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Dwindled Interest

  • CorpusJayhawk
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3 years 9 months ago #25625 by CorpusJayhawk
Kong made reference on another thread that his interest in sports has diminished somewhat. I am now in my 60’s and my interest has been ‘stressed’ over the last few years. I was not sure if this was the normal course as we age into retirement or if it is, as I suspect, a function of the changes in the nature of sports. With the NIL debate looking like it is a fair accompli and players will soon be paid above the table, I admit to a sincere and real expectation that my interest in college sports will diminish at an increased rate. I am curious if this is the norm with all of you other fans on the board.

Last season was encouraging since it renewed a severely dwindled interest resulting from the previous season. I have a Personal case study in this phenomenon from the 1995 baseball strike. I grew up an absolute super baseball fan. I almost never missed a Royals game and spent endless hours poring over stats and learning the game. Then the 1995 strike came and I pretty much completely gave up on baseball. I went from never missing a game to not seeing a game for over 20 years. I can’t imagine losing all interest but the way things are going I wonder how much interest I will lose.

Don't worry about the mules, just load the wagon!!
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3 years 9 months ago #25627 by Kong
I guess since I sort of sparked this, I should provide more detail/explanation.

I used to be a huge sports fan. Football, baseball, hockey, soccer, along with odd sports like Australian rules football, rugby, etc. Pretty much anything but pro basketball. Loved loved loved college sports.

But then the strikes started. Football, baseball and hockey all had them and it was apparent to me that neither the players or owners were looking out for the fans in any way shape or form. So I figured that since they clearly did not care about me, I was not going to care about them and basically stopped watching nearly all professional sports. I still loved college sports, specially KU basketball, but my interest in pro sports went to 0.

I will admit that when the Nats came to DC I was all set to pretty much ignore them. But folks gave me tickets (I went to about 35 home games the first year and again the second) and I got hooked again to just the one team. If I had still been into pro sports, the last few years would have been great for me. My childhood hockey team the Blues won the Stanley cup and the local Caps won it. The Nats won the World Series as well, so you would think I would really be back into it, but I haven't changed back and the baseball "talks" going on now once again reaffirm my thought that neither the players nor the owners care, so why should I.

College basketball was really the last major sport that I followed. With all the college realignment happening over the years tearing apart regional rivalries and chasing the almighty football dollar, it was clear, yet again, that consideration for the fans come in last. They bank on blind loyalty to make them money while not really caring about those the are counting on. Toss in absurd signing parties and then add in some absolutely ridiculous NCAA decisions (yes I am looking at the UNC fake classes as well as others) and it just isn't as fun to me.

So my guess is that I will slowly phase college hoops out as well, even though I have fond memories and would love to get back to a game at Allen Field House on a big night for a game. It probably will never happen and in the end, I won't miss the game so mush as the memories the games invoked

Visualize Whirled Peas
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3 years 9 months ago #25629 by sasnak
In short, I am disillusioned.

It'll feel better when it stops hurting
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3 years 9 months ago #25630 by Governors

College basketball was really the last major sport that I followed. With all the college realignment happening over the years tearing apart regional rivalries and chasing the almighty football dollar, it was clear, yet again, that consideration for the fans come in last. They bank on blind loyalty to make them money while not really caring about those the are counting on. Toss in absurd signing parties and then add in some absolutely ridiculous NCAA decisions (yes I am looking at the UNC fake classes as well as others) and it just isn't as fun to me.


WORD!!!
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3 years 8 months ago #25634 by NotOstertag
My sister went to Africa with the Peace Corps after she graduated for about 5 years. When she moved home and got her own place she didn't even own a TV for a few years. Once she got one, she didn't have cable. She wasn't anti-TV before she left, but while she was gone she figured out how to live without one. Of course it made going to her place for Thanksgiving a bit rough since we couldn't watch football. :dry:

There are 2 different things happening now. On one hand, there hasn't been "sports" for a few months, so I'm sure a lot of rabid fans have figured out how to fill their weekends without them. Most of that will come back, I imagine, but some won't.

