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I was at the Rose Bowl this year and something I noticed was how much of the game was spent staring at the jumbotron rather than watching the game live. Sittin

I was at the Rose Bowl this year and something I noticed was how much of the game was spent staring at the jumbotron rather than watching the game live. Sitting in the stands no longer feels like you're watching an incredible game. Instead it feels like you're watching the game live on ESPN(given the level of advertisements) but sitting in the stands. I'm certainly not the first to point out how commercialized sports have become, but it's disconcerting seeing stadiums try to hook you into staring at an ad for four hours instead of enjoying a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Another example was the flyover: A B2 flew over just before kickoff[0] and I, along with almost everyone else, had never seen one before. An announcement over the loudspeakers asked that everyone hold up a small sign so that the stadium looked like the American flag from above. This was great for viewers at home and horrible for anyone in the stands because all you could see was the back of the sign you and everyone else were holding up. We seem to have gotten so far away from what sports are about(two teams competing to see who's best) that we've landed on milking as much money out of the fans as they possibly can. Facial recognition, in this context, seems to be doing the same. Rather than giving fans a fantastic experience, the folks running these games are trying to monetize them instead. [0] - https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2020/01/check-out-this-aerial-photo-of-the-b-2-bomber-flyover-at-the-2020-rose-bowl.html https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2020/01/check-out-this-aeri...

etrabroline 6y ago
>that we've landed on milking as much money out of I take issues with your use of the word "we". If you asked them, 95% of people would say this should stop. In the past, economic and political leaders were drawn from the nation as a whole, and had a sense of loyalty and social obligation to their fellow countrymen, even if it meant leaving a few dollars on the table. Globalization and the increasing cultural and ethnic divide between the upper and lower classes in western countries has ended that fealty. May it soon return.
- js2 6y ago
  99% of people also hate how airlines treat them and think appliances should last more than a few years, but then when faced with a purchase decision, choose whatever is cheapest. Unfortunately, money talks and bullshit walks. :-(
  - peterwoerner 6y ago
    When it comes to appliances, price and longevity seem to have no correlation. I find it is nearly impossible to figure out which appliances will last longer.
    - jdc 6y ago
      Maybe you can find an engineer on YouTube or Patreon that does appliance teardowns.
      - tracker1 6y ago
        Even then.. a lot of times the hardware is fine, but the controller boards are not built to last, and they just don't make replacements, and they aren't covered under the warranty. Like the washer or dryer physically is fine, but the control board fried/died. For refrigerators (looking at you GE), they build up dust, and the airflow fan dies because of built up dust. And try getting a replacement if you aren't a GE Certified repair person. Even GE referrals often suck and cannot do the job. Took three repair visits to get a fan replaced. If anyone has some solid refrigerator suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Preferably with water and ice in-door .
        peterwoerner 6y ago
        And sure, if I had unlimited time I could get an Arduino and a circuit board and build one myself, but I just want it to work because I have other things to do.
      - specialist 6y ago
        Ask a repair person what they own. That's how we chose to replace my SO's laundry, dishwasher.
    - alharith 6y ago
      Buy a Speed Queen washer. That's about all I can say.
  - 6y ago
- cool_dude85 6y ago
  In the past economic and political leaders were drawn from the nation as a whole? What period of time are you talking about?
  - dmoy 6y ago
    Maybe they mean a country other than the US? Certainly no significant period of time has drawn a significant portion of national leaders in the US from anything but the elite. Hell for more than half of the history of the US, half the population wasn't even allowed to vote, much less make it into the Senate.
    - thatguy0900 6y ago
      I think he might be talking about career politicians vs "normal" elites who go into politics for a bit before returning to their previous field
- MaximumYComb 6y ago
  In which time period were the political leaders' drawn from the nation as a whole, and had a smaller cultural and ethnic divide between the wealthy and poor? According to wikipedia, 60% of the African-American senators EVER have been elected in the past 20 years. 40% of the total in the past 10 years. A significant proportion of the total African-Americans to have been in the house of reps are currently serving. Similar statistics for Latinos and Asian-Americans. Most western nations came from the British system, which literally had people born as noble.
saiya-jin 6y ago
I've stopped putting any money/attention in organized sports quite some time ago, I was disgusted my money-first orientation of basically all of them and how everything was focused on sponsorships, promotions etc rather than actual effort. Morals often go down the toilet, like in cycling. Anyway its infinitely better to focus on actually doing the sports rather than just watching them passively. I make exceptions from time to time, but only for more or less marginal sports without big bucks. If folks do it mainly because they love it, then count me in. Climbing seemed for a long time doing just fine, but its also changing, and with introduction on olympics I may start skipping that one too. All those that spend money on this are partially guilty... vote with your wallet and your time (which for ad business is money at the end).
theklub 6y ago
Check out http://www.fancam.com http://www.fancam.com It's creepy
- jb775 6y ago
  That is awesome and terrifying at the same time.
- fenwick67 6y ago
  ...aaaand it's down.
chooseaname 6y ago
> We seem to have gotten so far away from what sports are about(two teams competing to see who's best) that we've landed on milking as much money out of the fans as they possibly can. It isn't just sports. It's everything. I've read several articles posted here on HN where someone makes a cool piece of hardware and they can't get funding until they come up with a subscription model to charge customers every 30 days. Look at app stores, Apple had meetings with devs a few years ago to get them on board with a subscription model for apps. Now it is the developer preferred model. Even (chain) restaurant food has been optimized for cost and not flavor.

