Big difference between professional and amateur The amateur is doing it because the want to and some are just as good as the pros. Professional means they make their living doing it dose not mean they are good but presumed so. A lot of these pros when they are on strike what do they do the same thing for no pay. So when a person who wants to play for nothing why do we pay them?? Like all entertainment [Hollywood] all get together and say just how important they are even to vote each other trophies [globe,emmy,and others] over paid and over rated.
I didn't go to college out of high school (got my degree later taking night classes), but I was in band in high school. I marched at home games and was in Pep Band, so also played at all of our away games. Years later I went to a handful of Redskin games during the Joe Gibbs era at RFK stadium. I was struck at how similar professional football is to high school football when you watch in person. It is not as well-orchestrated as it seems when you watch the product of a television production team.
That's a whole 'nother discussion regarding the current state of collegiate athletics. -Some play for fun and to represent their school -Others are there because it's a forced path to professional athletics -Regardless of the players' motivation, the schools make tons of money off of the athletes which far exceeds the cost (and value) of any scholarship
I've never really been into football or basketball in high school but my husband is. We were given tickets to a Cincinnati Bengals game and I was so disappointed. I wanted to see the replays and hear the commentator. All along my husband was rooting for the other team and I said, 'Maybe we are on the wrong side of the stadium.' We ended up having to move because we were in someone else's seats. I couldn't wait to go home and watch 'real football' on television.
Yup. "The experience" can be fun or it can be a frustrating disappointment. It also depends on where you sit and who sits nearby. And as you said, there is so much going on that you can follow the ball and not see infractions that are out of your field of vision. There's no replay when it's live. I was glad to have been there to watch games during that era of the Redskins' history, but--as you said--I also recall wishing I were at home to get a better view.
I have only attended a couple of pro baseball games, and those were because my work group got free tickets as some kind of "award" at work to see the Astros. Confirmed my suspicion that MLB is as boring in person as it is on TV. We used to be big NFL fans and my husband has been a die-hard Cowboys fan forever. The Kaepernick thing caused us to turn off the TV on Sunday afternoons and it hasn't been a big deal. I can't stand Jerry Jones (Cowboys' owner) but did admire his stance with the players... "kneel or have a job." I'm curious how that will play out this year but not enough to watch.
MLB players have come out of the gate this year kneeling for the anthem. If you asked for specifics, they would tell you "Social Justice." *sigh* The blind compliance is frightening. Funny you should mention work and baseball. The last game I saw was in the early 80s when Baltimore was playing Detroit. A group of us from work got together and went. We did things like that because we were a joint venture between a French company and Honeywell, so lots of my coworkers were French and French Canadian (funny, I did the same stuff when working for a Japanese company...they loved John Denver) We drove all the way to Baltimore for an 8PM game. There were on & off rain delays. It went on for 5 hours. I must have paced the circumference of that stadium a dozen times out of boredom. At 1AM play was called, because that's past the bedtime of the American League players. Never again.
It's brilliant marketing. Shut out the boredom for only $100!! It's a damned bargain!!!! I'd pay $200.
Once they go to a regulation-sized ball (or scale-down the hoop) and stop siphoning money from the men's league, then they shall move closer to attaining the moral standing to talk about inequality.