The OTHER thing that hits us directly is the overall cesspool that college sports has become. I can't, with a straight face, claim 100% certainty that we're clean, and the best I can muster is that we're probably "cleaner than most". Nevertheless, the continued dissolution of the "student athlete" is sad because it takes away from ACTUAL "student athletes": a guy on the wrestling team who's majoring in engineering, or a women's lacrosse player who's pre-med or whatever. If you lined up ALL of the athletes at KU, who AREN'T on the football or basketball teams, you'd probably find a lot of smart, motivated,and successful people who won't ever earn a dime playing their sport.

Nostalgia keeps me emotionally invested in KU hoops, and I haven't lost my passion for it, but it has declined over time. Aside from golf and some other oddball sports (pro cycling), college basketball is still my primary sport for entertainment. Part of that is conveninece: games last about 3 hours, and half of them take place on winter weeknights after the rest of my day is over. It's VERY easy to kick my feet up and watch a game before bed and much less of an investment than parking my butt on the couch for a full afternoon of football.

It's disheartening. I'm hopeful that eventually the trend of skipping college and playing in the G-League or overseas will increase. We don't need Zion Williamsons of the world to come and pretend to be a student for a few months to help college basketball. In my ideal world, you'd have a bunch of players where somebody like Mitch Lightfoot is one of the "top players" and everyone better than him played G-league or Euro League. Let the top 100 recruits go play somewhere else, and then the #'s 100-3000 could go to school, earn a degree, and play for my alma mater for 4 years.

"When I was a freshman, I remember Coach Naismith telling us how important it was to play good defense." - Mitch Lightfoot
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3 years 8 months ago #25636 by Bayhawk

NotOstertag wrote: In my ideal world, you'd have a bunch of players where somebody like Mitch Lightfoot is one of the "top players" and everyone better than him played G-league or Euro League. Let the top 100 recruits go play somewhere else, and then the #'s 100-3000 could go to school, earn a degree, and play for my alma mater for 4 years.


WORD :woohoo:


RCJHFL

The end is nothing; the road is all.
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  • replayloungehawk
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3 years 8 months ago #25638 by replayloungehawk
This is an interesting topic for sure and one I've been thinking about a lot lately with no sports. I've always been a huge sports fan. All sports. It didn't matter. I'm 45 now and I find that each year it gets less and less of an attraction to me. While I absolutely love Kansas basketball I too feel there is a bit of a bad taste in my mouth with some of the stuff going on. On top of that, pro sports has not only become all about the money it's also political. Maybe it always has been, I don't know. Maybe it is that as I get older I see things differently and I find greater enjoyment in sitting in the back yard with my kids rather than watching a game and I think these little punks need to be thankful they make millions to play a game. LOL. That's the old guy in me...Anyway, I really don't know what it is but I'm just not as interested.

I just know that I'm not at all the fan I used to be and I don't think over time I will be less and less interested.
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3 years 8 months ago #25639 by sasnak

replayloungehawk wrote: This is an interesting topic for sure and one I've been thinking about a lot lately with no sports. I've always been a huge sports fan. All sports. It didn't matter. I'm 45 now and I find that each year it gets less and less of an attraction to me. While I absolutely love Kansas basketball I too feel there is a bit of a bad taste in my mouth with some of the stuff going on. On top of that, pro sports has not only become all about the money it's also political. Maybe it always has been, I don't know. Maybe it is that as I get older I see things differently and I find greater enjoyment in sitting in the back yard with my kids rather than watching a game and I think these little punks need to be thankful they make millions to play a game. LOL. That's the old guy in me...Anyway, I really don't know what it is but I'm just not as interested.

I just know that I'm not at all the fan I used to be and I don't think over time I will be less and less interested.


"GET OFF MY LAWN!!!"

