It's right, just doesn't fully explain being "involved in play". For most people it's enough to get the idea.
Interesting stuff here ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_history_of_American_football ....also I saw a theory that American Football is so named because the ball was roughly one foot long. (not to be confused with the smaller rounder rugby ball)
I can’t deny that it is huge and highly televised but maybe you can explain how does anyone make any money televising it? What am I missing? I must be missing something. To make money by televising a sport the Sportsball must come to a full and complete stop. The pause must be in multiple intervals of 30 seconds. (30-60-90-120-150-180...etc.) During this pause commercial adverts are inserted into the broadcast, purchased in $xxxxxxx dollar amounts per thirty seconds. Afterward... ...the Sportsball may resume or restart. Soccer fails to conform to that pattern. What does soccer offer to an advertiser?
Your diagram was utterly cryptic. What are the blue dots, for instance? Does the arrow represent the ball? Does it represent the path made by a running player?
Also Hockey. Also basketball. Constant motion, back-and-forth games the lot of them. The HD television screen may save Hockey. With a big enough HD screen it becomes possible to see and follow the puck. Before HD it was just a fleeting blur. Basketball is only interesting for the final three minutes of play. Prior to that both teams score lots of goals, none of which mean very much.
Uh, whut? You do realise that the television rights in the UK for the Premiership at least go to subscription only channels - where you pay money just for the privilege of being able to watch them? Football doesn't need to conform to those patterns because television adverts aren't where it makes the money. The teams and leagues make money from kit sponsors, ground sponsors, and league sponsors, and the TV channels make money by selling access to watch the games. Job done.
That always bothered me as well. A friend who is into Ice Hockey finally told me: You don't watch the puck, you watch the players. With a bit of practice you can see what is going on by their motions. That's also the way you do it in the stadium, since pretty much only the front rows can even see the puck. That being said: I was at a Ice Hockey game once and it was good fun. Great atmosphere.
I see what I was missing. And why any form of Soccer is way down the list of sports in the US. “...where you pay money just for the privilege of being able to watch...” This ^ business model ^ is almost non-existent, Dead On Arrival, in the US. And that is the difference. People are not forced to pay for the privilege of having a channel to watch. Any given show, sport, or broadcast has to individually earn its keep.
Yeah, the cost of that is that every 30 minutes of TV you watch in the US you get to watch 10 minutes of adverts. Sounds like hell to me.
Or I'm paying for the privilege of watch a game (structured to be played without interruptions on a regular basis) without adverts. edit: seriously, those games (football and american football) are structured in very different ways. One can be easily filled with spots because of interructions of play with a regular timing, the other one is not. Of course the money must come from different sources.
The average NFL football game lasts over 3 hours. Of that 3+ hours, the ball is only in play for about 11 minutes. Even in the US you do have to pay for the privilege to watch channel , you have to pay with your time (and usually expensive cable/sport packages as well).
Oh come on that says nothing. In many sports there isn't something moving for most of the time. Examples from sports that I enjoy watching: - Curling: A few seconds of a stone moving and then at least as much pause, likely more. - Snooker: Balls moving for few seconds, people walking around the table thinking for at least as much time, often longer, and sometimes much longer - Archery: Arrow flying for one second - Chess: People moving a piece for one second, then several minutes of thinking EDIT: And yes I know Chess is really a stretch. That's me trolling a bit I guess.
But many sports offer plenty more game-time action: Basketball, Soccer, Hockey, Tennis, MMA, etc. Also of all the "sports" you listed, I don't think any of them enjoy very high viewership... when contrasted against something like soccer. Chess and Snooker aren't even sports to me. Today everything seems to be considered a sport. Video games are moving into that realm as well. Is Warhammer a sport? Of course that is a different debate altogether.
I understand that Chess is a stretch, I also have my problems with that definition of sport. Not every competitive game is sport to me, especially if it has such a big mental component and no physical one at all. But Snooker???? Snooker is so clearly a sport, it requires endurance like hell and a LOT of precision in movement.
I prefer my sports more "sporty". Drawing/painting takes a LOT of precision in movement as well, would a drawing competition constitute as sport? Video games also require a lot of precision in movement.