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.
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