Do people actually watch this stuff?

I've often wondered this in similar cases, and since the Final Four press conferences are currently on ESPNews, but do people actually watch this stuff?

I'm in the business and I don't like press conferences, so I can't imagine regular fans watch these things.

I can see their usefulness in cases of retirements or major free-agent signings, but run-of-the-mill pre-Final Four pressers? Who cares what Chris Douglas-Roberts has to say about UCLA's defense?

Or are they just hoping to have it on the air live if someone says something controversial?

 

I think you'd be surprised at how many people want stuff like that. For a lot of fans, it's a way to see what someone says in its entirety (it eliminates the "it was taken out of context" defense). I think it also allows them to kind live vicariously through the sportswriters who attend the press conferences for a living. It's like they feel as though they are right there with us. I have several friends who download the weekly teleconference of Local U's conference. I call into it almost every week and find it only marginally useful or interesting. Yet, they can't get enough of it.

 

It doesn't matter if people watch it. It fills airtime.

 

If you don't watch pressers, you miss gems like hearing Crystal Langhorne, who is almost Gibbsian in her caution during interviews say, "it's Duke, c'mon now," when a reporter asked why Maryland students hate Duke so much. And you'd miss seeing Brenda Frese bust out laughing.

And every once in a while, a routine question leads to a controversial response.

 

Pre-Internet, when there was still the Big Four Classic at the Hoosier/RCA Dome, a few hundred Kentucky fans would stick around to watch Rick Pitino do his postgame radio network appearance. So, yeah, there's a demand.

 

They used to do that after every home game. Pitino said he got the idea to pipe the post-game radio interview over the Rupp PA system from seeing Cotton Fitzsimmons (I believe) do it in Phoenix.

 

I thought this thread was about 2 girls, 1 cup.

 

I thought it was another TMZ thread.

 

I'm a journalist, but I'll answer this as a fan: When my team makes it to a prestigious game (World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, Final Four, etc.), I want to soak up as much of the experience as I can . Unless you're a bandwagon fan, it's not too often your teams make these games, so I cherish these moments. Watching press conferences and interviews are just another ingredient to all of the buildup to the big games. I want to soak in everything possible.

 

I can understand why people who are die-hards would watch it: it gives them more of a bond to the team, makes them feel closer to the players and also gives them some kind of knowledge to spin off onto others to vindicate/rebut arguments.