Neat concept. Presumably lets all the sports-interested people congregate, while I assume also helping keep sports-related content away from folks who are not i

Neat concept. Presumably lets all the sports-interested people congregate, while I assume also helping keep sports-related content away from folks who are not interested. There's probably a lot of pent up user demand for "what people do online while also watching the game" - I notice they position the feature as "second screen". Seems like a good tailored innovation for social media. This will also potentially prove to be a way to claim some of the ad dollars spent on sports advertising. There are probably more advertising dollars willing to target messaging around a game than can afford primetime slots. Imagine the effectiveness of ads with the viewership of sports while targeted with the context of a user's FB account. They might be able to draw ad dollars away from TV, or benefit from pent up demand for more advertising opportunity. It'll be interesting to see how sustained its popularity proves to be during sports games - if consistent I suspect it will be lucrative while also making users happy. Sports is an interesting nexus of the problems that FB has chosen to focus on. Content that's social, but digital, and real-time. I've noticed that, though I can obtain most TV and movie content that I want to watch online digitally, live sports are one of the holdouts. I wonder if success at Sports Stadium might help FB get a crack at streaming them live online, down the road. (1) The advertising could be way more effective if each user is shown a targeted video ad based on the context of their FB account - cable has limited (no?) personalized advertising (2) The alternating intensity and natural breaks in sports games means users accept existing advertising, and embrace it (Super Bowl Ads). FB must be thinking about ways to leverage FB accounts for effective targeting advertising in more contexts while also delivering compelling user value at the same time - sports seems like an interesting candidate for expanding in that way. A user wouldn't want to link their FB account to their TV for no reason, for example, but if FB can find its way into user experiences like that naturally - such as streaming and discussing sports online - then they'll be able to capitalize on their ad targeting power. I also see a potential connection to Oculus Rift here. Imagine if you could watch the game live in 3D over Occulus Rift - an extension of Sports Stadium and perhaps a viable application for Occulus. FB must be searching for the "killer app" that makes Occulus users both want to use it en mass, and also congregate online socially. Perhaps 3D sports is just the thing. It will probably take some doing to record and play live 3D video suitable for Occulus, but if they can pull off an experience that "makes you feel like you're there", with 3D and immersive audio, too, then given folks' interest in sports I could see it going somewhere. (Watching regular 3D movies on an Occulus is not so compelling by comparison. Live action sports or broadway plays will be something else entirely.) Killer app: put on the Occulus and feel like you're in the sports stadium watching the game right from the field.