SuperBowl

[ChiMagic19]

I don't know about anyone else, but besides a great football game, was the Superbowl a disappointing game to anyone else. After seeing the Halftime show, several commercials replayed, and the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" before the game, I must say it was an overall disappointment.

[defencegirl22]

what's wrong with Paul McCartney?

[MDE3]

You were expecting "Em'n'em"? (spell check doesn't cover my lack of pop culture training..../wtimages/icons/frown.gif) Actually the whole scene gets such hype, it's hard for the game to live up to it. It's become such a humungous commercial party now, that the game itself is almost a secondary event.

[ChiMagic19]

I have nothing against Paul McCartney, but I am sure that most people would rather here songs that get your adrenaline flowing, the fact that my parents still listen to him is a bit discouraging.

[SpeedDemon]

I agree and the party I was at discussed this as well. Having whats-his-face and whats-her-face as the pregame show, and "Sir Paul" as the halftime show was pretty lame. It certainly didn't have anyone in our 30-something crowd paying any attention, so in that regard, it was a big stinker.

[Brooklynite10]

THe NFL has to realize that so many commercials damage the game. Takes away replays and game analysis which is crucial to watching a game. Even the commercials were real weak !

[MDE3]

Actually that is one of my theories about why hockey has become such a weak media event on TV.....

The need to compete with other major pro sports which have by their nature so many "natural" stoppages in the flow of the game, has made hockey a weak choice for network corpoarate programmers who no doubt evaluate air time, not just in terms of the ratings values, but also in terms of sellable air spots.

The natural flow of a hockey game is very momentum sensitive. Artificial stoppages can really impact the outcome of a game. Fans who are emotionally involved (because hockey fans respond very emotionally to games) with a game become very frustrated when the game is interupted by commericial air time. More so than most other major sports, who through the nature of the games have many more "natural" stoppages.

Recently even football seems to have exceeded the saturation point in terms of air time sales..where I counted on many occasions about 3 -5 minutes of ads for 30 seconds of game action...This is born out by the lower ratings for this last Superbowl. I think many fans (including me) were put to sleep during the playoffs of the previous weeks, by the constant bombardment of ads. Anticipating the same thing with the Superbowl, fans may have drifted away.

Hockey get's a double whammy in this respect. There are fewer "natural stoppages" in the game than other "pro sports, so there are fewer "sales spots" for corporate networks to use for ads. When they push more ads by having "TV time outs" or "delayed face-offs" to accomodate these extra commercials, they effect both the flow of the game, and the audience attention. This, much more dramtically than in other major sports....leading to lower ratings. Lower ratings in turn drives the chargeable value for these commericals down....a self fullfilling prophecy so to speak.

Hence the fall off in media attention for hockey. Has anyone else noticed how it's become media fashionable to "snicker" when hockey is even mentioned????

[NLane]

And remarks like "Oh, they're not playing now...didn't even notice". Those of us who like the game notice the empty space more right now than ever!! Too bad so many people and businesses, not just players/owners, have been effected because of the lack of revenue.

[Brooklynite10]

Those comments piss me off beyond belief. Only if these idiots knew what it takes to "lace em up". A possible solution to the commercial issues you spoke about would be pop up ads during games or during whistles. I know that spanish stations did this during soccer games a years back, but not sure if it is still done. How does MLS soccer create revenue without ANY stoppages in there games ??

[defencegirl22]

well, it was better than last year's halftime show. (then again, ANYTHING would be better than last year's halftime show.)