Explain the appeal of spectator sports (esp. in males)

In My Humble Opinion
41

[QUOTE=Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]
Ah, but here’s the thing.

The question is, “why do people like sports,” not “why should people like sports?”

I don’t care what you like, as long as you like it. But “art” people rarely extend the same courtesy to “sport” people.
I like sports because people can relate to it. At the end of it all, it’s just people playing a game. Nobody comes to see me and my pals play baseball because I can’t crush it 400 feet, but they’ll build a stadium around a guy who can. Because that’s just cool.

And, as I have said before, when you appeal to that many people, there exists a power.

Jackie Robinson. Last year’s New Orleans Saints. The 2001 World Series. The games played right after 9/11. Ichiro Suzuki’s major league debut. Michael Jordan. Joe Louis’s win over Max Schmeling, Jesse Owens’s wins in Berlin; the Olympic protest. The Miracle on Ice.

These people, these events- they capture the imagination of people in a way that other media, other people, other things, simply cannot. No parade could have done for the people what the Saints home opener did. Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron were just as important to the civil rights movement as any politician or activist. When a woman beats a man in a marathon (and mark my words, that day is coming) it will be bigger than Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs (and that was huge). And the glory of sport is this: you never know when that next amazing, galvanizing, world-shocking moment will be- because it could be any or EVERY time.

We watch sports because our own struggles are shown to others- and those struggles are theirs as well- and by that we are unified.
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Underlining mine. (He already bolded)

Or it never happens…which brings the tragedy…

42

[QUOTE=garygnu]
Hating the Yankees transcends normal sports. All sane people on earth hate the Yankees, and so will aliens when they get here.
This could apply to most, if not all, sports. I prefer trick-shot competitions to standard billiards.
Barry Bonds or A-Rod at bat.
One-handed catches by Frank Gore or Steve Smith.
Fade-away jumpers by Jordan, dunks by Drexler.
How-the-hell-did-he-do-that saves by Nabokov or Hašek.
These are a few of my favorite things. :stuck_out_tongue:
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If there was an amount of money I could amass or bring up through going door-to-door to ensure that the Yankees would go 0-162 for the rest of my life, I’d do it.

I’m a Tigers fan, by the way.

43

[QUOTE=RickJay]
With all due respect, this is bullshit. It’s been explained in tremendous detail, and if you’re still saying “Nope, it hasn’t been explained” you’re not being entirely honest in your response.
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It hasn’t been explained persuasively.

Um. No. And I’ll thank you not to assume you think you know my thoughts. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. As long as what people like doesn’t involve torturing or murdering other humans for sport, people can have at whatever they wish and are welcome to it.

I tried. That which sports lovers care about is not anything I care about. I don’t expect I will. I don’t really buy the premise of ‘struggle’. It might apply to someone who tries to run the fastest race time ever, but I just don’t see it in team sports.

I do think sports are about an ‘us vs them’ thing and that doesn’t turn my crank. History also bores me to tears and I’m overjoyed that I’ll never have to sit through a ‘lit-rit’chur’ class again. Doesn’t mean these things are bad any more than it means lobster is bad. I just don’t like any of them. But I’m well aware that nobody appointed me the Arbiter of All Matters of Taste so it matters not a whit that I do or not. I just popped in to discuss why I don’t see that everything in the category of ‘entertainment’ is analogous, contrary to what some people claimed.

44

My father once asked my Mexican uncle why he liked to watch soccer. My uncle replied, “after drinking a twelve pack of beer, I’ll watch anything”. I think that pretty much sums it up.

45

galen and Quiddity Glomfuster, you are either trying to pick a fight or your reading comprehension is remarkably deficient.

How have we failed to explain the appeal?

46

[QUOTE=Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

How have we failed to explain the appeal?
[/QUOTE]

Try to think of sports as similar to cilantro. Those who love it can attempt to explain their love for years to those who hate it. To no avail. Chaqu’un à son goût.

47

[QUOTE=Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

Sports are not like drugs in those 80’s afterschool specials. Nobody is out there trying to force you into it. We like it. We hope you do too. If you don’t, so be it.
[/QUOTE]

Gym class.

For one hour a day, you are forced to play sports. If you don’t participate, you get a bad grade. If you don’t like it, you’re an outcast. If you’re not athletic, you have to endure the humiliation of getting picked last for teams. You possibly get physically intimidated and bullied by those who are bigger and more athletic. Add in body image issues, and the fact that this is happening at a time when you are undergoing puberty and psychosexual development, and you’ve got a potent cocktail.

I’m not here to bash sports, but I think the above does explain why a lot of people hate them. Personally, I overcame the trials and humiliation of gym class by trying to be better at sports and by becoming more athletic - but plenty of kids just give up, feel bitter and resentful, and hate sports.

48

[QUOTE=Martini Enfield]
You’ve never lived in Australia or New Zealand, have you? Saying you don’t like sports here is analogous to being a Communist in the 1950s or admitting that you secretly enjoy kicking puppies and giving The Finger to litters of kittens.
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Well, I’ve lived in New Zealand and Australia (for longer than you perhaps) and that has not been my experience at all. As someone who has zero interest in aussie rules you’d think that I’d have been hounded, belittled, and mocked. But no, I seem to have escaped this persecution. Have I just been deaf and blind to it all?

