Something on my Mind: The Business and Entertainment of Sports (2)

So much for the business side of sports. What about the entertainment side?

I say "entertainment," and you think cheerleaders. You're partly right, but it sounds like you're lost in the '70s. If it's any consolation, so am I. Some might say that we've come a long since then, though I may disagree.

Anything that entertains the fans before, during, or after the game, falls under that category of "entertainment." Even when I go to 'Canes games, there are gift cards to be given away and free food if a certain amount of goals are scored; then there's the kissing cam, muscle cam, and singing country music cam.

I pray to God that they never focus on me: I don't kiss in public, I have no muscles, and I think modern country music is, well, I best not print what I think of it.

At other venues, there are tailgate parties, coupon for sponsors after the game, weekends away through lotteries for winners, 50-50 for those at the game, car displays on the ice in between periods, million dollar baskets if one can hit the net with the hole in it from the centre (and the same for placekicking from mid-field), and the list of fun and games goes on and on.

I'm just combining various sports, at random. I know which is which and I trust you do, too. So, no, Maurice, you can't have a tailgate party in February at a hockey game (try football in July), and no, again, you can't punt a ball at a basketball game (again, maybe in July at a football stadium).

Then there are the merchandise options galore for the consumer, er, fan. In jerseys alone, I think the Raptors (aka Canada's team) have five options they can either wear or sell—just not at the same time. There are major bucks in jersey sales, with suckers, er, fans, ready and willing to buy everyone of them.

I am focusing on jerseys for the purpose of brevity. If you ever have a slow night, trace the jersey history of any professional hockey team over, say, the past thirty years. Consider the colour logo design of the Vancouver Canucks, as an example. Very intriguing...and lucrative.

I know the above comments border on the business side of things, but it's actually entertainment, with the bent on bringing in people, keeping them happy (= entertained), and making tons of cash at the same time.

Some team should develop a new theme song, namely, "Ka-ching, Ka-ching." (It goes to the tune of "Sh-boom, Sh-boom.")

The NHL all-star game and the NFL Super Bore, er, Bowl, are cases in point. I suppose somewhere in the midst of the clamour of the halftime ruckus at the Super Bowl, or the hullabaloo of every NHL all-star weekend, there is a game. There's playing before the game, playing the games, then playing after game. It's gets a little overwhelming.

Can there be an actual college football game without the marching band? I didn't think so, either. Any team worth anything will have its own mascot, and sometimes it is actually more entertaining than the game itself. I can't comment on anything to do with the NBA because I don't watch it or follow it at all.

By the way, is Lew Alcindor still playing?

So my simple point is that we have turned basic sports into both a business conglomerate and Hollywood production. Is that bad? I don't think we have a "good" or "bad" discussion here. It's more, "Is it healthy? Wise? Meaningful?"

I answer all those questions in the negative. And I also see it as a refection on where our culture is going, and what the values it's embracing. Glitzy and ditzy are the order of the day, and the wilder, the better.

At this stage of my life, I like watching and analyzing most sports, and one of life's few pleasures. As this pattern of business and entertainment increases, I see a weird scene: hundreds, even thousands, of fans (who need the exercise) sitting on their respective duffs, watching the twelve or twenty-two players (who don't need the exercise) run, dash, and skate.

Something will have to give, and I fear it will actually be the fans. By the time it has all come crumbling down, the players will get the stardust, owners will get the gold dust, but the fans will get nothing but mere dust.

Maybe it's time to focus on something tame, like dart-throwing, bowling, or table tennis. I'm sure it would take a couple of decades to corrupt them.

Re: Something on my Mind: The Business and Entertainment of Sports (1)

I agree with you.

On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 11:00 AM Craig Funston <funfam@telus.net> wrote:

 I'm sure you recall when hockey was on television they played hockey and hockey only. Same goes for the other three major sports, namely basketball, football, and baseball.

And it's the national, even international, stage I'm thinking of, not some bantam hockey league in Taber.

I am neither a jock, nor the son of a jock. In fact, I'm even a crummy fan. I have my team favourites, but I don't follow any team, or any sport for that matter (okay, I have a few, but nothing serious). I follow the NHL the most of all the professional sports, and I suppose I am most loyal to the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the WHL.

