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NFL may eliminate Pro Bowl. UPD changing format to week of skills and a flag football game

LadyStanley

LadyStanley

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Did Allegiant Stadium host final Pro Bowl of its kind?

NFL owners are discussing ways to alter the Pro Bowl, which could mean preserving the weeklong festivities but eliminating the tackle football game portion.
www.reviewjournal.com www.reviewjournal.com

May continue week long celebration, but eliminate tackle football game. So many players have opted out over the years.

Decision could be announced this summer.
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edog37

edog37

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LadyStanley said:
www.reviewjournal.com

Did Allegiant Stadium host final Pro Bowl of its kind?

NFL owners are discussing ways to alter the Pro Bowl, which could mean preserving the weeklong festivities but eliminating the tackle football game portion.
www.reviewjournal.com www.reviewjournal.com

May continue week long celebration, but eliminate tackle football game. So many players have opted out over the years.

Decision could be announced this summer.
Click to expand...
good, now every other sports league out there needs to follow suit. All Star games are a waste of time.
 
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tarheelhockey

tarheelhockey

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edog37 said:
good, now every other sports league out there needs to follow suit. All Star games are a waste of time.
Click to expand...

ASGs make a lot of sense for showcasing the league in different markets. It's an amazing experience for the host city and a bonus for STHs and sponsors.

Problem with the Pro Bowl was that it didn't move around. They had it in Hawaii until the past few years and then moved it to Orlando, which meant it was basically a vacation for the players and journalists but not really a showcase of the league. Not really sure why they went with that model, maybe it was to ensure good weather, but they still got a half-empty stadium in Orlando because of some mild drizzle. It was just never a very well executed concept, and maybe the wrong idea for the sport of football in particular (hence going to flag football).
 

Reaser

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NFL is it's own thing when it comes to ASG games.

Any comment section or social network today will be flooded with "I never watched the game" while saying how they've always liked the "skills competition." Another example of places like twitter not being a good gauge of things like this.

6-7M still watched the Pro Bowl, which has been awful for years. Less than 1M watched the skills competition, which real people care even less about. Less than a mil for anything "NFL" is horrible. A pretty wide gap, ratings wise, from skills competition to ASG, which doesn't exist in the other Big 4 leagues. Why I said the NFL is it's own thing. With NHL, NBA, MLB, the audience is similar with a little uptick for the actual ASG from the skills competition (HR derby, All-Star Saturday Night).

Looking at most recent viewership for each:

MLB: HR Derby got 6.9M, ASG got 7.5M
NBA: Saturday Night got 4.2M, ASG got 6.2M
NHL: Skills got 1.1M, ASG got 1.2M
NFL: Skills got 866K, Pro Bowl got 6.7M

One of those is really not like the other.
 
edog37

edog37

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tarheelhockey said:
ASGs make a lot of sense for showcasing the league in different markets. It's an amazing experience for the host city and a bonus for STHs and sponsors.

Problem with the Pro Bowl was that it didn't move around. They had it in Hawaii until the past few years and then moved it to Orlando, which meant it was basically a vacation for the players and journalists but not really a showcase of the league. Not really sure why they went with that model, maybe it was to ensure good weather, but they still got a half-empty stadium in Orlando because of some mild drizzle. It was just never a very well executed concept, and maybe the wrong idea for the sport of football in particular (hence going to flag football).
Click to expand...

except that is a bad product on the field or on the ice. The ratings are terrible for these kind of events. And realistically, how much more showcasing does the NFL need...in Florida?

The Winter Classic works since it's an actual regular season game played in its native environment. It means something to the teams involved. Granted it was overexposed with the stadium series nonsense, but had they kept to having just one game per year throughout, it would be far more attractive now.
 

StreetHawk

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Reaser said:
NFL is it's own thing when it comes to ASG games.

Any comment section or social network today will be flooded with "I never watched the game" while saying how they've always liked the "skills competition." Another example of places like twitter not being a good gauge of things like this.

6-7M still watched the Pro Bowl, which has been awful for years. Less than 1M watched the skills competition, which real people care even less about. Less than a mil for anything "NFL" is horrible. A pretty wide gap, ratings wise, from skills competition to ASG, which doesn't exist in the other Big 4 leagues. Why I said the NFL is it's own thing. With NHL, NBA, MLB, the audience is similar with a little uptick for the actual ASG from the skills competition (HR derby, All-Star Saturday Night).

Looking at most recent viewership for each:

MLB: HR Derby got 6.9M, ASG got 7.5M
NBA: Saturday Night got 4.2M, ASG got 6.2M
NHL: Skills got 1.1M, ASG got 1.2M
NFL: Skills got 866K, Pro Bowl got 6.7M

One of those is really not like the other.
Click to expand...
Player safety and injury is the big thing for the nfl.

