4 ms·

I get the feeling that having so many games dilutes the quality. I can't watch regular season basketball, baseball, or hockey because you get the feeling player

by Yhippa 11y ago

I get the feeling that having so many games dilutes the quality. I can't watch regular season basketball, baseball, or hockey because you get the feeling players sleepwalk through the season until it gets closer to playoff time. The playoffs of these sports are very exciting to me usually because if you don't win you're done. Add to that the idea of intentionally tanking your season so you can do well in a draft (happens in the NFL too e.g. "Suck for Luck") and I have no idea how people can be interested in the regular seasons of these sports.

rfrank 11y ago
Completely agree re: tanking a season, but ticket sales and viewership tend to drop accordingly with that strategy. 76ers tickets this year are currently less than beer in the stadium [1]. The baseball season feels absurdly long to me. I personally only watch regular season basketball, and it's more because I love the sport than any particular game. Probably wouldn't watch if I didn't play fairly seriously once upon a time, however. 1: http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/12/8/9870812/sixers-ticket-prices-cheaper-than-beer-nba http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/12/8/9870812/sixers-tick...
PhantomGremlin 11y ago
you get the feeling players sleepwalk through the season until it gets closer to playoff time I've also had this feeling. What I think should happen (so of course it won't) is for players to only get paid their absurdly high salaries for the games they win. Lose and only get league minimum. This would give players an incentive to play hard each and every game. I'm sure there's a lot wrong with that idea, and I haven't really though it through. I don't think that sort of salary structure would work quite as readily in the NFL. There's much less guaranteed money, and marginal players are always getting cut. So most on an NFL team do play pretty hard. Also coaching decisions affect football far more than basketball. Suck for Luck is more on management than on the players. How do you disincentivise management from doing that? And, every so often in the NFL, an Albert Haynesworth comes along and stops playing after getting a lot of guaranteed money. But that's mostly owner stupidity at work. Probably a little of that going on this year with Ndamukong Suh. Certainly a lot lot more of that going on in baseball and basketball with their ridiculously high guaranteed contracts.

by Yhippa 11y ago

rfrank 11y ago

Completely agree re: tanking a season, but ticket sales and viewership tend to drop accordingly with that strategy. 76ers tickets this year are currently less than beer in the stadium [1]. The baseball season feels absurdly long to me. I personally only watch regular season basketball, and it's more because I love the sport than any particular game. Probably wouldn't watch if I didn't play fairly seriously once upon a time, however. 1: http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/12/8/9870812/sixers-ticket-prices-cheaper-than-beer-nba http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/12/8/9870812/sixers-tick...

PhantomGremlin 11y ago

you get the feeling players sleepwalk through the season until it gets closer to playoff time I've also had this feeling. What I think should happen (so of course it won't) is for players to only get paid their absurdly high salaries for the games they win. Lose and only get league minimum. This would give players an incentive to play hard each and every game. I'm sure there's a lot wrong with that idea, and I haven't really though it through. I don't think that sort of salary structure would work quite as readily in the NFL. There's much less guaranteed money, and marginal players are always getting cut. So most on an NFL team do play pretty hard. Also coaching decisions affect football far more than basketball. Suck for Luck is more on management than on the players. How do you disincentivise management from doing that? And, every so often in the NFL, an Albert Haynesworth comes along and stops playing after getting a lot of guaranteed money. But that's mostly owner stupidity at work. Probably a little of that going on this year with Ndamukong Suh. Certainly a lot lot more of that going on in baseball and basketball with their ridiculously high guaranteed contracts.