Note: This is the time of year to be generous to those in need, so if you are looking for a place to give, here is an option. Most certainly know the story, but for those who do not here is the background.
If you live near a public tennis court, you may have noticed that there are not that many people playing tennis these days. Many courts have simply been abandoned to nature, due to a lack of interest. Depending upon where you live, you may see people playing pickleball, which has nothing to do with pickles. It is a game that is something like ping pong, except the players are on the table. They use paddles and a plastic ball, taking turns hitting the ball back and forth over a net.
According to the wiki page, the game was invented as a way to give kids something to do when they were bored. Over time it caught on around the neighborhood and soon it was becoming a thing. Recently the sport has caught on in a big way with tournaments and leagues around the country. It is very popular with Baby Boomers, because they can play the game while stationary. They just bat the ball back and forth to get some exercise and socialize with friends.
This is a bit ironic. Fifty years ago, tennis went from being a rich person sport, like polo and golf, to something of a national craze. In the 1970’s big tennis matches were must see television and the stars of the game were household names. Baby Boomers were young and fit, so they could play tennis. Then father time made tennis much less enjoyable and tennis went into decline. Fifty years later the Boomers are back on the court but playing pickleball instead.
It is hard to overstate the warping effect the Boomer generation has had on the American culture. The tennis to pickleball phenomenon is one example, but all of sports has been changed by the Boomers. Through most of the twentieth century, sports attendance was light, but then the Boomers got into sports and suddenly going to games was a thing. Hundreds of billions have been spent over the last half century creating sports arenas for the Boomers.
Of course, standing outside for three hours is tiring on the old back and knees, so sports attendance is in decline. College football, which is a quintessential Baby Boomer pastime is seeing a collapse in attendance. All of sudden the people who make a trip once a year to catch a game at their alma mater are finding a reason to watch the game from the comfort of the recliner. They can stay in touch with their old classmates on Facebook, so why make the trip to the game?
The decline in attendance is a serious threat to the college model because the infrastructure for this industry relies on donations from alumni. The rich donor wants his friends to see his name on the sports building. He wants his friends to party with him in the luxury suite. If all his friends are at the Villages watching the game on television, what is the point of writing the check? This is why those sagging attendance numbers have colleges in a panic.
Golf is another sport feeling the Boomer decline. This is the sport for the white suburban middle manager. Three decades ago, there were a lot of these people and they filled up golf course around the country. Demographics and the actuarial tables are thinning the ranks and so the number of golfers declines every year. Those little brown guys swimming over the Rio Grande may be natural conservatives, but they will not be taking up the game of golf any time soon.
This decline in participation will mean a decline in interest. Twenty years ago, the big names in sports talk radio were known throughout the culture, because tens of millions of people listened to these guys while at work. The core demographic for these shows was white men between the ages of 25 and 55. That demo is now in steep decline and the listenership is following them. Here is a list the top sports talkers and you probably recognize none of them.
What all this points to is a looming winter for sports entertainment. Some sports like the NFL have been gaming the cable system to tax the public for their product, but that model is facing the same demographic collapse. The grandparents still have a cable subscription, but their kids most likely cut the cord and their grandkids will never have a cable subscription. That assumes the grandkids even exist, which is highly unlikely according to the census.
The decline of the Baby Boomer generation was always going to bring a decline to the leisure industry, but the demographic decline promises a depression. Many will wonder why they should care, but the sports entertainment industry is driven by the same economic principles as the rest of the economy. Those billion dollar stadiums and multibillion dollar franchises are leveraged to the max. It all assumes a growing audience of middle class white people.
You can probably do this same exercise with other parts of the economy. How will the legal rackets maintain themselves when the law schools are forced to drop the LSAT requirement in the name of equity? A courtroom like this is amusing, but it is no way to keep the ambulance chasers in business. Even if the standards do not collapse, the legal profession is about to experience a great die off. Soon, simple cases will take years because of the lack of bodies.
