The Black Hole of Sports

[3rdbass]

It really is only a month and half or less as the basketball finals could last until June 19th and then you have the draft the next week. NFL pre-season starts beginning of August and college football starts near the end of August. So really only 1 dead month being July. Time to travel. I prefer soccer or baseball also now but still a huge Red Sox fan so will keep up with them online(don't watch them much).

 

[nomar]

Why would people watch the World Cup if they don't like soccer?

Patriotism. Assuming that wasn't a rhetorical question. The same reason I've watched figure skating.

We had 20 people in our conference room watching the USA/Germany and USA/Belgium matches. I'd say 3-4 of those people are soccer fans.

 

[80shusky]

After the NBA and NHL finals, it is a dead time in sports until the Fall. Especially this year that occurs every 4 years, a year after the World Cup and no Olympics. Plus the entire sport of baseball is on the ever-so-gradual downslope. And frankly, does anyone truly care about the WNBA? The Connecticut Sun blow and are barely ever broadcasted. It's just a long grind until basketball season.

What will you watch this summer, if anything? Tour de France? Gold Cup? MLB? WNBA? I personally enjoy Wimbledon.

When I first saw the subject of your post I thought you were referring to Carmelo Anthony after you pass him the ball....

 

[ffg53]

If baseball and the MLB are declining, then what do you consider the NHL? Yes it's been in our face the past few weeks, but the regular season is brutally boring. I watched every second of every Rangers playoff game, but watched maybe 7/82 regular season games. If you want to take your weird vendetta to a sport, don't point it at my pastime!

I'd be interested in the NHL playoffs if this winter sport actually had their championship in the winter, or at least mid-spring. The last thing I give a ***k about in June is hockey. It actually wouldn't be that hard. How about, I dunno, only giving playoff spots to the top teams, and not over half the league. Given how many games they play during the regular season, that's ridiculous.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Hey you kids, go outside and play!

 

[CallMeBruce]

The lack of any good Americans since Sampras and Agassi has probably hurt the sport in the US, but I think the Williams sisters along with the greatness of Fed/Rafa have helped evened things out to a degree.

Nadal and Federer are probably the 2 greatest players of all time, and Djoker is already top 10, and will arguably end up top 5 of all time. And Serena is the greatest ever in the women's game. It is certainly a golden age in tennis that we probably won't see again for a long time (if ever).

I don't buy Nadal as better than Sampras. Nadal is obviously much, much better on clay than Sampras ever was, but Sampras was easily superior better on grass and hard court. Better career record at the US, Australian, and Wimbledon.

Though this doesn't really debate your overall point, which is that there are some really outstanding tennis players around right now.

 

[1999.2004.2011]

I love baseball, so I'm either watching the Red Sox or the MLB Network each night. Besides that, I've been watching parts of the Women's World Cup and I'll tune in to watch the Gold Cup. Can't wait for next summer when the USMNT plays in the Copa America....CANT WAIT

 

[Lefty2one]

I love the NBA Draft and free agency so I'm good until about mid-July. After that it's time for outdoor stuff, BBQs, etc. Enjoying summer and reading all the pointless NFL camp stuff.

I haven't followed baseball in years, grew up loving the sport but as an adult it's just too boring and tedious/long to follow. There's always something else I'd rather do than watch a baseball game lol.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Wait are you telling me the constant stream of passive entertainment in the form of sports (if we're making the massive leap of not including baseball) is ending and I may *shudder* have to find other ways to entertain/occupy myself? IN THE MONTHS OF JULY AND AUGUST?!

Oh wait, I have True Detective, Better Call Saul on DVR, Masterchef, Fear of the Walking Dead

 

[Lefty2one]

If you took the NBA's revenue and added it to the NHL's revenue and then threw in MSL and the CFL, you'd basically have baseball.

A big part of that is the sheer volume of baseball - more games and bigger stadiums. Read an article recently that if you break it down by a per-game level MLB and NBA are nearly equals. Of course I can't find it at the moment, darn Interwebz...

 

[mets1090]

Oh wait, I have True Detective, Better Call Saul on DVR, Masterchef, Fear of the Walking Dead

I was pumped Charlie didn't get the axe last night.

