Vikings DE Jared Allen BEGS fans to buy playoff tickets

I agree. I need to be dead drunk to enjoy an NFL game live at a stadium. Then, I worry more about the beer guy and bathrooms during the timeouts. If you're sober, it's hell just sitting there waiting.

 

Never understood how so many people on this site do NOT enjoy attending games. There's a lot to complain about (ticket/concession prices, traffic, TV timeouts, etc.) and if you're a reporter on a beat I can see how it would get old, but I can't remember the last time I did not have a good time when I was a game. Maybe I'm just not cynical enough.

 

If I'm sitting in the press box, I'm fine. I DETEST dealing with crowds, whether it's at the stadium, the shopping mall, etc.

Yes, there are 5 TV timeouts per quarter and one between quarters, so that's 22 in a 3-hour game. At 2 1/2 minutes each, that's 55 minutes, plus a 15-minute halftime, so you have 1:10 of dead time in a 3-hour window. Play-calling in the NFL is ultra-boring compared to the CFL or college games. It's basically run the ball into the line a couple of times and hope to make a conversion on 3rd-and-5 to keep the drive going, and then do the same thing again.

Factor in where most seats are located and that the view (replays, close ups, etc.) is better on TV and it's a no-brainer for me. I think the reason the NFL has stayed popular is because of marketing, not the actual quality of the games themselves.

 

Serious question, Buck - have you been to an NFL game lately?

It's not an issue of being cynical. I love going to college football games, MLB, and hockey. I even enjoy going to NBA games, and I don't care about basketball at all. My favorite time of year is March, when I take a week off and hit as many Cactus League games as I can.

The NFL, on the other hand, is a crashing bore in person. kickoff, timeout, run a play, timeout, run two plays, timeout, punt, timeout. It's a made for TV event now. And, not for nothing, to sit in an NFL crowd is to be surrounded by assholes, far more than any other sport I mentioned. Why would I shell out a few hundred bucks when I can enjoy the game more at home for free?

 

Oh, my MNF ticket to Jets-Chargers wasn't worth the $85 face I paid, either. And those were nose-bleeds (which, admittedly, I couldn't have afforded probably three years ago.) That's one of the reasons why I won't go to NFL games unless I have a damn good reason to. Seeing Favre for the last time and taking my girlfriend to her first NFL game was well worth it.

Point is, I still had a good time. I get the feeling from this board that many people here just don't enjoy attending games. And that strikes me as odd, especially coming from a group of sports journalists.

 

I'd love to know what percentage of those tickets --- season packages, corporate sponsors or individual --- were purchased after Labor Day.

 

Yes. Check my last post.

And I agree with you on the NFL. My point was more about a general attitude around here about attendance. Lot of cynical people here -- and in the biz -- seem to genuinely not enjoy being around sports. I do not understand that.

 

Should've been sitting next to me at 49ers-Bills back in November, then. What a dog, and I realize I'm insulting dogs. (But hey, at least the tailgate was good.)
I'll be honest -- I'm used to the TV timeouts and all, but when we had the blackout for part of the Chargers game up here, I loved watching the game without them. No replays or down-and-distance on the scoreboard? No problem. Talked to a couple of guys who covered the game -- one who called the radio play-by-play into his cell phone -- and other than the inconvenience in doing their jobs, they felt the same way.

 

Gotcha. I think we're largely in agreement here.

 

I guess for me, it's changed. When I was a kid, I LOVED going to games. Most years, my parents would get me tickets to ONE game that year as a birthday present and I looked forward to that all season.

Now, I guess the novelty factor has worn off. EVERY game in every league is televised, meaning I watch 5-8 games per week of one sort or another (even that has been dwindling in recent years). I've been to dozens, if not hundreds. More and more of the players strike me as not people I'd want to associate with. The game experience is too marketing oriented. I HATE being in large crowds.

I guess it's part of getting old.

 

I guess there's also a sense of entitlement factor. One of the reasons I chose sports journalism as a career when I was a teen was the idea of getting into events for free.

So, after attending a bunch of events that way, it's like "How DARE you to expect me to shell out my own cash to see an event?"