Sports

[Bibio]

can people explain what's so exciting to them about watching sports like moto gp, snooker or football etc.etc.

i personally dont get it, its like watching paint dry especially cricket which is just as boring if not more so than snooker.

give me a reason to change...

[pookie]

No don't go changing

[johnnyrod]

It is entertaining to watch people at the top of their game, but otherwise I'm a doer not a watcher. Crciket, snooker, golf... zzzzzzz on all levels

[kaivalagi]

I can understand watching highlights for some sports, but I agree, most of the time watching in real time it's very very boring...

The only thing I find I can watch real time is sevens rugby, 7 minutes a side and fast paced, with a lot of countries playing over 2 days, that to me is doable.

[littleoldman2]

We live at a time when we are lucky that we are bombarded with cheap or free entertainment. I often have F1 free practice, build ups, pre shows on in the background and listen whilst doing other stuff. Today I will have on the moto go followed by F1. Only because the forecast on the hills is dire or I'd be out on the bike.
Cannot remember the last time I watched a film of a live drama on TV. Prior to January we often didn't have the telly on for 2 or 3 days at a time.
I don't like cricket and don't watch it on TV but as a young man living in Nottingham it was a good afternoon in the sun with friends and beer at Trent Bridge.

[Red ones]

We live at a time when we are lucky that we are bombarded with cheap or free entertainment.

This is one of my pet grumbles. Its not that cheap.
Take football as a (probably the most extreme) example. If you have subscription TV then you pay for the football whether to subscribe to the football channels or not. It has to be that way. The sums paid by the TV companies for the broadcast rights are higher than they can ever possibly recover from the subscribers, so they have to add some of the cost of the rights to everyone's package. They are squeezed on what they can screw out of advertising in a market where advertising is getting cheaper and cheaper, but even that cost comes back to you the consumer.
So I may only want to watch BBC1, ITV etc but I still have to pay for Premier League.

Is it any wonder that subscription TV sports packages are dropping in popularity and people are walking away from them?

To make even clearer, Premier League matches, if you can get a ticket, are often £30 - £50 although a lot fill on season tickets which can be £1,000, but half of the teams would make a profit without the ticket income (even with the running costs of the stadia). When challenged on the cost the clubs quote high running costs (I wonder if the ridiculous salaries have anything to do with that?). But if they turn a profit without the fans in the seats surely they can reduce the cost of the seats and still turn a profit. Nothing matches to the fan experience in the stands, the atmosphere, the sound, the spectacle etc, but the pricing doesn't encourage the visit.

Then there are sports that are better on TV. If you watch motor racing trackside, yes the sound, the smell etc, but the action is ALWAYS on the other side of the track wherever you are

[kaivalagi]

You don't have to pay for TV if you don't want (except for a BBC TV licence if that's what you watch), you can watch via freeview or via internet streaming (tvplayer app and the various channel based apps for catch-up), which is what I now do. I have fire TV boxes for streaming content and use Kodi on them to stream local media files I keep too.

[Talking Heads]

You either get a sport or you don't.
I really enjoy watching cricket, simple yet very complex.TdF is something I look forward to.I enjoy MotoGP, am not much interested in superbikes and have a real dislike of the TT, speedway I used to go watch Glasgow Tigers.
MotoGP I mostly watch the highlights show, if BT/Dorna did a pay per view option they would possibly have me as a customer.


youtube-dl is a handy cli tool for Linux.

[Red ones]

Don't start me on Kodi an TVPlayer. Is it just me or do they really have an awful UI?
Kodi needs a degree to find anything in less than 15 hours of searching. TVPlayer likes to stop if you don't press a button every nanosecond, do it encourages channel hopping like a frog.

[Bibio]

Don't start me on Kodi an TVPlayer. Is it just me or do they really have an awful UI?
Kodi needs a degree to find anything in less than 15 hours of searching. TVPlayer likes to stop if you don't press a button every nanosecond, do it encourages channel hopping like a frog.

your using the wrong skin for kodi then. yes the default GUI on kodi is shocking.

i love kodi as a media browser but i only watch local media as i use the netflix app and freesat on the tv for everything else.

back to watching sports.. i still dont get it.

[kaivalagi]

Don't start me on Kodi an TVPlayer. Is it just me or do they really have an awful UI?
Kodi needs a degree to find anything in less than 15 hours of searching. TVPlayer likes to stop if you don't press a button every nanosecond, do it encourages channel hopping like a frog.
I have my own Kodi build, I use the skin called Eminence 2 (https://kodi.tv/addon/skins/eminence-20) which I find decent, and have the video library setup using a NAS network share and a mysql database on the same server, admittedly it has taken some setting up but is now a build I can install easily...TV player works okay for me most of the time, running the fire TV version of it anyway....


youtube-dl is a handy cli tool for Linux.
It's available for Windows too....I use an alternative build on windows these days with a built in GUI, I think it's this one:
https://mrs0m30n3.github.io/youtube-dl-gui/

Very very handy, options in the UI for converting to MP3 too..