Whether they win or lose is no big deal to me. Whatever the outcome, I still have to get up the next day and do whatever I have to do the next day. It doesn't affect me one way or the other.

I find playing an armchair quarterback exciting, especially in hockey (though the word picture doesn't mesh). I would probably do well in a fantasy hockey opportunity. I love making trades, switching lines, and mimicking what general managers do in a real world context.

Where I am at odds with real world sports these days is how much the business side has taken over the sports side—and that's more on the part of the athletes themselves. (I'll address my concern for the entertainment side in my next column.)

As you may gather, I get caught up in all the trade rumours, as I hum, "Show me the money"—even though I don't believe it's a song. The outrageous salaries and terms are unconscionable (okay, maybe a little envy here). The decisions to shift from one team to another are often based on the money that's being thrown at the athletes.

Professional hockey is bad, but basketball and baseball are worse. I'm sure you've seen the salaries that I have, at millions of dollars a year. You must agree that they are staggering and unsustainable.

Some players are moved in, others are moved out; even franchises change cities, all because of the business side of the sport. This includes endorsements on the part of a select few players. Merchandise, such as hats, jerseys, pennants, mugs, and such, are such a big part of the team business, while the owners rake in a lot of dough.

That borders on the entertainment side of this theme, something I'll develop later.Players are toyed with and kept, so long as they can meet the business aspirations of the owners. Mind you, they are not victims: They get plenty of cash for being temporary toys, so I certainly don't feel badly when they get moved out or on to another team. Their wives and kids? Well, that's another sad story.
I am not minimizing the travel and training, the injuries and schedule, but that's a pretty small price to pay for the mega-salaries they get paid. It's not about the three-point line, blue line, scrimmage line, or foul line. It's only about the bottom line, both for the owners and the players.

I often wonder what athletes from these sports of twenty or thirty years ago feel about the direction professional sports is going these days. They never got in on the windfall that these current players get. I'm sure there are a lot of bitter former players out there.

It's just not healthy to maintain this trajectory of obscene salaries. It's not healthy for the individuals, the business, er the team, and even the fans, who have to pay increasingly high ticket prices.

And it's misleading, too. On a local level, take the 'Canes or the Tigers, as an example. How many eligible players even get drafted from these teams each year? And of those players, how many even end up the farm team? For that matter, how many even end up in the NHL?

Very, very few, that's how many.

Maybe that's why there is such an urge to get as much as you can, as often as you can.

Something on my Mind: The Business and Entertainment of Sports (1)

 I'm sure you recall when hockey was on television they played hockey and hockey only. Same goes for the other three major sports, namely basketball, football, and baseball.

And it's the national, even international, stage I'm thinking of, not some bantam hockey league in Taber.

I am neither a jock, nor the son of a jock. In fact, I'm even a crummy fan. I have my team favourites, but I don't follow any team, or any sport for that matter (okay, I have a few, but nothing serious). I follow the NHL the most of all the professional sports, and I suppose I am most loyal to the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the WHL.

Whether they win or lose is no big deal to me. Whatever the outcome, I still have to get up the next day and do whatever I have to do the next day. It doesn't affect me one way or the other.

I find playing an armchair quarterback exciting, especially in hockey (though the word picture doesn't mesh). I would probably do well in a fantasy hockey opportunity. I love making trades, switching lines, and mimicking what general managers do in a real world context.

Where I am at odds with real world sports these days is how much the business side has taken over the sports side—and that's more on the part of the athletes themselves. (I'll address my concern for the entertainment side in my next column.)

As you may gather, I get caught up in all the trade rumours, as I hum, "Show me the money"—even though I don't believe it's a song. The outrageous salaries and terms are unconscionable (okay, maybe a little envy here). The decisions to shift from one team to another are often based on the money that's being thrown at the athletes.

Professional hockey is bad, but basketball and baseball are worse. I'm sure you've seen the salaries that I have, at millions of dollars a year. You must agree that they are staggering and unsustainable.

Some players are moved in, others are moved out; even franchises change cities, all because of the business side of the sport. This includes endorsements on the part of a select few players. Merchandise, such as hats, jerseys, pennants, mugs, and such, are such a big part of the team business, while the owners rake in a lot of dough.

