It may be cheaper but I actually prefer the wider angle - with team sports where action is fast and everyone is moving all the time it is nice to see the full area of action so you can watch the screens forming the cuts being made off the ball and the wide open player that no one is passing the ball to!Now that you mentioned it Daddy, I think one factor in all this seems to be a tendency for the TV productions to be relying more today on views of a broader piece of the court. To me it is lazy and cheap production. Fewer personnel, fewer cameras and less work on in game production: you know, the go to camera three, zoom 2 stuff.
It may be cheaper but I actually prefer the wider angle - with team sports where action is fast and everyone is moving all the time it is nice to see the full area of action so you can watch the screens forming the cuts being made off the ball and the wide open player that no one is passing the ball to!