Come to think of it, no one’s ever asked if I “like sports” so I don’t know why I’d ever say it.

49

[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever]
If there was an amount of money I could amass or bring up through going door-to-door to ensure that the Yankees would go 0-162 for the rest of my life, I’d do it.

[/QUOTE]

I’m in for $20!

50

[QUOTE=garygnu]
She understands actually playing, but not the entertainment people find in watching. […] We’re both really getting into hockey, which she finds entertaining, a fact which she refused to consider when posing this question.
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This makes your wife an idiot and her question unworthy of response.

51

This thread isn’t about why people hate sports. This thread is about explaining the appeal of sports.

I understand why people hate sports. I understand THAT people hate sports.

But what does that have to do with understanding why people like sports? Absolutely nothing.

52

The “I don’t get sports” people always get my goat. Unless you live in a sensory deprivation chamber, what is there to get?

The reasons, as others have pointed out are really quite simple:

  1. Enjoyment of a particular skill.
  2. Following the personalities and plotlines that come once you follow the game, a team, or a player. Just like how someone finds dramatic television or film interesting, knowing that a player is returning from an injury, or something like the Peyton Manning Superbowl drama is interesting to me.
  3. Eh, it’s on TV, a bunch of people watch the event, and cheer at the same time.
  4. Civic pride and unity. When the Sox are doing well (as they are now, ha ha Yankee fans), it’s a discussion piece in Boston for everybody. We all follow the team’s fortunes to some extent.
  5. Some people just like it. Some people can’t stand the taste of strawberries, while others want strawberries on everything. Most of us fall somewhere in-between.

“Non sports people” tend to lump all sports aficionados into the zealot group. Zealotry is a sliding scale. During particular points in your life you might slide one way, in others the opposite. I’ve cried because a team I follow has won or lost a game. I’ve paid extravagant amounts of money to see a team play. But I’ve also skipped a game because I was tired, had to work, or just wasn’t that interested. I’ve also laughed at the absurdity of a favorite team or athlete having a shitty day and losing. I know people like to think there’s this broad line that separates civilized people from the guys who get buried in a Cleveland Browns casket, but it really isn’t.

Claiming not to understand the appeal of sport is one of the most obnoxious forms of snobbery, IMO. I don’t personally like role playing games or Renaissance Faires, or obscure foreign films as a general genre… however, I can certainly appreciate how others do, and I have participated in some of these activities and walked away thinking, “That’s kind of fun/interesting/engaging.” Obviously not to the extent that those who are fans of those things are. I enjoy operas, plays, musicals, soap operas (some), and reality TV (some). I also hate some versions of those things.

What’s to understand?

53

[QUOTE=RickJay]
Watching sports makes me think.
[/QUOTE]
Not sure if this is what you meant by this, but I think the main reason my husband likes sports is because he enjoys the strategy element to them…he has a very analytical-type brain, which, at the risk of not being politically correct, is a trait that I think a lot of males have. It’s like war and all that drivel. :slight_smile:

I like sports, too, but more for the drama aspect some people have mentioned, as well as just enjoying watching the physical skills involved…someone making a great defensive play in baseball, or catching a long pass in football is just cool to me. Of course, there is drama in each play as it unfolds, which is kind of fun in itself.

54

[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
Gym class.

For one hour a day, you are forced to play sports. If you don’t participate, you get a bad grade. If you don’t like it, you’re an outcast. If you’re not athletic, you have to endure the humiliation of getting picked last for teams. You possibly get physically intimidated and bullied by those who are bigger and more athletic. Add in body image issues, and the fact that this is happening at a time when you are undergoing puberty and psychosexual development, and you’ve got a potent cocktail.

I’m not here to bash sports, but I think the above does explain why a lot of people hate them. Personally, I overcame the trials and humiliation of gym class by trying to be better at sports and by becoming more athletic - but plenty of kids just give up, feel bitter and resentful, and hate sports.
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I suppose I can see where this is coming from, but it’s a little strange to me. Did sports take on some sort of mythological status? I’d say most of us aren’t particularly good at them. I suck at most sports, and I was colossally uncoordinated (hell, I still am). I tried out for choir and didn’t make it. I still like to sing and listen to music, even though I don’t have any particular aptitude for it.

55

[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster]
So whether or not the people playing the parts are real, the characters they portray have personalities that may or may not be interesting or engaging for a number of reasons and the situations they end up in and what they do about them are all commentaries on humans and human behaviour.
[/QUOTE]
The point has been made repeatedly in this thread that watching sports is (or can be) character-driven, just as thoroughly as watching scripted dramas can.

Example: Peyton Manning. The quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts had been flogged mercilessly for his perceived shortcomings; “Sure, he’s a good quarterback, but he always folds like a cheap suit at crunch-time” was the refrain we heard over and over. Then, this year, the Colts make it to the championship game. Everyone’s wondering whether Peyton’s perceived character flaw is going to bring him down. Will he choke?