It is easy to overstate things, but the country is about to undergo a demographic revolution, and this is before the Great Replacement discussion. All of the things that relied upon a massive number of suburban white people are going to find they lack the people to maintain the old model. The number of suburban whites as customers is in decline and the number to do the work is in decline. Sports entrainment is the canary in the coal mine and the canary is dead.
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[…] The Canary Is Dead […]
The most recent golfer I’ve met is a 57 Chinese Communist woman who moved to the USA in 2019.
So we should see the threat as generational rather than civilisational – that is, incremental change, rather than a complete system overhaul? I think we’ve all been assuming the latter. Maybe we need to shift the goalposts.
I love going on google street map, but I’m always suprised to see how USA’s cities and town are ugly.
Even Manhattan become ugly. The new skyscrapers are awful.
little tows=ugly too.
The only pretty city in entire north america is old Quebec, and few boroughs of cities like Charleston (SC), Miami Beach (for art deco stuff)
The decline of sportsball overall is matched by the increase in sport betting across the board.
If you won’t watch on your own White man, we’ll get you addicted.
My dad is always amazed when we drive through town together. He can’t believe a suburb that was filled with disco dance clubs and all you can eat buffets is empty, with no one on the road. Another boomer from my church was complaining that the bowling alleys used to open at 8am but now they don’t open till 11am, and another was wondering why no one comes into the church gym to play basketball anymore… the boomers were a big group of people, and everything they liked to do is dying off. I’m looking forward to NFL and NBA… Read more »
This past November the Seattle Seahawks went up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Munich. It was the first NFL game to be played in Germany.
Whether or not this will catch on with the younger German crowd has yet to be seen, but it’s clear the NFL is testing the waters for a fan base here in Europe.
https://www.munich.travel/en/topics/sports-leisure/spirit-of-72/munich-football#:~:text=American%20Football%20at%20the%20Allianz%20Arena&text=On%20Sunday%2C%2013%20November%202022,be%20played%20on%20German%20soil.
It won’t happen.
Germany loves the finished product of the NFL which took 90 years to refine. The quality of the games. The slick presentations. Cheerleaders. Americana. An ecosystem for the sport has to develop. The money and infrastructure required for this is incredibly high.
The Germans want to watch the US version, not their own version.
Nothing wrong with that.
Going to an NFL game will be like going to a broadway play. Something to enjoy and then go home to your regular life.
To be honest, it’s posts like these that sadden me the most. I find myself living in a world that hates me by design. Everything that was normal, even ten years ago, is now “right wing extremism”. Television is unwatchable. The only things I watch these days are old A&E and History Channel documentaries, streaming on free platforms. The suffering is still there, however, because I have to endure 4-5 commercials featuring a gay interracial couple driving a four-wheel drive Ford F-250 up the side of a Colorado mountain to go to drag Queen story hour in Aspen. (Made that… Read more »
I agree with all you just said but these ones don’t depress me so much but force me into readiness.
Hopefully I have a son soon, I have a daughter and she will need to attend school soon. It seems the public schools in Australia are teaching the same nonsense the US ones are. We don’t have the same demographic problems in Australia that the US has, but I fear that’s in our future, some crazy immigration policies have been implemented in the last year.
All the best. You’re lucky to have two sons
my sons are young adults . we fish , hunt ,and work on cars together.
we also work out and attend trad mass either together or on our own . Neither lives at home. we do bowhunting , together every year.
as far as media , I only do EWTN or Ave maria radio. hopefully you and your sons can find some things to do that keep you together like these kind of things . A number of their friends do them with us. the future? we will do what we can.
I share your feelings about the world your kids are inheriting. My wife and I are in the same boat. As a late Boomer myself, by 4 hours, I find it kind of hard to hold Boomers responsible for the Immigration Act when it was passed before I was even born. Only those who were born in the first couple years of the Boom, AND who lived in a state with an 18 voting age could possibly have cast a vote for the congresscritters who enacted that atrocity. There were more voters born in the 1800s who voted for those… Read more »
I get you Steve. I am less that 2 years away from “full retirement age” (whatever that means now days), have three grown sons and come close to tears once a week thinking about what they are going to endure as white men in the coming years. Nothing I can do except try and hope that what I have drummed into their heads will be louder than the worlds noise. I have two very “based” sons who I hope will survive. My third might be a lost cause without direct intervention of God.