 

[BUHusky]

I don't buy Nadal as better than Sampras. Nadal is obviously much, much better on clay than Sampras ever was, but Sampras was easily superior better on grass and hard court. Better career record at the US, Australian, and Wimbledon.

Though this doesn't really debate your overall point, which is that there are some really outstanding tennis players around right now.

Nadal is a much more complete all around player than Sampras ever was and I don't think it's even close. Sampras never bothered to adjust his game for clay and thus only has a French semis, not even finals appearance, to show for it. Everyone always gets on Rafa for being just a clay court guy, but the truth is he has 5 majors on his non-preferred surfaces, and also won an Olympic gold medal on a hardcourt. Nadal has at least 2 majors on all 3 surfaces. Nadal won a major on all 3 surfaces in one year. Not even Federer can claim those feats. Rafa is a supreme all court player, something Sampras wasn't even close to.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Nadal is a much more complete all around player than Sampras ever was and I don't think it's even close. Sampras never bothered to adjust his game for clay and thus only has a French semis, not even finals appearance, to show for it. Everyone always gets on Rafa for being just a clay court guy, but the truth is he has 5 majors on his non-preferred surfaces, and also won an Olympic gold medal on a hardcourt. Nadal has at least 2 majors on all 3 surfaces. Nadal won a major on all 3 surfaces in one year. Not even Federer can claim those feats. Rafa is a supreme all court player, something Sampras wasn't even close to.

But you're just talking about clay still. Sampras wasn't as 'complete' as Nadal because he wasn't good on clay, but he was much better on the truer surfaces. Sampras would have killed Nadal on grass, and probably beaten him handily on hardcourt as well. But particularly that stretch in the 90s, he was basically unbeatable at Wimbledon, winning 7 in 8 years.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

ITT: Anecdotes that support baseball or soccer being presented as fact. I'll contribute now.

I strongly dislike soccer, but I feel like more people watch the European leagues than when I was younger.

I don't follow MLB as much as I used to, but that may be more due to the fact I work full time, have other social obligations and I'm not a middle school or high school kid who can just go home and watch 140 games every year with my dad.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

As an early 20-something who grew up in Fairfield County and lives in NYC, I can say this is just patently false in my experience. Not one person I know has ever told me about going to or watching a lacrosse game and although there are quite a few friends of mine who are soccer fanatics (and tell EVERYONE about it), they're still heavily outweighed by baseball fans, though I will say that on average, the smaller number of soccer fans are much more diehard than the baseball fans. Total numbers though, it's not even in the same ballpark.

If you're legitimately in your early 20s - i.e. born around 1990 - and this is actually true, you must have grown up in some bizarre alternate universe version of Fairfield County or had a bunch of outcasts for friends because I genuinely can't believe that this is true.

 

[BUHusky]

But you're just talking about clay still. Sampras wasn't as 'complete' as Nadal because he wasn't good on clay, but he was much better on the truer surfaces. Sampras would have killed Nadal on grass, and probably beaten him handily on hardcourt as well. But particularly that stretch in the 90s, he was basically unbeatable at Wimbledon, winning 7 in 8 years.

How am I just talking about clay? Did you miss the part about Nadal having 5 majors and a gold medal on non-clay surfaces? Nadal is excellent on "truer" surfaces. Nadal is excellent on all surfaces. Sampras was not. This isn't hard.

 

[boba]

When I first saw the subject of your post I thought you were referring to Carmelo Anthony after you pass him the ball....

LOL! He doesn't even let the ground touch the ball...

 

[CallMeBruce]

How am I just talking about clay? Did you miss the part about Nadal having 5 majors and a gold medal on non-clay surfaces? Nadal is excellent on "truer" surfaces. Nadal is excellent on all surfaces. Sampras was not. This isn't hard.

But the only surface where Nadal is better is clay. That's the only thing he has on Sampras. Sampras was the better player at three of the four major events, and on grass he was a much, much better player.

 

[BUHusky]

But the only surface where Nadal is better is clay. That's the only thing he has on Sampras. Sampras was the better player at three of the four major events, and on grass he was a much, much better player.

