sure I guess... but whatever .. ) I guess I wont succumb to the media bliss like a remote control to a drone.

I love things like the Olympics and Ill watch the Superbowl ... but if there is anything I even remotely follow it would be college football because of Clemson, even then, I will follow the score, never watch a game unless its the Championship or Rival Gamecocks but even this year I watched a movie instead with my wife.

I think, I figure, why would I support someone who plays with a ball making a salary in the millions or tens of millions? The person has a talent ... and ok ... so .. ? So does everyone else in the world .. .

 

[wings&wheels]

I guess Ill never understand the affinity and money spent watching someone play a sport. Ill never understand the passion to the point of being upset over tickets, seats and the expense of stuff like that. I just dont get it and I will never understand sitting in my home watching TV in the middle of the day when I can be enjoy being out in the world rather then someone play with a ball or hockey puck.
Yup, I am odd for sure I guess... but whatever .. ) I guess I wont succumb to the media bliss like a remote control to a drone.

My thoughts exactly... I watch baseball sometimes, mainly because I played through HS, but there is just so much more to do on non-working time then sit in front of a tv watching others do something. As far as actually getting worked up over a team's performance, I just don't get it. Plenty if not most think differently though.

I used to enjoy occasionally going to baseball of hockey games, mostly because the family enjoyed them, but lost interest in that mainly for two reasons;

1) politics, I pay you to entertain me, not lecture me.. You are selling a product, be smart and stay away from polarizing issues.
2) 'abuse' of fan base to eek out marginal revenue, for example; we had a Bruins season package and had worked our way down to great seats but then two years ago the Garden narrowed the size and reduced the seat pitch to squeeze in more seats, to the point where it affected the experience. Coach airliner seating for what these tix cost plus the $10 drinks, parking? That was it....

 

[wpod]

.

 

[DwightFrye]

When you really stop and think about it, most sports are just a bunch of grown men playing with a ball. Sure it takes skill, but I am not as impressed as I am by watching a guy on YouTube with a lathe turning a tree stump into a thing of beauty.

 

[2dogs]

Used to really love to watch pro basketball and a little football. Somewhere along the way just lost interest and got more involved with work, school, and my own life. I don't follow sports at all now. I do admire pros for their talent and hard work that it takes to play at a professional level.

 

[Silver]

Well I always thought of NASCAR as a soap opera for men. I guess now there are more to choose from.

 

[bdcardinal]

Public Schools do not make money.

Alabama seems to be doing pretty well. Coach Saban just re-upped his contract and "His base salary will remain $275,000. His talent fee for 2020-21 was $8.425 million and will continue to grow at a rate of $400,000 annually. It will reach $11.225 million in the final year of the extension. With his base salary and talent fee, he is set to make $11.5 million in 2028-29." Which means he is the highest paid public employee in the country.

 

[PandaBear]

I guess Ill never understand the affinity and money spent watching someone play a sport. Ill never understand the passion to the point of being upset over tickets, seats and the expense of stuff like that. I just dont get it and I will never understand sitting in my home watching TV in the middle of the day when I can be enjoy being out in the world rather then someone play with a ball or hockey puck.
Yup, I am odd for sure I guess... but whatever .. ) I guess I wont succumb to the media bliss like a remote control to a drone.

I love things like the Olympics and Ill watch the Superbowl ... but if there is anything I even remotely follow it would be college football because of Clemson, even then, I will follow the score, never watch a game unless its the Championship or Rival Gamecocks but even this year I watched a movie instead with my wife.

I think, I figure, why would I support someone who plays with a ball making a salary in the millions or tens of millions? The person has a talent ... and ok ... so .. ? So does everyone else in the world .. .

Olympics is the WORST IMO.

You have local corruption spend billions to bribe (legally with infrastructure) the right to host the game, infrastructures that kick back to the politicians and their puppet masters for those building, getting them torn down and never used again in 100 years. Then you have these events who evaluate who wins and who loses with judges, like in gymnastic having an athlete dropping a baton and still won gold, or another athlete didn't "salute" the judges correctly and lost gold. Finally we have boycotts of nations yet allowing their athletes to compete (or risk losing legitimacy of the game) and label them as independents.

Stupid nonsense of the last century like this should be closed, and replaced with regular competition like NBA or NFL so people and teams can compete for themselves instead of for propagandas.

Then we have Winter game which is the Summer game on steroid: rich wealthy folks pretending to be other countries' citizen and compete for them just like a certain Pochahontas with 1/64 blood take advantage of a loophole somewhere and all of a sudden she qualifies for diversity token. I'd rather watch someone playing video game on youtube instead.