That borders on the entertainment side of this theme, something I'll develop later.Players are toyed with and kept, so long as they can meet the business aspirations of the owners. Mind you, they are not victims: They get plenty of cash for being temporary toys, so I certainly don't feel badly when they get moved out or on to another team. Their wives and kids? Well, that's another sad story.
I am not minimizing the travel and training, the injuries and schedule, but that's a pretty small price to pay for the mega-salaries they get paid. It's not about the three-point line, blue line, scrimmage line, or foul line. It's only about the bottom line, both for the owners and the players.

I often wonder what athletes from these sports of twenty or thirty years ago feel about the direction professional sports is going these days. They never got in on the windfall that these current players get. I'm sure there are a lot of bitter former players out there.

It's just not healthy to maintain this trajectory of obscene salaries. It's not healthy for the individuals, the business, er the team, and even the fans, who have to pay increasingly high ticket prices.

And it's misleading, too. On a local level, take the 'Canes or the Tigers, as an example. How many eligible players even get drafted from these teams each year? And of those players, how many even end up the farm team? For that matter, how many even end up in the NHL?

Very, very few, that's how many.

Maybe that's why there is such an urge to get as much as you can, as often as you can.

Something on my Mind: An Election in the Air (2)?

So we've established that this smell is not from a pig farm. And we've also established that any stinky business is unnecessary. But it seems inevitable. And unfortunately, it's going to get worse.

It's also inevitable that the political hopefuls or returnees will come to your door. Out of the goodness of my heart, I have come up with some helpful hints for you when talking to them:

1. Be civil. If you are very opposed to his or her policies, that's your call. But acting like a moron because of that disagreement is wrong. Not only is it not proper, and it implicates those in your camp as being equally equally guilty of imbecility, and besmirches the movement as a whole.

If we act by them, we could all be lumped in with that behaviour, and that's not fair. We see this already with those who reject the notion of, say, climate change, abortion, and other very touchy, personal matters. Someone sounds off about their view of these matters, but as right as they might be, they're wrong in how they go about it.

2. Be coherent. This means to be marked by critical thinking and clarity of speech. There is no place for f-bombs, inarticulateness (with an over-abundance of "you know," "like," "huh," as examples), and an overall inability to express oneself clearly.

As you will have a position on some issue, such as gun control, lay it out reasonably, so as to show why every citizen should be armed and responsible. Or if you have some common sense traditional views, based on finances, history, logic, and biology, speak them...well.

3. Be cogent. This is almost the same as #2, but it is a little different. You want to think through your concerns and expresses them well. You have concerns, but you're not trying to defend them—that's where it's a little different.

You simply want to see where Politician A or B stands on certain issues. As a voting citizen, you have every right to know. And he or she has a responsibility to tell you—and more so if he or she gets elected. If they are not clear, get them to work at it again.

A few issues come to my mind, so I will pass them along to you, just in case nothing comes to your mind. These are three of many that I have, and I will develop more for you beyond them. The following may or may not be provincial matters, but it wouldn't hurt to bring them up in a civil, coherent, and now cogent manner.

    a. what is their position on parental rights? This is a very big one, and a paragraph or two is embarrassingly inadequate. This involves the rearing of children, their education and protection; it covers vaccinations, and a host of evidences of the state taking over essential family responsibilities.

    b. what is their position on electoral recall? I have a feeling you'll be seeing this more and more in this election. I am hearing all sorts of concerns about the complete lack of accountability these days. If Politician A or B is not doing his/her job well, or even not doing anything at all, they are a detriment to the honour and privilege their elected office. There needs to be a means for recall, and the sooner the better.

    c. what is their position on climate change? There has been a shift in semantics,from "global warming" to "climate change" in these last few months., to say nothing of a shift in logic and focus. "Why the change?" you may want to ask them. Ask them about the historical and scientific evidences against climate change.  bThen while they are on the ropes about this one, talk about the financial mess that climate change is creating, and the lack of justification for making these massive, economic shifts and the ramifications to humans.

On that note, your list may include other matters close to your heart. That's good. My list includes a few of the many that are close to my heart.

If they are still in one piece after your pleasant grilling, good on them. If they are not, I hope it wasn't because you weren't civil, coherent, or cogent. This election is bound to be one of most significant elections in decades.

And when it comes time to vote, do it with your eyes open and your nose plugged.