Guys can be off for 2-4 weeks before this game.

Baseball is the same game. Outside of barrelling over the catcher the players play it the same way. I don’t think pitchers throw any slower or rhe hitters don’t try to make contact. NBA is more of a one on one challenge or a change to put in a high lite wheel of passing.

Nhl like nfl loses the essence of the game without the contact.
 
tarheelhockey

tarheelhockey

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edog37 said:
except that is a bad product on the field or on the ice. The ratings are terrible for these kind of events. And realistically, how much more showcasing does the NFL need...in Florida?
Click to expand...

The quality of the actual game is pretty secondary to the event as a whole. Think about it, across all the years that all of these leagues have held ASGs, how many “classic” in-game moments spring to mind? In the NHL I can think of maybe 2 or 3 off the top of my head. But there are a ton of memorable moments from the skills competition, and the actual All Star Weekend is a blast.

The only league that really gets it is the NBA. When the All Star Game rolls into town, it has a Super Bowl like effect on the host city. The players get full celebrity treatment like it’s the Oscars. Media following them everywhere, non-sports celebs showing up to schmooze with them. The game is more about celeb sightings and stroking corporate sponsors than pretending it’s a competitive game. That’s really what these events are about, and it’s always been that way to a large extent (Pete Rose notwithstanding).

edog37 said:
The Winter Classic works since it's an actual regular season game played in its native environment. It means something to the teams involved. Granted it was overexposed with the stadium series nonsense, but had they kept to having just one game per year throughout, it would be far more attractive now.
Click to expand...

Yep, they had an amazing idea and managed to make it seem mediocre.
 
CharasLazyWrister

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I just have never understood the appeal. I guess you could say it about spectating sports in general, but every time I go to watch something like an all-star game which has no meaning, even in the context of whatever league it is, I find myself asking “why am I watching this?”
 
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Section 104

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One thing about All Star games is they fund, or at least help fund, players pension plans. I don’t know if anyone has ever released a breakdown of the financing of those but if you got rid of them, leagues and players would have to make it up elsewhere. How many people willingly go into their bosses office and ask for a pay reduction?
One of the few times I even tried to watch the NFL Pro Bowl was in 1974 when it was played in Kansas City (Arrowhead Stadium had just opened and after some 20 years of it being in Los Angeles they tried several different cities before figuring players would be least likely to turn down a trip to Hawaii). Anyways at the time Kansas City and Oakland had a very fierce rivalry so one of the players for the “home” AFC was running back Marv Hubbard of the Raiders. Hubbard wore the same number as Floyd Little of Denver Broncos so they gave Hubbard the jersey meant for Larry Csonka since he decided he was injured. The first few times Hubbard carried the ball the crowd cheered so the broadcast team of Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis chuckled that maybe the crowd saw “39“ and thought it was Csonka of Miami. Once the PA announcer began saying things like “Hubbard with a 4 yard gain” the crowd started booing.
Baseball is the only one that makes sense since the game is essentially pitcher vs batter. Haven’t bothered with the others since the 1970s. The only good thing to say about NASCAR’s all star race, which I’ve never understood, is next year they are going to North Wilkesboro for the first time since 2003 as it has been revived with government money.
 

CHRDANHUTCH

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Section 104 said:
One thing about All Star games is they fund, or at least help fund, players pension plans. I don’t know if anyone has ever released a breakdown of the financing of those but if you got rid of them, leagues and players would have to make it up elsewhere. How many people willingly go into their bosses office and ask for a pay reduction?
One of the few times I even tried to watch the NFL Pro Bowl was in 1974 when it was played in Kansas City (Arrowhead Stadium had just opened and after some 20 years of it being in Los Angeles they tried several different cities before figuring players would be least likely to turn down a trip to Hawaii). Anyways at the time Kansas City and Oakland had a very fierce rivalry so one of the players for the “home” AFC was running back Marv Hubbard of the Raiders. Hubbard wore the same number as Floyd Little of Denver Broncos so they gave Hubbard the jersey meant for Larry Csonka since he decided he was injured. The first few times Hubbard carried the ball the crowd cheered so the broadcast team of Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis chuckled that maybe the crowd saw “39“ and thought it was Csonka of Miami. Once the PA announcer began saying things like “Hubbard with a 4 yard gain” the crowd started booing.
Baseball is the only one that makes sense since the game is essentially pitcher vs batter. Haven’t bothered with the others since the 1970s. The only good thing to say about NASCAR’s all star race, which I’ve never understood, is next year they are going to North Wilkesboro for the first time since 2003 as it has been revived with government money.
Click to expand...
Wilkesboro also had SMI as a partner along with a Hall of Fame driver turned broadcaster which helped revive that facility.....since late models and a few other events have revitalized that facility.... it wasn't the pandemic $ that NC granted them.... the entire facility was scheduled to be what Bristol was the last 2 years a dirt track, replacing the 5/8 asphalt... it's also why the promoter at the time couldn't convert it from asphalt to dirt back to asphalt and it was deemed that the current track surface was fine.... the amentities since 1996 are where this $ is likely being spent to bring Wilkesboro back to modern day specs
 