 

[BigGeo]

I couldn’t agree more. For me it started when the New York Giants implemented PSLs(personal seat licenses) About 12 years ago. What that means in effect, is that a season ticket holder must pay for the right to own season tickets. Note it does not include the cost of the tickets. The license is a one time per seat fee. Since my Father had 2 tickets, 42 yard line, 9 rows from the field, the PSL fee was $40,000. Can you believe it? No thanks.

Then they became political.

Then players started disrespecting the fans. Look at these two morons who would give the fans a “thumbs down” when they made a good play because they didn’t like the fact that Met fans would boo during the game. It’s too much.

 

[greenjp]

This thread is hilarious. Gotta watch out not to get trampled by all the high horses or accidentally smacked by somebody patting their own back lol.

I bet a lot of people in this thread would characterize themselves as real serious conservative capitalists. And yet the popularity of sports at all levels, throughout human history, in terms of participation (playing & coaching), spectating, and reporting, and the economy around all that, is somehow wasteful or lowbrow or whatever. A bunch of guys who spend their leisure time talking about whatever nonsense of the day is popular on an internet site devoted to motor oil? Good grief.

jeff

 

[CharlesInCharge]

I grew up playing 3-4 team sports, and played into college, and intramurals thereafter. For decades I consumed a lot of college and pro sports.

But about 15 years ago, I essentially swore them off and have not directly spent any money and almost zero time watching or caring about them. These pro and college organizations have so badly corrupted our youth and adults that I would never allow my kids to invest time into these rotten crooked organizations and people. There's so many examples of the corruption that just rots people, I'm sure we are all well aware of the corruption. And the thugs that play in these organizations - murderers, rapists, dog abusers, drug users, thieves, you name it. I would never want my kids looking at these thugs as idols. It's too bad, because I love the pure sport of it, and it didn't need to be this way if there were $$$ caps on what could be charged and paid. Also, tax payers are fleeced when these illiterates are graduated from state universities on sports scholarships. And tax payers have been fleeced when FORCED to pay for stadiums and such (one eggregious example is the massive waste of money like the Kingdome or Mile High Stadium, and there are MANY examples of these fleecing tax payers); but money and greed has just destroyed sports at those levels.

I've learned if you want to maintain your principles, you must vote with your time, effort, and dollars.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

This thread is hilarious. Gotta watch out not to get trampled by all the high horses or accidentally smacked by somebody patting their own back lol.

I bet a lot of people in this thread would characterize themselves as real serious conservative capitalists. And yet the popularity of sports at all levels, throughout human history, in terms of participation (playing & coaching), spectating, and reporting, and the economy around all that, is somehow wasteful or lowbrow or whatever. A bunch of guys who spend their leisure time talking about whatever nonsense of the day is popular on an internet site devoted to motor oil? Good grief.

jeff

The reaction is simple. Modern sportsball as mass entertainment with big bucks behind it has no real precedent in human history. The opportunity cost, meaning we're not funding things that would be of far more benefit to everyone because money is poured into sportsball, is huge and likewise unprecedented. When you throw money at uni athletics while STEM majors drop out for lack of funds, your priorities are really off.

Athletes being paid millions to throw or catch a ball are not found outside the US and Western Europe. Elsewhere, uni/college sports are not the big deal they are in the US.

Even "conservative capitalists" can recognize the real problems of opportunity costs and the need to think about the greater good. Sportsball is to those over 40 what incessant playing of video games is to those younger.

 

[alarmguy]

I grew up playing 3-4 team sports, and played into college, and intramurals thereafter. For decades I consumed a lot of college and pro sports.

But about 15 years ago, I essentially swore them off and have not directly spent any money and almost zero time watching or caring about them. These pro and college organizations have so badly corrupted our youth and adults that I would never allow my kids to invest time into these rotten crooked organizations and people. There's so many examples of the corruption that just rots people, I'm sure we are all well aware of the corruption. And the thugs that play in these organizations - murderers, rapists, dog abusers, drug users, thieves, you name it. I would never want my kids looking at these thugs as idols. It's too bad, because I love the pure sport of it, and it didn't need to be this way if there were $$$ caps on what could be charged and paid. Also, tax payers are fleeced when these illiterates are graduated from state universities on sports scholarships. And tax payers have been fleeced when FORCED to pay for stadiums and such (one eggregious example is the massive waste of money like the Kingdome or Mile High Stadium, and there are MANY examples of these fleecing tax payers); but money and greed has just destroyed sports at those levels.