Will the stock market collapse with the boomers?
Nobody has yet witnessed what happens to markets in a time of declining world population. My guess is that “markets always go up over time” is highly correlated to population also having gone up over time. And the reverse will happen on the downside. Not necessarily anything to do with the boomers.
In the first place, allow me to assure you that the world population is doing anything but shrinking. We just officially hit 8 billion people. Of course markets DON’T always go up. There is some precedent for what happens when a population declines but it’s spotty. During the Black Death, after up to a third of a local populace had been culled, for one thing, the value of labor increased. All else equal, the value of other things would decrease, since potential demand for it had been reduced by 33%. For a few years at least, common labor was relatively… Read more »
Population is shrinking pretty much everywhere but Sub-Saharan Africa, where it is growing rapidly. That’s the real population problem.
no, I don’t think so. It is atrificial and they can prop it up with institutional and fed buying
One problem is the quality of play. The NBA is exactly as Z says, a human flea circus where tall black dudes dunk, shoot 3’s, posture and do a lot of iso one-on-one playground BS that turns their four teammates into highly-paid spectators. Teams can’t get physical and play defense anymore because of rule changes to hide the fact that most of today’s players lack the skillset and basketball IQ of their forebears. The NFL is just boring, like the NBA and that’s because the rules are biased toward the quarterback and wideouts. You can’t even touch a QB these… Read more »
dr_mantis_toboggan_md: “The referees are even more incompetent or crooked than the ones in the NFL” Meyer Lansky Inc has controlled the officiating in professional sports [and possibly/likely the NCAA] for decades now. You don’t think Meyer Lansky Inc would allow the outcome of the average sporting event to be left up to chance, do you? It is to LOL. The Shape Shifters leave nothing to chance. And Meyer Lansky was the Ur-Shape-Shifter. I honestly feel like the Ghost of Meyer Lansky is still actively pulling all the strings of the various marionettes which are presented to us on Talmudvision as… Read more »
For virtually all colleges big time sports is a net revenue loser, even taking account of the broadcasting rights and donor gifts. Thus in theory colleges ought to be pleased to shed the burden from a financial POV. Alas in the real world costs are persistent. The capital costs show up as debt service for the next x years. And even operating costs are persistent. People may no longer go to the game but the game must go on, no?
The institutional obligation to chase the few schools that do make money (e.g. Ohio State, Alabama, etc.) is what has led to nonsense like USC/UCLA abandoning their regional conference to go play Midwest teams. It’s just destroyed the sport. It’s not nearly as compelling as it used to be. The wonderful local flavor of CFB that led to it being more popular than the NFL for most of the 20th century has been absolutely destroyed as teams try to field some lesser form of a SEC school. The organizers of the sport keep doubling down to bring in more revenue… Read more »
I never much followed my alma matar in the past 10 years. But the final straw for me was when the head coach and 3 assistant coaches were fired for refusing the covid-19 shots that were mandated for all state employees (my alma matar is a “state” university) last year.
OTOH, you oughtta be d@mned proud of the head coach & his assistants who had the gonads necessary to tell the state to GFI.
Those are precisely the kinda guys you want as GOP candidates for Governor & federal Senator.
They’ve got the gonads & they’ve got the name recognition.
Yep. Inslee is a POS. He made the vaccine mandates “permanent for state employees, meaning they must get each booster as it come out. He is also pushing some sort of “indigenous pedagogy” whatever the hell that it in the public schools.
I’m pissed at the system, not the coaches that refused the clot shots. BTW. half of our state troopers are gone as well, with driving is becoming somewhat more reckless as a result. I also think there are a lot more drunk drivers as well.
Abelard Lindsey: “half of our state troopers are gone as well”
Those State Troopers who refused the v@xxines are your Oath Keepers.
