The idea that no one watches the interviews (since some people in this thread don’t watch them) is obvious false. Airtime is valuable (it can be used for commercials or to show other games), and if the people watching changed the channel when interviews were on, those interviews would stop.
I think the expectation should be press availability, with the option to be exempt for any reason. Sort of an opt-out clause, rather than an opt-in clause – that way, most athletes would continue with their press events and the ones who didn’t want to could take the small step of opting out.
Yes. Media availability is a big part of marketing the sport.
Why does anyone care how the Lakers do? Why do they make any money at all?
They care because there is a perception, and a common understanding, that the NBA matters, and that what happens on the court has consequence. That perception doesn’t all come from one place, but one of the places it does come from is the fact that mainstream media covers it. It’s a circular thing of course - people care, SO the media covers it, and the fact the media covers it makes people think they should care - but it does matter. If the media covers it less, people WILL care a little less. Maybe you won’t, and maybe I won’t. Maybe it’ll affect most people not at all, but it does matter; love for a pro sports league is not something a person is born with, it’s something they learn, and in part they get it from media coverage.
I’m not “pretending” anything, and I don’t think preventing children from becoming professional athletes is the be all and end all of mental health care. I do think attempting to manufacture elite athletes starting at the age of three or four is most definitely not the best way to raise a child. And preventing children from turning pro might be a way of disincentivizing that kind of parenting.
I’ll also point out that a fifteen-year-old would not be permitted to work the kind of hours required to play tennis, or any other sport, at an elite level in any other job. I mean, seriously – there are laws about that. And once a kid turns pro, it is in fact a job.
I’ll also say that I’m not convinced that “[s]evere social anxiety and depression have little to do with how someone was raised.” I speak only from experience, not from any background in psychology or deep familiarity with the literature, and I’ll defer to any with those qualifications.
Yes, of course. From early childhood to old age, we think people with mental health issues just have something they should get over. Like it’s a character weakness, not a real problem.
Sure, but she would not be able to use that physical injury to get out of all of them. In fact, she would likely be required to attend a press conference when she recovered before she played again. If she had a physical injury that prevented her from being good at sportsball anymore, then she would not be compelled to pay injured, she just wouldn’t have a job making buckets of money anymore.
I’d say the problem here is on the front end, and what her father put her through, rather than the sports entertainment complex that pays tons of money to those who provide the entertainment that people want to watch.
Someone upthread said that maybe you shouldn’t go pro until you are an adult, and I can absolutely get behind that. Having that much pressure at such a young age is very likely to have a negative mental impact.
But, once you are an adult, and you are being paid because people want to see you, then you kinda need to follow the rules and let people see you, if you want to keep making tons of money.
I’m sure she can find a way to use her talent to make more money than most of us make without having to do press conferences. If she wants to be making the big bucks, then she will need to do some things that she’d rather not do.
As a sports fan, I couldn’t care less if any athlete or coach ever talked to media ever again. Sports interviews are the most asinine, least informative interviews of all time.
She’s a co-star in the Marvel movie Black Widow, which was originally supposed to come out last spring, but had its release delayed due to COVID; it’s currently scheduled to be released in July.
(She’s done a lot of “serious” films, but she also did the first two Mummy films with Brendan Fraser, 20+ years ago.)
As Kimmel’s show is on ABC, which is owned by Disney, it’s particularly common for actors in upcoming Disney films (including Marvel and Star Wars films) to appear on his show to promote the films.
I don’t think this is true. Memorable players and storied legacies are why teams that have extremely long, consistently shitty performance, still make truck loads of money while teams that actually win championships have a bump for a year or two but don’t build/retain fan bases because once they win most small market owners offload their best players into other markets so they never have to actually pay them for the one-off championships. Once the marquee players are gone, so is the fair-weather fanbase and all the money that comes with it.
And she doesn’t have to compete. I don’t know the details of the contracts in the world of tennis, but if it’s what she has agreed to do she should carry through with the agreement or not play.
OTOH, perhaps she should be suing people who didn’t represent her interests well.
I absolutely think they should be required to talk to the press, it’s a very reasonable part of the job of being an athlete. I’m not sure why she chose to play the martyr role over this. I definitely know I’ll be rooting against from now on
I gave up on sports in 1994, the year they didn’t finish the season or have the World Series.
I didn’t just give up on baseball…it kind of generalized to most professional sports. I’ll watch a game here and there but I can’t invest that much of myself in a season that may not have a conclusion.
It’s a business and if they make a jillion dollars on it, fine. If the contract says they have to talk, take them to court. Or don’t. I think a lot of it’s phony, overhyped, and disposable. Too bad kids think a good player is always a good role model or something and hero worship these guys.
And they try to make it a patriotic thing, flying jets over the stadium before the game etc. Here’s Dale calling out Jerry’s hypocrisy about kneeling during the anthem (posted in 2018).
'Murica!
Back in the day, the press treated Roger Maris so shabbily that his hair started falling out. In some cases athletes may have legit reasons for avoiding reporters.
This is a bit off topic, but this is just not true. The fans absolutely do care about the team; they will stick with the team if the team keep winning, no matter who the players are.
You know, I would assume, who the St. Louis Cardinals are. In 2012, the year after they won the World Series but got rid of Albert Pujols, attendance went UP, and has remained higher than 2011 every year since, not counting pandemic years. That team wins. If the team left behind wins, the fans keep coming. If the team keeps stars but loses, interest goes down.
I don’t think anyone disputes that her contract requires it. But this thread, AIUI, is asking whether such requirements are good or not.
Imagine if, just to be absurd, we substituted “do a swimsuit model photo-shoot” for “talking to the media after a game.” In that case, an athlete like Osaka who signed such a contract would have no choice but to do the swimsuit shots or say goodbye to their career. But they could still complain, perfectly reasonably, that such a requirement shouldn’t belong in their career.
Interest absolutely goes up when the team is good and down when it’s bad. The baseline interest is very high - world’s biggest hockey market and only has one team - but it increases with success. It’s evident in TV ratings.
No matter how much interest and money they have, more is always desirable, and the Leafs or any other sports organization gets more interest from media cooperation.
Why not? If they want the money they have to do what is required to get it. She doesn’t have a right to be a pro tennis player. Her career is to make money for someone. That’s why they pay her. If who ever is paying her thinks a swimsuit photoshoot is necessary to make her pay worthwhile and they put it in the contract she signed then she needs to do or she’s in breach of that contract.
What other jobs allow you to skip the parts you don’t like without consequence?
Osaka isn’t cleaning out the fryolator, she IS THE PRODUCT millions of fans want to see. There is a reason why the French Open carefully seeds their event, they don’t want their product to be damaged by an early exit from the competition. Damage that they just got by Osaka withdrawing over this.
Letting her skip and pay the fines would have gone by with some minor commentary, maybe around her mental health concerns, and that would have been that. They decided to be tough guys and guess what, she still didn’t go to a press conference, and their event is missing a major star.
Isn’t that their prerogative? I might not have picked this case to make a point but eventually someone was going to come down hard on an athlete who don’t want to fulfill their obligation to make them an example.