oknazevad

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The Pro Bowl has always had a two-fold problem. First is timing. Unlike the other all-star games that are mid-season showcases that also give everyone not playing a break (especially good for the grind of the 6-month long schedules), the Pro Bowl has always been at the end of the season, either after the Super Bowl (when no one cares because the season is over) or more recently in the week before it, when the players from the conference champions are not available and everyone else has been home for at least a couple of weeks. And the other issue is that football has become an inherently injurious game, so why make anyone play more? (Though that does raise the question as to why play the sport at all, or at least why not change the game to make it safer. In both cases, stupid machismo is the answer, but I digress.)

Neither of these aid the Pro Bowl in being embraced by anyone involved. Though I'll admit I was surprised by how many people actually watch it. Either way, is not like the other all-star games, and isn't really comparable to them.
 

StreetHawk

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oknazevad said:
The Pro Bowl has always had a two-fold problem. First is timing. Unlike the other all-star games that are mid-season showcases that also give everyone not playing a break (especially good for the grind of the 6-month long schedules), the Pro Bowl has always been at the end of the season, either after the Super Bowl (when no one cares because the season is over) or more recently in the week before it, when the players from the conference champions are not available and everyone else has been home for at least a couple of weeks. And the other issue is that football has become an inherently injurious game, so why make anyone play more? (Though that does raise the question as to why play the sport at all, or at least why not change the game to make it safer. In both cases, stupid machismo is the answer, but I digress.)

Neither of these aid the Pro Bowl in being embraced by anyone involved. Though I'll admit I was surprised by how many people actually watch it. Either way, is not like the other all-star games, and isn't really comparable to them.
Click to expand...
Team sports ASG, the best is MLB, NBA noting that it’s going to be over passing, limited team D, and one on one moments. Soccer with no contact not too far off what you see in games, hopefully the players kind of agree to not do any sliding tackles. NHL and NFL are the 2 contact sports so the game is no where close to what a regular game is.
 
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tarheelhockey

tarheelhockey

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CharasLazyWrister said:
I just have never understood the appeal. I guess you could say it about spectating sports in general, but every time I go to watch something like an all-star game which has no meaning, even in the context of whatever league it is, I find myself asking “why am I watching this?”
Click to expand...

The bolded is pretty much the answer to your question. Why watch sports at all?

There are literally hundreds of games on the NHL schedule which have no meaning at all. On Wednesday, over 10000 people paid actual money to see a preseason game between the Sabres and Blue Jackets where none of the top players were in the lineup. It's just what we do as a society, we enjoy a spectacle.
 
CharasLazyWrister

CharasLazyWrister

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tarheelhockey said:
The bolded is pretty much the answer to your question. Why watch sports at all?

There are literally hundreds of games on the NHL schedule which have no meaning at all. On Wednesday, over 10000 people paid actual money to see a preseason game between the Sabres and Blue Jackets where none of the top players were in the lineup. It's just what we do as a society, we enjoy a spectacle.
Click to expand...

Your point about the preseason is ultimately a matter of perspective. I watch preseason with a different mindset. I want to see how my team’s prospects look and I’m (obviously) not focused on building points in the standings. 25 bucks to get at least some of the NHL experience and entertainment is worth it to me, but that all depends on the viewer.

I think the draw to following a team and watching them throughout the season is because you can sort of ride the ups and downs and see all the steps along the way that leads a team to its ultimate fate at the end of their season. A singular all-star game doesn’t have a bigger story arc attached to it. It’s a standalone game that ultimately affects nothing bigger. And even if it is the most talented players in the world, they have no real reason to show it.

The “highlights” that generally come out of an all-star game are things like Ovechkin wearing a silly hat during the skills competition and an enforcer getting ironically voted on to one of the teams. There’s certainly a spectacle being created, but it barely qualifies as hockey to me. Not worth watching. There’s no meaning to it beyond the immediate entertainment factor which is ultimately a matter of opinion anyways as to whether or not it entertains you.
 
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