Since I suspect pretty strongly that you don’t care, I won’t bore you with the answer. This is an example–one example, of thousands and thousands–of the character-driven nature of sports. In other words–or rather in your words–“the situations they end up in and what they do about them are all commentaries on humans and human behaviour.”

Frankly, I couldn’t have written a better statement of why I enjoy watching sports. Sports fans and reality-TV fans are satisfying the exact same desire in watching their respective preferred entertainments.

Granted, there are other reasons people enjoy sports. Part of it is like the enjoyment of live music concerts, as distinct from music recorded in the studio; in sports there’s no “Oops, I screwed up, stop the tape and back up and I’ll give it another shot.” It’s one of the “lively arts,” and part of the pleasure lies in watching it done well in the moment. Seeing Joshua Bell play live is jaw-droppingly different from hearing a recording, which he might have done a dozen times before he got it just right. (Side note: This was also part of the pleasure of watching Children of Men last year: those bravura, five-minute, unbroken takes involving hundreds of actors and crew, all choreographed and perfectly executed over a miles-long set. Filmmaking on a high-wire; it was terrifying to watch.)
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster]
I tried. That which sports lovers care about is not anything I care about. I don’t expect I will.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know how much clearer we can make this.

*You are NOT being asked to care about it.

You ARE being asked to give some thoughtful consideration to the idea of why OTHERS care about it.

You ARE being asked to accept that there may be valid reasons for others to care about it. Telling us over and over that you don’t care about sports is not a rebuttal; you’re answering a completely separate question.*

56

[QUOTE=Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

I don’t care what you like, as long as you like it. But “art” people rarely extend the same courtesy to “sport” people.

[/QUOTE]

Not an art person here, but not a huge fan of sports. I don’t mind watching them with friends as an event, but if there is anything else on TV I watch it. If nothing else is on, I get in the internet or read a book or do school work. Nothing compels me to watch sports or care much about it. I understand what is alluring about them, but just don’t care enough to get involved in watching them or memorizing a bunch of facts about them. I have NO problem with those that do like sports.

But “sport” people don’t extend that courtesy to me. I get comments all the time, I have to “pretend” to like sports to keep my manhood from being questioned, and people bug me all the time as to what my favorite team is. When I answer I don’t watch sports, I would rather play them, I get blank stares and conversation dies.

There are numbers on the sports sides, so it is easier to be defensive and derisive when people around you treat you thusly. Art people get less “Derision” by sheer numbers, there are less art snobs than sports snobs.

I have no idea why you think sports people extend the courtesy of being polite to those that choose not to participate. Cause they don’t, and often are snobbier about it than art people.

57

[QUOTE=Epimetheus]
…But “sport” people don’t extend that courtesy to me. I get comments all the time, I have to “pretend” to like sports to keep my manhood from being questioned, and people bug me all the time as to what my favorite team is. When I answer I don’t watch sports, I would rather play them, I get blank stares and conversation dies…
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I hate people who do that, but I don’t bother pretending. It gets worse around big events like the World Series or Superbowl. This year worked Superbowl Sunday (without actually knowing that it was on that Sunday) and kept getting blank stares when I responed that “I don’t follow sports” or I don’t know or care who’s playing. In HS the social studies teachers (who were also all coaches) would put extra credit questions on sports trivia on tests. Not related to the curriclum at all, not in our textbook, nothing we went over in class. To me it was as bizarre as having extra credit questions about German grammer on a math test.

58

[QUOTE=jackelope]
You ARE being asked to accept that there may be valid reasons for others to care about it. Telling us over and over that you don’t care about sports is not a rebuttal; you’re answering a completely separate question.*
[/QUOTE]
Not to mention a completely irrelevant one.

I liked your post, jackelope. One of the things I like most about sports is the individual nature of each player and team…the personality that drives the talent, so to speak. I like the way that you get to know the personalities over time, and how that personality manifests itself in the competition. These are the things that are talked about constantly on sports shows on the radio…the human element is what people love to dissect and examine. It’s no different from any aspect of life that human beings are involved in.

59

[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow]
I suppose I can see where this is coming from, but it’s a little strange to me. Did sports take on some sort of mythological status?
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Are you serious? Hippy Hollow, I love what you write, and I certainly don’t want to get into an argument with you, but I’d say that yes, sports HAVE taken on a mythological status! Read Friday Night Lights for an understanding of just how mythical sports can get to someone - particularly in Texas or in the Midwest, where I grew up. Football is straight up religion for a good subset of the American population, and I’m guessing it’s the same way with soccer for a lot of Europeans and South Americans.

60

[QUOTE=Martini Enfield]
You’ve never lived in Australia or New Zealand, have you? Saying you don’t like sports here is analogous to being a Communist in the 1950s or admitting that you secretly enjoy kicking puppies and giving The Finger to litters of kittens.
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Well, I’ve lived in both countries and that’s a pretty ridiculous exaggeration.