I couldn't help myself - lol

It'll feel better when it stops hurting
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3 years 8 months ago #25640 by HawkErrant
Growing up an Air Force kid in the 1950s & 60s I spent so much time away from TV and mainland US sports that I was never really a big sports fan until Dad retired in 1967 just in time for me to start high school in western Maryland. I really only liked baseball before that — 1964 in Germany crying myself to sleep with my transistor radio plugged into my ear listening to Bobby Richardson line out in game 7 to end the Yankees bid for another WS title; 1966 back in Massachusetts before heading to Dad’s last assignment in San Antonio and Uncle Frank taking us all to a Tigers-Red Sox doubleheader in Fenway (Yaz, Rico, Tony C and big George Scott playing Al Kaline and Norm Cash; BOSOX my 2nd favorite team, Mom’s team).

Became a Baltimore Colts fan as I got caught up in football — high school, college (my team then being Texas as I discovered the college game while living in SATX), then pro with Dad retiring and settling down to a more mundane life in Cumberland. (Also ironically became something of a Chiefs fan, even though I would not live within 100 miles of Arrowhead until a decade later. I always figured it was because of Hank Stram and especially Uncle Lenny* und Jan.) I was never really a hoops fan at any level, and never really understood or cared for hockey or soccer.

My love for college hoops started during my 2 years at Allegany Community College (ACC then, Allegany College of Maryland today) with future NJCAA HOF coach Bob Kirk always fielding incredible teams (and teaching Phys Ed! Classes with the Coach! Yeah, baby!)

During my enlisted years in the Army after ACC my ability to follow and interest in the game waned so that when I came to KU in the fall of 1980 my focus was finishing my bachelors degree, and then my masters. I was finishing up just as Larry Brown was getting everybody all excited for KU hoops again.

Since then my only consistent sports interests have been KU hoops & football, occasionally enjoying the Royals and the Chiefs over the years. Everything else has been “that’s nice”, but only KU really gets my constant year in, year out interest.

And like others here, I’m getting rather worn down with all the “other” baggage. Hitting 67 this year doesn’t help (still so many other things I want to do, and like our recent trip Down Under most require time & $$$), and the joke that is the NCAA is frankly a burr under my saddle when it comes to trying to enjoy KU sports. I hope KU wins it’s case and doesn’t need to sue, and I hope KU — and Self — sue the bastards as needed if needed (after the UNC decision the NCAA bastards need to be).

So yeah, throw in everything else, waning interest. I would love to see the top kids go pro and the Mitch Lightfoots of the world get their chance to *want* to be in college and to shine.

Another lawn needing vacating?
Probably...


*No, despite sharing the same last name Len and I are not (TTBOMK) related. When I moved to Leavenworth and later Lawrence, I started calling him Uncle Lenny whenever people asked how to spell my family name (“just like Uncle Lenny”), and I never had to spell it out. I was surprised how many people wanted to spell it “Dosson” until I gave them “Uncle Lenny” as an example.

“Dosson”?
I’ve never forgiven Bill Gates.

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3 years 8 months ago #25641 by texkan
...you got to get in on this one. SPORTS IS MY LIFE-MY LIFE WAS SPORTS! yes i wrote that, teehee Since I was five, i wanted a life in sports; ie: teach, coach, admin., announce., etc etc. It was a great way to earn a living. but as the years, rolled on bye, reported troubles in sports, athletes, schools, pro teams, et all. i backed off a lot. I only really care about KU, Royals, and Chiefs. I'll watch almost any sports series final, for the RING. I found the NCAA to be almost criminal in its yo-yo reactions to alleged tampering with the rules. i'm going K I S S this one. Because i could write a book on the topic. Just saying, We the Texkan family are tired of the K rap Ola in the sports worlds. OH I TRULY DO LOVE YOUTH SPORTS, before they find out the nasty side of their games?! So if sports makes it back FULL time soon, We're watching a lot of Utube. and learning more about things then all my school years combined.! Be safe, now NURSE, we got any J e l l - O?
thank you, texkan and family ;P
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