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Fans wonder, 'Why go to the park when it looks better on TV?'

Ice hockey has a reputation for televising poorly. "You can't see the puck!" the fans cry. Even ESPN, which buys up the rights to every sport this side of
Frank Deford|
Fans wonder, 'Why go to the park when it looks better on TV?'
Fans wonder, 'Why go to the park when it looks better on TV?'

Ice hockey has a reputation for televising poorly. "You can't see the puck!" the fans cry. Even ESPN, which buys up the rights to every sport this side of musical chairs, let the National Hockey League go. So what's happened? NHL ratings have soared, and the league just signed a new contract with Comcast, doubling its previous figure.

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Professional sports are simply more popular than ever on television. Last fall, the National Football League, which was already the surest must-see thing on TV since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, suddenly, unexpectedly saw its ratings jump into the ozone layer. NASCAR, which had been slumping, is rebounding. The NBA ratings have skyrocketed. More and more Americans are even watching -- yes -- European soccer.

Now maybe it's all anecdotal, a temporary spike. It's been a brutal winter in most of the country, and gas prices are high, so maybe more people are staying home -- and you can only watch so much American Idol.

But I'm convinced it's a much more significant trend, fostered by two factors. First, prices to many sporting events are just too expensive. Second, as home television sets get larger and clearer in definition -- even 3-D -- people are more inclined to watch a game there in the family room, where they can see it free, and big and better, and in more comfortable surroundings.

It's surely illustrative that during this same period when sports ratings are up, the box office for movie theaters has plummeted. Sure, maybe Hollywood is just in a creative slump, but I find it revealing that a group of the most prominent film directors and producers wrote an open letter to four studios, pleading with them not to go ahead with new plans to release films to video so soon after their theatrical openings. With today's monster-screen HDTV, if iyou give viewers -- movies or sports -- an option, they'll opt for the couch near the refrigerator at home.

Attendance figures at sporting events are invariably suspect because teams announce the number of tickets sold, not those actually used. But now, especially when the weather's dicey, you see the best seats as only that -- seats. When attendance was bad, the old gag used to be, "A lot of fans came dressed as empty seats tonight." Now it's more like, "A lot of ticket buyers dressed in their pajamas tonight."

I even wonder how sports bars are doing these days. Watch the game at home, you don't even need a designated driver.

Here's an anecdote that says it all. A longtime New York Rangers season-ticket holder got his bill for the first round of the playoffs. Instead of buying the overpriced seats, he went out and, for even less money, he bought a humongous new 3-D, HDTV.

And guess what: He could see the puck even better than he ever did at Madison Square Garden.

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Frank Deford
FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.

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