etrabroline 6y ago

>that we've landed on milking as much money out of I take issues with your use of the word "we". If you asked them, 95% of people would say this should stop. In the past, economic and political leaders were drawn from the nation as a whole, and had a sense of loyalty and social obligation to their fellow countrymen, even if it meant leaving a few dollars on the table. Globalization and the increasing cultural and ethnic divide between the upper and lower classes in western countries has ended that fealty. May it soon return.

js2 6y ago
99% of people also hate how airlines treat them and think appliances should last more than a few years, but then when faced with a purchase decision, choose whatever is cheapest. Unfortunately, money talks and bullshit walks. :-(
- peterwoerner 6y ago
  When it comes to appliances, price and longevity seem to have no correlation. I find it is nearly impossible to figure out which appliances will last longer.
  - jdc 6y ago
    Maybe you can find an engineer on YouTube or Patreon that does appliance teardowns.
    - tracker1 6y ago
      Even then.. a lot of times the hardware is fine, but the controller boards are not built to last, and they just don't make replacements, and they aren't covered under the warranty. Like the washer or dryer physically is fine, but the control board fried/died. For refrigerators (looking at you GE), they build up dust, and the airflow fan dies because of built up dust. And try getting a replacement if you aren't a GE Certified repair person. Even GE referrals often suck and cannot do the job. Took three repair visits to get a fan replaced. If anyone has some solid refrigerator suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Preferably with water and ice in-door .
      - peterwoerner 6y ago
        And sure, if I had unlimited time I could get an Arduino and a circuit board and build one myself, but I just want it to work because I have other things to do.
    - specialist 6y ago
      Ask a repair person what they own. That's how we chose to replace my SO's laundry, dishwasher.
  - alharith 6y ago
    Buy a Speed Queen washer. That's about all I can say.
- 6y ago
cool_dude85 6y ago
In the past economic and political leaders were drawn from the nation as a whole? What period of time are you talking about?
- dmoy 6y ago
  Maybe they mean a country other than the US? Certainly no significant period of time has drawn a significant portion of national leaders in the US from anything but the elite. Hell for more than half of the history of the US, half the population wasn't even allowed to vote, much less make it into the Senate.
  - thatguy0900 6y ago
    I think he might be talking about career politicians vs "normal" elites who go into politics for a bit before returning to their previous field
MaximumYComb 6y ago
In which time period were the political leaders' drawn from the nation as a whole, and had a smaller cultural and ethnic divide between the wealthy and poor? According to wikipedia, 60% of the African-American senators EVER have been elected in the past 20 years. 40% of the total in the past 10 years. A significant proportion of the total African-Americans to have been in the house of reps are currently serving. Similar statistics for Latinos and Asian-Americans. Most western nations came from the British system, which literally had people born as noble.

saiya-jin 6y ago

I've stopped putting any money/attention in organized sports quite some time ago, I was disgusted my money-first orientation of basically all of them and how everything was focused on sponsorships, promotions etc rather than actual effort. Morals often go down the toilet, like in cycling. Anyway its infinitely better to focus on actually doing the sports rather than just watching them passively. I make exceptions from time to time, but only for more or less marginal sports without big bucks. If folks do it mainly because they love it, then count me in. Climbing seemed for a long time doing just fine, but its also changing, and with introduction on olympics I may start skipping that one too. All those that spend money on this are partially guilty... vote with your wallet and your time (which for ad business is money at the end).

theklub 6y ago

Check out http://www.fancam.com http://www.fancam.com It's creepy

jb775 6y ago
That is awesome and terrifying at the same time.
fenwick67 6y ago
...aaaand it's down.

chooseaname 6y ago

> We seem to have gotten so far away from what sports are about(two teams competing to see who's best) that we've landed on milking as much money out of the fans as they possibly can. It isn't just sports. It's everything. I've read several articles posted here on HN where someone makes a cool piece of hardware and they can't get funding until they come up with a subscription model to charge customers every 30 days. Look at app stores, Apple had meetings with devs a few years ago to get them on board with a subscription model for apps. Now it is the developer preferred model. Even (chain) restaurant food has been optimized for cost and not flavor.