I've learned if you want to maintain your principles, you must vote with your time, effort, and dollars.

In the mix of the ultra rich sports organizations they also get a free ride from the USA taxpayer, since they are an organization (ex NFL, NBA) they pay no taxes, and in many cases we pay for stadiums either in actual construction and massive tax breaks or no tax at all, so the ultra rich can see the games in person rather then the majority who watches on TV> (by the way I have no problem with the ultra rich)
Talk about corruption ... but the scary part is ultra rich overplayed players supported by their fans watching and buying products promoted become idols to people and children instead of focusing on what is reality.
Many advanced and advancing countries some starting to take over our world leadership in innovation focus on real learning in their institutions for the real world. I have no problem with sports but as I said, people have become "drones" to the organized sport complex in our country while they get their wallets emptied and kids education wasted without even knowing it.

 

[IndyIan]

Right now I just watch F1 and a bit of downhill ski racing. I don't really mind athletes having social causes. Racism is bad, sexism is bad, if athletes want to use their fame to help bring attention to those facts, sounds good to me.

 

[Ignatius]

I don't really mind athletes having social causes. Racism is bad, sexism is bad, if athletes want to use their fame to help bring attention to those facts, sounds good to me.

My thing is that for the longest time I loved pro sports because it was an avenue for me to get away from the drama of politics and good intentions causes. Now that the drama has attached itself to sports I find myself moving away from them too. These people with causes aren't making a difference with their good intentions, they're being obnoxious and driving people away. They're not bringing awareness to anything as we're already having everything that they would advocate for shoved down our throats otherwise, they're usually just hopping on the bandwagon to virtue signal.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Steph! One of the true good guys!
Just my 2 cents.

 

[IndyIan]

My thing is that for the longest time I loved pro sports because it was an avenue for me to get away from the drama of politics and good intentions causes. Now that the drama has attached itself to sports I find myself moving away from them too. These people with causes aren't making a difference with their good intentions, they're being obnoxious and driving people away. They're not bringing awareness to anything as we're already having everything that they would advocate for shoved down our throats otherwise, they're usually just hopping on the bandwagon to virtue signal.

I guess I'm getting more tolerant of people with good intentions as I age. Its not limiting our freedom to reduce racism and sexism so mixing some advocacy into a sports event does not bother me. Politics is a different matter and if ending racism and sexism is against someone's "political views" then that's their problem IMO.

 

[alarmguy]

I guess I'm getting more tolerant of people with good intentions as I age. Its not limiting our freedom to reduce racism and sexism so mixing some advocacy into a sports event does not bother me. Politics is a different matter and if ending racism and sexism is against someone's "political views" then that's their problem IMO.

I think here in the USA being politically active by Hollywood and Sports figures has not worked out to well for either of them. So as long as they dont mind losing viewers that is ok but if they do mind, well, then that is their problem, not the spectator problem. Its only a ball game or entertainer, no special skillset or education for the betterment of the human race needed with those two groups.

 

[dareo]

When you look at the sports (entertainment) industry from a very basic fundamental point of view you can't come to any conclusion other than it is overrated. You have some people throwing balls around or whatever. You can go do the same thing in real life anytime you want, just not as good. I don't know how we got to a point where a team is worth billions and one person playing is worth tens of millions a year.

When they bring any sort of politics into the arena it hurts the event.

I get that its a hobby/lifestyle for millions of people to know all the stats, who's playing, speculate on the results ahead of time, all that, but its just overrated big time. You're spending about 1/3 of your time watching commercials for pepsi and cheetos anyway. Do you really not know that Pepsi exists? What are you learning from this use of time??

 

[Ignatius]

I guess I'm getting more tolerant of people with good intentions as I age. Its not limiting our freedom to reduce racism and sexism so mixing some advocacy into a sports event does not bother me. Politics is a different matter and if ending racism and sexism is against someone's "political views" then that's their problem IMO.

Racism and sexism exist as categories of the mind and are in fact political issues, such as the promotion of critical race theory and radical feminism. Now you can suggest that they are matters that fall under the category of the First Amendment but again that makes them political issues if you are referring to personal freedoms.

If history has proven anything it is that the tolerance of good intentions usually leads to the tyranny of good intentions. Sports should be independent of politics and those involved in professional or collegiate sports should not use that as a medium to grandstand for their chosen political ideologies, period. I have attempted to tolerate it but it has become intolerable, by not giving my time, attention, and money to it I am doing my part to not advance this nonsense.