BS: Americans (US), sports and patience

Subject: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: Ed.
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:05 PM

Over here in England, there seems to be a perception that American (USA) sport fans have a limited attention fan, and that sports like Cricket could never catch on, for the simple reason that the match takes too long to complete.

Is that reasonable?

You seem to like golf which takes 4 days...

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: Becca72
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:11 PM

Baseball takes approximately a year and a half to finish and that's our national passtime (supposedly).

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: Peace
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:14 PM

And THAT'S just the pre-game warm up.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: Becca72
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:15 PM

God forbid they need to go into extra innings!

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: gnu
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:17 PM

Hahahaha... never thought of it that way, Becca!

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: Ed.
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:18 PM

LOL!

By attention fan I meant attention span, but you probably knew that

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: Ed.
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:21 PM

Will be interesting to hear what people who like SPORT THINK

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: Becca72
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:25 PM

I like sports....Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, Boxing...I just don't like baseball and football because, as you stated in your opening post, I think they take too long :-) Ok, so it's not that they take too long so much as that there seems like there are long periods of inactivity and I find that boring.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: bobad
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:26 PM

Then there's ice fishing.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:29 PM

I sat through a hockey game that went through multiple overtimes and multiple shootouts; it took a LONG time and ran quite late past my bedtime-- no problemo. Of course the play of the game itself is quite fast, but then I also like watching a golf match on a lazy afternoon. Haven't seen cricket, but I'd check it out. It HAS to be more entertaining than baseball!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: gnu
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:33 PM

It IS much more, Susan. But, no way it can fit into NA TV.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: Becca72
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:34 PM

Same here, Susan. I went to a playoff game a few years ago that started at 7:05pm and ended at 2:15am. My hometown team needed to win or be eliminated from the playoff race. It was a very exciting game!
When I lived in Vermont my ex and I used to go to Montreal all the time as he was a lifelong Expos fan. I found it much more entertaining to watch the crowd and often didn't have a clue what was going on in the game. Which was OK because it didn't change very much.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: artbrooks
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 05:42 PM

Oh, we watch a lot of sports that take a long time for a single game/match to finish. On the other hand, I've been told that even most Brits don't spend much time watching cricket.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 07:06 PM

Very true artbrooks. The correct way to watch cricket, assuming you're not at a proper match*, is to listen to it on the Radio, whilst doing something else. The commentators will spend a very long time talking about this and that, or the cake that someone has sent in for their birthday, and only occasionally touch on the game in hand.

* A proper cricket match takes place on a village green, with a pub. Some of the players will be in morris whites.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: Bee
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 08:16 PM

For the most part, I really do prefer watching paint dry than watching most sports on TV - there's some satisfaction in the paint's progress.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: mack/misophist
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 08:48 PM

Does chess count? And go is becoming more popular here in the western world.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: Dazbo
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 03:19 AM

US team sports seem to like having big teams with lots of substitutions. My theory is they had lots of players but not many teams so they used lots of people to give them all a game.

Quite how high school matches seem to attract crowds in hundreds or thousands is quite beyond my comprehension here in the UK

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: GUEST,ib48
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 04:06 PM

i think your sports are crap.You ruined rugby,have a freak show called basketball,and your national game is rounders,which was a joke game we played at school now and again.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: bobad
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 04:17 PM

Hear Hear old chap, bring on fox hunting, polo and cricket, that will show the colonials how a proper gentleman engages in the sporting arts.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: GUEST,ib48
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 04:25 PM

bring on soccer,and proper rugby old chum,they are proper sports

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: GUEST,Scoville
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 04:38 PM

If that were true, there would be no audience for televised golf.

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: GUEST,ib48
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 04:40 PM

golf is a boring farty up yer own arse sport for gits

Subject: RE: BS: Americans (US), sports and patience
From: GUEST,ib48
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 04:41 PM

i forgot to add,gits in stupid trousers