NFL 2013 Off-Season Discussion

[Use of Time]

The Giants and Cowboys played last year on Wednesday due to the political speeches. They can move the game to Wednesday. The holiday is a flimsy excuse. People will show up to watch the Patriots and Ravens.

[Yoda]

I have to imagine that the number of people who won't attend a game on Thanksgiving or Christmas dwarfs the number of people that won't show on Rosh Hashanah... I mean really? Are there going to be empty seats in the home opener of the Super Bowl champs because Baltimore Jews aren't showing up? That just doesn't seem likely to me.

[Use of Time]

That's pretty much my take and I'm also laughing at how much of an awesome "tradition" this game is considering they already broke tradition last year to move the game. All in all its not a big deal to me considering I will watch the Ravens game anyway. It would be nice to see baseball stand up for themselves to the big dick swinging NFL. The baseball season was set 6 to 7 months ago. It wouldn't be crazy to think that they could still be involved in meaningful baseball games in September. Meh.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Plus, Detroit manages to have games at Ford Field and Comerica Park simultaneously, and they have even less parking than Baltimore's stadia do.

[Yoda]

Wait, isn't Detroit just one big abandoned parking lot at this point?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ The Tigers still draw decent crowds, don't know about the Lions.

[Timby]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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Plus, Detroit manages to have games at Ford Field and Comerica Park simultaneously, and they have even less parking than Baltimore's stadia do.

It's not the parking lots, even though that is a huge issue. Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium share infrastructure, such as electricity and water. You can't run both stadiums at full power at the same time, the capacity to do so simply isn't there.

[Alidar Jarok]

Yoda wrote:

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I have to imagine that the number of people who won't attend a game on Thanksgiving or Christmas dwarfs the number of people that won't show on Rosh Hashanah... I mean really? Are there going to be empty seats in the home opener of the Super Bowl champs because Baltimore Jews aren't showing up? That just doesn't seem likely to me.

Thanksgiving isn't a religious holiday (in fact, for many people, their Thanksgiving tradition is football). Christmas is closer, but most people don't consider Christmas to be a day of religious worship either. Easter would be a better example if one wants to at least start with an appropriate analogy.

Anyway, leaving aside issues of whether or not it's tradition, how about just understanding your customers? The city of Baltimore, without a doubt, wants the opportunity to defend their championship starting at home with the first game of the year. The Orioles either don't understand that or, more likely, simply don't care. I would argue that the majority of Orioles fans are Ravens fans who would want the game moved. I would also argue that quite a few Ravens fans are not Orioles fans partly because the owners keep doing shit like this.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Timby wrote:

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Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium share infrastructure, such as electricity and water. You can't run both stadiums at full power at the same time, the capacity to do so simply isn't there.

I see. I wonder why this is the case in Baltimore but not Detroit. (I'm seriously not trying to be difficult, I actually am curious about this, now that it's been brought up.)

[Timby]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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I see. I wonder why this is the case in Baltimore but not Detroit. (I'm seriously not trying to be difficult, I actually am curious about this, now that it's been brought up.)

Comerica Park was always intended to be a neighbor to Ford Field. Ground didn't break on M&T Bank Stadium until 1996, and it was basically shoehorned in across the street from Camden.

[Yoda]

Alidar Jarok wrote:

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Thanksgiving isn't a religious holiday (in fact, for many people, their Thanksgiving tradition is football). Christmas is closer, but most people don't consider Christmas to be a day of religious worship either. Easter would be a better example if one wants to at least start with an appropriate analogy.

I don't follow them, but looks like the NBA and NHL are only too happy to run games on Easter. This shit is just giving my crazy brother more fuel for his "teh jewish conspiracy ZOG machine controls all!!!1!" rants

[Alidar Jarok]

Those sports have much smaller stadium capacity than the NFL. Even assuming they could get a full stadium for a basketball game on Easter, that would be a pretty sad showing for a Football game. It might even result in the game getting blacked out provided some sponsor doesn't buy the remaining tickets.

[Yoda]

Is that really your argument? That basketball arenas hold 20k and thus the Ravens would only draw 20k because the other 50k are all busy observing Rosh Hashanah? That the NFL opener would be at any risk of being blacked out? Over a religious holiday that 90% of Americans wouldn't even know was occurring that day unless someone told them?

I picked those examples because those are the major sports leagues that are in season on Easter.

I'm not even saying that minority holidays should be given no consideration, but if Thursday doesn't work thanks to the logistics of having an MLB game next door, it's the obvious solution.

[Alidar Jarok]

Actually, I was talking specifically about the historical example involving the Jets. Since the NFL doesn't play on Easter, it's not possible to comment on what they should do in that situation.

[Timby]

The Ravens have announced they will open the season on the road.

Peter Angelos, go eat a dick.