Your lack of comparative context is quite impressive, so it's pretty pointless to continue this conversation.

I look forward to your next recruiting scoop. Until then...

 

[Palatine]

July is the Tour de France.

The world's best athletes engage in a drama that lasts a month.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

If you're legitimately in your early 20s - i.e. born around 1990 - and this is actually true, you must have grown up in some bizarre alternate universe version of Fairfield County or had a bunch of outcasts for friends because I genuinely can't believe that this is true.

Which part of that? Plenty of people played lacrosse but they sure as hell didn't watch it or go to games. Soccer got a much bigger following towards the end of my time in high school (2008) but the amount of people who would consider themselves as soccer fans was substantially smaller than the amount of people for baseball. For whatever reason, the fans of soccer especially (can't say about lacrosse since I've only ever really experienced them on this message board) seem to think that way more people follow soccer than actually do.

 

[Wise2]

There are a few reason why Baseball is still doing well.

1. Parity - There are no dominant super teams anymore. You can win be in the basement one year and win it the next with some rented free agents.
2. More Playoff teams - With the wildcard teams more teams are in the hunt longer, which keeps their fans engaged and coming to the ballpark and watching baseball in September, instead of their team being 10 games out with now shot, they are 2 games out of a wildcard spot and giving it everything they got.
3. Lastly don't underestimate fantasy sports - My son's in high school and does Fantasy Football and Baseball and it keeps them engaged in the sport. They watch it and watch the highlight to see how their teams are doing. That's keeping the younger generation involved.

 

[superjohn]

Baseball isn't dying - it's actually doing rather well.

Ratings are terrific on regional networks even if national games are seeing the same kind of viewership declines that even the NFL is beginning to suffer. They sold about 74M tickets last year and revenue is growing at a very healthy rate. (Baseball is much less reliant on national television money than is, say, the NFL - baseball gets less than 10% of their revenue from the national networks, so claiming that their revenue is a function of television's overly optimistic deal-making is basically bunk.)

If you took the NBA's revenue and added it to the NHL's revenue and then threw in MSL and the CFL, you'd basically have baseball.

Basically baseball is still doing well with fans of the local team, people will still tune in to their favorite team locally but don't tune in for the national game like football and basketball fans do. The NBA is going to get better rating this year than the World Series did, that would never be the case in the past. Baseball's bigger problems are it is no longer cool with young people and the game is entirely dead as a city game, no black kids want to play baseball. Old people still like baseball so it has that going for it.

 

[mets1090]

If you're legitimately in your early 20s - i.e. born around 1990 - and this is actually true, you must have grown up in some bizarre alternate universe version of Fairfield County or had a bunch of outcasts for friends because I genuinely can't believe that this is true.

I also grew up in Fairfield County and was born in 1990.

When I was in high school, our girl's soccer team won the state title 3 straight years and the boy's team won the FCIAC once (I think) and placed a few players at the D1 level. I wouldn't say people cared about either team until they were playing for the FCIAC or CIAC title. People may have cared more about the girl's team because there were some smoking hot girls on it.

As for lacrosse, it was viewed as a combination of people who weren't good enough to make the baseball team and football players who just wanted something to do in the offseason. I can assure you no one cared about it.

 

[IMind]

Basically baseball is still doing well with fans of the local team, people will still tune in to their favorite team locally but don't tune in for the national game like football and basketball fans do. The NBA is going to get better rating this year than the World Series did, that would never be the case in the past. Baseball's bigger problems are it is no longer cool with young people and the game is entirely dead as a city game, no black kids want to play baseball. Old people still like baseball so it has that going for it.

Yes, but a crap ton of hispanic kids play it. We have AAA team here now in the Lehigh Valley. It set league records in attendance. That's with a AA team 40 miles away that draws really well. Tons of young kids are packing the stands. Then look at how many levels of pro baseball there are. Rookie ball, A, AA, AAA. Then there are tons of high school and college age teams between Legion ball and AAU. Baseball isn't going anywhere. More people watch baseball live than any other professional sport... it's not even close.