# What, for you personally, is the dullest televised sport? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 15, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687 "2006-02-15T21:18:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/61 "2006-02-16T19:10:33Z")
Baseball, golf, and NASCAR. All three activities are great fun to participate in, but it is inevitable that the following day’s news article will be far more interesting than the televised event. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/62 "2006-02-16T19:37:56Z")
Anything with race cars and bowling. But bowling is a notch higher. Only because I love those sexy whispering voices. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/63 "2006-02-16T20:26:14Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Soccer does not translate well to TV. You really need a pretty wide view of the field to get a god feel for the play, but doing so takes you too far away and the picture isn’t as clear as it should be. It can get hard to even recognize the players, sometimes even reading the numbers on the uniforms is difficult. This is one of these things that is going to revolve around familiarity. The reduced field of vision isn’t important if you know what is likely to be happening elsewhere (and this is true for just about any sport on TV). You don’t always need to identify individuals, and if you do you can probably do so by their position, the way they play, and their appearance, without worrying about shirt numbers. Having said that, I’ll agree that the camera positions for some stadiums (Barcelona comes to mind as an extreme) are just dreadful. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/64 "2006-02-17T06:19:06Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > This is one of these things that is going to revolve around familiarity. The reduced field of vision isn’t important if you know what is likely to be happening elsewhere (and this is true for just about any sport on TV). But my point is that knowing what’s happening elsewhere is harder in soccer than most sports. Basketball has a relatively small playing area. Football (the American version) has most of the play within a 10 yard section. Baseball is mostly hitter versus pitcher, with the rest of the fielders almost always polsitioned in nearly the same spot. Soccer has a big field with free flow positioning. With familiarity and experience, you can follow and injoy the match. But I’d say that more familiarity and experience is necessary with soccer than with most other sports. > [@GorillaMan](#): > > You don’t always need to identify individuals, and if you do you can probably do so by their position, the way they play, and their appearance, without worrying about shirt numbers. I’m not saying it’s impossible, just more difficult. It’s not a natural TV sport the way, say, basketball is. When trying to “sell” potential new fans on soccer, I always urge them to try to see a live game. Soccer on TV is a much harder sell. ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/65 "2006-02-18T03:08:54Z")
I take it nobody is watching Ice Dancing right now on NBC’s olympic coverage? How is this an Olympic sport olympiad after olympaid?? ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/66 "2006-02-18T04:25:23Z")
Soccer. I just don’t understand what the rest of the world sees in it. Marc ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/67 "2006-02-18T04:59:46Z")
I would once have said soccer, but in the last few years I have come to appreciate “the beautiful game”. I even love the low score lines now - it makes the excitement much more intense, and provides great debate potential at the pub for years after the game. Golf and tennis both bore me shitless. They shut down all your favourite programming for two weeks to fill the screen with wall to wall golf, and then just when they finish they hit you with the same of tennis. Australian Rules football is also very dull for me (we don’t play it much in my home state, and I don’t fully understand the rules. It looks weird). I love five days of test cricket though. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/68 "2006-02-18T05:09:32Z")
> [@MGibson](#): > > Soccer. I just don’t understand what the rest of the world sees in it. I think you mean “football.” ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/69 "2006-02-18T05:16:35Z")
> [@Only Mostly Dead](#): > > I take it nobody is watching Ice Dancing right now on NBC’s olympic coverage? How is this an Olympic sport olympiad after olympaid?? I watched it, bitchin’ and moanin’ and waitin’ to see the Ugly American of the Day wipe out on the Snotocross. I have no idea why that crap was aired. Not only did it not have an ounce of excitement, it barely has any athletic ability, and today they were _all doing the same dumb routine!_ I mean for all I know it was the same people with the woman changing outfits. Unbelievably boring. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/70 "2006-02-18T10:02:01Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > I can understand your argument, and rationale for not liking it, but _boring_ was the specific term that baffled me. I flip the other way, if a sport is paced in a way which easily allows commentary during the action and doesn’t require replays it’s boring, i.e. too slow. Watching the same thing again and again (replays) and hearing commentators rehashing points about action that has already happened, rather than what’s happening now, is the very essense of booooooooring to me. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/71 "2006-02-18T13:49:36Z")
This before checking other replies: If something is boring I won’t watch it. As to what is more boring than what else, I couldn’t say since I wouldn’t watch either. Things I will watch: College Football (American) Tennessee Titans Pro Football (American) Boxing (mostly pro but amateur if it’s on) World Series Baseball _Major_ Pro Golf events (Masters, British Open, US Open) _Major_ Championship Tennis Olympic Diving Trick Shot Pool (Billiards) There may be isolated events that have been highly publicized that I may tune in to see if they meet the hype expectations. Five minutes is usually enough to convince me they’re not. Other than those (and a few I may have forgotten) I don’t watch much TV sports. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687/72 "2006-02-18T16:05:02Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > I think you mean “football.” Nope, we call it soccer in my neck of the woods. You say potato. I say potato. Marc [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-personally-is-the-dullest-televised-sport/344687.md?page=3)