Sorry, gone off in a tangent, hope it helps some anyway....anyone else like rugby sevens? It's about the only sport I can stay interested in over time..

[Bibio]

i use a slightly modded (by myself) skin called xonfluence.

[Talking Heads]

back to watching sports.. i still dont get it.


Maybe try watching some women's tennis?

[Talking Heads]

anyone else like rugby sevens?


I don't have the first idea of the rules of rugby so the play makes no sense to me at all.
Union more so than league.

[Littlepeahead]

Once you understand cricket the strategy and complexities make it fascinating. T20 isn't that great, too much crash bang wallop. Nothing beats a great 5 day Test, the nerve, stamina, contest between bat and ball, how a bit of cloud can make a huge difference.

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[Bibio]

seriously.. cricket... watching a bunch of men whack a ball with a wooden stick then run up and down a strip of grass. ermmm no, i would rather chew broken glass.

[kaivalagi]

Cricket, nope, sorry, only reason to watch it would be for drinking....and there are better things to accompany a beer :)

[Red ones]

I will defend sport. Very little can evoke the emotions or sense of oneness. I just don't like it on TV because there is no atmosphere and there is usually a commentator.

I've seen Haile Gebrselassie destroy the field in races long enough for you to expect them to be dull as ditch water. Time each lap for the leader in a 5,000m race and explain how they are running identical laps - to the second which is all the more impressive as they run the opposition in to the ground.

There is little like a top international swimming race. Haven't been to one in years, but I suspect Adam Peaty at the 50m or 100m breaststroke is a sight. Pool halls are noisy enough on a Sunday morning, but get one on full international event and the atmosphere is incredible, especially if someone like Peaty is in the building.

Visit Twickenham for England v Wales and time it so you walk in to the lower stands just as the teams are about to walk out. I challenge anyone to not be impressed by the sight and sound of 80,000 rugby fans at probably the best match in the world. I apologise to any welsh members, I have never been to the Millennium Stadium for the reverse fixture so haven't been there for Wales to walk on to the pitch. (for those who think it might be like a football ground - your are mistaken. 80,000 fans all getting along, all singing, all drinking, all having a great time while 30 man mountains are on the pitch absolutely going at each other)

I thoroughly recommend a Sunday afternoon cricket match. Get a drink, sit down and let the afternoon flow over you. I love watching my son play. Village greens, churches, cottages, ale (or G&T). One match this year we had all that, with the peace and quiet only disrupted by the Battle of Britain memorial flight. Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd could have been sitting next to me with a dog.

[Bibio]

each to their own and all that but it just dont spark emotions in me. i would rather be doing it or out playing on my bike.

i understand about rugby as i went to a school (Boroughmuir) that was once famous for it but i still cant stand to watch it, i would rather be playing it but i'm well past doing that. as my PE teacher used to say when asked if we could play football instead.. "football is a poofs game.. are you a poofter boy"

[Littlepeahead]

Most (not all) of the cricketers I know can't see the appeal of motorcycling. Putting yourself at risk of every idiot car driver/bit of gravel/pot hole. Having to wear loads of heavy, expensive gear. Getting wet when it rains. Cleaning and oiling your chain, checking your tyres every trip, not even having a cup holder for your coffee...

But would any of us give it up?

Anyway yesterday I rode some fantastic roads from Chelmsford to Bury St Edmunds, then chilled out watching a mate bat!
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180826/fe09ccbbb4f6fc7726de9b371ebdd6a2.jpg

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[Red ones]

i understand about rugby as i went to a school (Boroughmuir) that was once famous for it but i still cant stand to watch it


I hated sport at school and despised the PE master. He once told me that I'd be no good at swimming if I didn't listen to him, I then proceeded to beat everyone else at backstroke (not my stroke) and had to explain I couldn't represent my house at sports day as I'd be on holiday. (Good job he didn't trial for breaststroke - I still take on my son, he does freestyle while I breaststroke. He loses, although he is getting closer)

Then I left and took up rugby at university. I then took up several other sports and even made a living out of them. I got paid to swim and to coach several other sports then I realised how dreadful the PE master had been and how little he understood of sport, how to participate, how to teach it, etc.

It taught me that individual sports like swimming are actually team sports and that to succeed takes more grit than natural skill. I left sport for something I'm actually good at and can earn a decent living at (one that supports children) but learnt about teamwork and hard graft on the way.

[Red ones]

Most (not all) of the cricketers I know can't see the appeal of motorcycling. Putting yourself at risk of every idiot car driver/bit of gravel/pot hole. Having to wear loads of heavy, expensive gear. Getting wet when it rains. Cleaning and oiling your chain, checking your tyres every trip, not even having a cup holder for your coffee...




Wusses