I will always remember the first time I went to a sporting event. It was Sept. 5, 1995 and the Baltimore Orioles were facing the California Angels. This was a very notable game as Cal Ripken Jr. , on this particular night, tied Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played. My dad gave Joan Jett a high-five after she sang the National Anthem and Ripken hit a home run! Ten days later I was born at Holy Cross Hospital.
Although I couldn’t really see anything through my mom’s stomach, it is probably the most notable and meaningful game I have been at or will ever go to. My parents always talk about how amazing the atmosphere of the game was, how the fan experience that night was something that they had never experienced before. That got me thinking about how the fan experience could reach that level, even for meaningless Mystics game. Here’s what I came up with:
Pros v. Joes days:
Facing professional athletes in what they do best would be an amazing experience. Just imagine facing Alex Ovechkin in a slap shot contest, having a dunk contest against John Wall or even competing in a home run derby against Adam Dunn. This would also save the players a lot of harassment for sucking, keeping them happy as well.
TVs in all stalls/urinals:
What’s the worst part of going to the bathroom during a game? Missing the game. of course. With this idea implemented, not only will you catch all the action while you’re in the bathroom, but you can avoid bathroom lines during halftime.
Personal TVs at each seat:
Now you can watch replays without blowing a disk in your neck trying to look at the Megatron, as well as watch other sporting events happening at the same time. Also, this is an added bonus for those of you not interested in sports, as you can spend your time watching “Glee” instead of football right before your boyfriend proposes to you in front of 20,000 people, and you say no (search Failblog for Washington Wizards proposal fail).
Possibly, sometime in the future, fans will be able to have conversations with their favorite players during games and be able to call plays from their seats, but for now, these are the best improvements I have to offer. Oh, and for those wondering, this list has already been sent to Daniel Snyder.
A Friend... • Nov 28, 2010 at 1:41 am
Nice job, dude. A few punctuation mistakes, but other than that, very nice column. And awesome ideas, too. They should totally look into them. 🙂