We need new sports to watch on TV. There are several reasons for this.
Football, for example, has gotten so violent that pro teams must lose 3-4 players every single game based on random observations. If they keep that up, who’s going to be left to play? Fewer youngsters are taking up football, which in the long run means fewer fans. If you watch major college football on television, there are huge numbers of empty seats in almost every stadium except for teams in the top 25 national ranking.
Those aren’t the only reasons the sport is slowly declining in interest. The games take way too long with the number of replays. Those delays also interrupt the flow of the game, making it less fun to watch.
Baseball has some of those same slowdown issues. It’s not a sport based on the clock, and you watch baseball to relax and enjoy the pace; at the same time, you want the game to finish before you fall asleep at night. As pitchers take longer to throw the ball and batters step in and out of the box to adjust gloves after every pitch, and as managers make needless relief pitching changes that take ten minutes to implement, you start to see people exit their seats. At home, you just turn the TV off and go to bed. Yawn.
Taste in sports and entertainment change over time. We’re in one of those historical periods where technology affects viewing behavior in terms of direct impact on games (video review of officials decisions) and in terms of fan behavior (staring at their phones and playing games or being distracted by something online rather than attending a live sporting event or watching it closely on the tube).
Attention spans shrink. Fan support lags. We just don’t care. What sports might create fan enthusiasm?
I think flag football and ultimate frisbee are two under-sung sports that have potential. Both have quick activity and allow those in attendance or watching on the screen to identify with the participants. It’s nice to see faces, for example, rather than looking at huge hulking bodies covered in equipment with faces obscured by helmets, so the only way you can identify players is by the name on the back of the jersey.
Imagine a pro flag football league with seven players on the team. The field would be wide open. Allow every player except the center to be eligible to catch the ball. No protective gear allowed. You’d have a wide open, exciting game that people could relate to because you wouldn’t need to be a hulking behemoth to compete. The normal-sized Joe or Jane could actually play.
Same thing for ultimate frisbee. Non-stop action. You don’t need to be big or bulky to compete. In fact, that would be an impediment. Regular-sized human beings in good shape with powerful lung capacity and hand-to-eye coordination would rule the field. Because more people could relate to the players, you’d likely have wider fan support.
Society has an almost insatiable appetite for sports. But some sports wane while others are on the rise. No one can fully predict the future, but there are a lot of bad trends facing some of the major pro sports. Maybe it’s time organizers thought about flag football or ultimate frisbee as next gen.
Football, for example, has gotten so violent that pro teams must lose 3-4 players every single game based on random observations. If they keep that up, who’s going to be left to play? Fewer youngsters are taking up football, which in the long run means fewer fans. If you watch major college football on television, there are huge numbers of empty seats in almost every stadium except for teams in the top 25 national ranking.
Those aren’t the only reasons the sport is slowly declining in interest. The games take way too long with the number of replays. Those delays also interrupt the flow of the game, making it less fun to watch.
Baseball has some of those same slowdown issues. It’s not a sport based on the clock, and you watch baseball to relax and enjoy the pace; at the same time, you want the game to finish before you fall asleep at night. As pitchers take longer to throw the ball and batters step in and out of the box to adjust gloves after every pitch, and as managers make needless relief pitching changes that take ten minutes to implement, you start to see people exit their seats. At home, you just turn the TV off and go to bed. Yawn.
Taste in sports and entertainment change over time. We’re in one of those historical periods where technology affects viewing behavior in terms of direct impact on games (video review of officials decisions) and in terms of fan behavior (staring at their phones and playing games or being distracted by something online rather than attending a live sporting event or watching it closely on the tube).
Attention spans shrink. Fan support lags. We just don’t care. What sports might create fan enthusiasm?
I think flag football and ultimate frisbee are two under-sung sports that have potential. Both have quick activity and allow those in attendance or watching on the screen to identify with the participants. It’s nice to see faces, for example, rather than looking at huge hulking bodies covered in equipment with faces obscured by helmets, so the only way you can identify players is by the name on the back of the jersey.
Imagine a pro flag football league with seven players on the team. The field would be wide open. Allow every player except the center to be eligible to catch the ball. No protective gear allowed. You’d have a wide open, exciting game that people could relate to because you wouldn’t need to be a hulking behemoth to compete. The normal-sized Joe or Jane could actually play.
Same thing for ultimate frisbee. Non-stop action. You don’t need to be big or bulky to compete. In fact, that would be an impediment. Regular-sized human beings in good shape with powerful lung capacity and hand-to-eye coordination would rule the field. Because more people could relate to the players, you’d likely have wider fan support.
Society has an almost insatiable appetite for sports. But some sports wane while others are on the rise. No one can fully predict the future, but there are a lot of bad trends facing some of the major pro sports. Maybe it’s time organizers thought about flag football or ultimate frisbee as next gen.
