Opinion : Sports Broadcasting

I have been watching a lot of ESPN lately (mostly background noise as I eat) and I am becoming disappointed.  I love sports, but I am not happy where cable sports broadcasting is heading.  There is very little actual sports shown and instead there is continuous news programming played on a minute loop.  While this is not a new format idea, several trends are making sports channels less watchable.
 First is the very narrow range of sports covered by the endless news programs.  Sportscenter yesterday spent hours yesterday talking about College basketball and NFL trades, with a little NBA and men's golf sprinkled in.  What about College Hockey or the NHL?  Soccer?  MMA? women's sports?  Baseball?   I understand that College hockey is not as popular as college basketball, but with over 6hrs of news a day, doesn't it warrant a few minutes of coverage?  

Second is the trend of airing news and documentaries instead of the actual sports.  At one point last week, ESPN was airing a documentary about Basketball players (Magic Johnson) when there were actual basketball games being played.  These are good stories, but ESPN is not the place.  as a fan who flips to a sports network, I want to see sports.  ESPN has a sister station ESPNnews  that was supposed to be the channel that allowed branded sports themed programming to be shown without displacing actual sports, but for whatever reason, ESPNnews is no longer in my cable package and its programming is constantly on the flagship network. I feel that this cheapens the whole brand.

Third, the competition is increasingly conforming to ESPN instead of innovating.  When NBC sports took over VS network, they started a branded sports news show and have moved away from the outdoor programming that defined the network.  They have even moved their offices to Connecticut.   Local sports networks keep getting bought out by the teams that they cover and get turned into a marketing exercise instead of a real sports broadcaster (See: Yes Network)  Networks founded by leagues seem to be an attempt to shake down cable companies as opposed to actually increasing the amount of programming available (see NFL network, Big Ten Network)

All of this has led mt to the following unfortunate point:  despite far more cable channels and broadcasting capabilities, there is no more live sports on TV than there was a decade ago (at least on my cable package on Comcast Philly).  This is a missed opportunity, as availability of sitcoms, reality TV and Movies has increased, sports has not kept pace.  I want to see more college and olympic sports and local coverage that extends past the major league level.  I can watch engineering lectures that are broadcast city wide by my college but I cant watch the school's lacrosse games.   The internet is great for stats and news but nothing beats watching sports live.

Opinion : Women in sports

I am amused by the current Nike ads for the women's soccer team. The commercials make an interesting point, but don't make a lot of sense. They are amusing but they don't make me want to watch women's soccer or buy Nike's products. The issue that is the punchline of the commercials is that nobody cares about women's sports, however the commercial makes no serious argument as to why we should; it only makes fun of other efforts to get people to pay attention. The reality of the women's World Cup, is that the US has very little competition as most countries simply have very little female participation in sports. I was discussing this fact the other day with my girlfriend, who for some reason wants to play club hockey this semester. We were debating the reasons why women don't play many sports and one reason struck me that seemed worth exploring.

When a boy plays sports such as baseball or basketball at a young age, his social standing is not really that important. If his friends don't already play, he either makes friends on the team (as team sports are a great way to bond and meet people), or gains status by out playing his peers. Females on the other hand are often discouraged from sports by their peers. It is not however simply the attitude in society that women don't play sports. It is a more insidious effect that young women seem to have on each other. When my sister was in her early teens, she was a promising competitive swimmer. She gave this up at random one day not because she lacked in skill, or because it was too much. She gave up because her only friend in the program had an argument with her. The other girls that she hung around with didn't swim competitively so she simply give it up. My girlfriend had similar experiences with soccer. This would simply not happen with the guy, as several of my friends played different sports and we didn't seem to care less about what other people thought of us. We often enjoy bragging about our acomplishments. It seems to me that young women play sports more for a social aspect then for the love of sport or for a competitive sense.

The problem with all this is that many very talented women leave sports that they might be good at, and for silly reasons. Imagine if Michael Jordan had given up basketball in high school because the kids he sat with at lunch didn't play it, or if Tiger Woods gave up golf because the kids down the street preferred to play basketball. It seems to me that if more girls ignored what other people thought of them and continued their athletic development into high school and college, all of women's sports would be improved. This also suggests a much better way than title VI to improve female participation in sports. Simply making more spots available without increasing the demand will only watered-down the competition, and further drive away fans. Campaigns that educate parents and coaches as to the social pressures facing girls might dramatically increase competition in lower levels of women's sports. Over time this would likely filter and to the professional levels of competition and make the sports more exciting. I have little doubt that my sister would've been a fantastic high school swimmer and probably could've gone to a mid-level college for it as well. Instead she took up cheerleading and smoking.