The ones who submitted to the v@xxines only cared about their pensions.
They’re the oath breakers.
Somewhat O/T but on the general theme of national decline. The racial grift is going to kick into high gear very soon I think. Tucker did a segment on these racial wealth transfers that are already occurring right now in the most liberal h-llholes like CA and NY. As Dems became the uniparty expect a lot more of this. Anecdotally to support this, the DC area is right up there as the worst far left lib loonies. One of my neighbors lives in what is effectively racially mandated housing enforced at gunpoint on builders by the leftist local governments in… Read more »
I apologize for not having a ready list of links of propaganda explaining how it’s normal for diverse peoples to be loud and boisterous aka “festive,” and how it’s raycist not to accept that, but I know I’ve seen it. Thus the messaging to convince whites to tolerate greater vibrancy has already been deployed. GoodWhites have been admonished to accept La’Quishia making a scene in her driveway or else face the consequences. Thus few will object, and those that do will be unpersoned. Think you can’t get fired from your job for objecting to the diverse twerking party in the… Read more »
Jeffrey Zoar: Timely comment. Hubby and I finally made the unavoidable trek to the dealership to pay off our car leases. Because we leased the vehicles from a downtown dealer we were forced to pay them off there as well. All previous experience had been with a now deceased guy (who we first dealt with years ago in the burbs, but he kept moving around) in the main dealer building – still way too much diversity, but a superficially civilized place. For the payoff we ended up in the used car section. We were the only White people in there… Read more »
I assume no one other than you and your husband were there to pay-off anything. Let me rephrase: pay anything. I’ll hazard a guess that each and every other person wasn’t the best credit risk. When this hits next year, hopefully you will have obtained a 4WD and live far, far away.
Jack – Absolutely correct – I think everyone else was applying for credit to buy a used car. It seems very few people pay off auto leases – they continually trade in and roll the money over into a new lease. These are not the vehicles we want long term, but they are 3 years old, we’ve put under 30k miles on each, and we just put new tires on both. Once we’ve moved (right now scheduled for Feb) and then sell our house in DFW (interior to be updated as soon as we leave it vacant so it can… Read more »
3g: do not get a small pickup. I have had a s10 and a silverado 2500. I would take the silverado over the light duty every day and twice on Sunday. Getting supplies, moving things, building supplies and firewood: the difference is huge. They get about the same gas mileage, and you never wish you had less power or a weaker chassis. As to 2500 vs 1500, Google for pictures of the difference in wheel hubs (front wheen bearings). You can always sell a 2500 or f250 and you can always find parts for them, and learning to repair and… Read more »
It’s not really a wealth transfer, though. They aren’t raising taxes or seizing assets to fund reparations, they’re issuing debt. Basically, they’re using someone else’s credit card to make a charitable donation which is, in a word, fraud.
Of course it’s a wealth transfer. Wealth isn’t those slips of green paper or bits on a computer file somewhere. It’s actual stuff and services. Houses, food, fuel, etc.
Issuing debt means nothing more or less than giving up funny money to buy up actual wealth. That means there is now both more funny money and less stuff to buy. More money chasing fewer goods.
It absolutely is a wealth transfer. Debt and inflation are the taxes that do not even require a vote. And like all legislated taxes, it only really impacts one group: the white middle class.
Requiring “affordable” housing is nothing new. In my “home county” of Fairfax, in the early 90s, I had the good fortune (?) to watch essentially the remaining undeveloped green spaces of Western Fairfax be developed. The very aged man who had originally built 1960s Reston (Robert Simon) even protested against some of the re-development of “his” planned community, to little avail. Reston Town Center was built somewhat in the style of vintage Washington, D.C. It is/was a quite pleasant place to shop or dine in pleasant weather. In winter there’s an ice rink, etc.Anyway, when RTC was being built in… Read more »
Look on the bright side. The consequences of California paying slavery reparations will be a joy to watch. First, the Meso-Americans, many of whom actually work hard, are going to mighty miffed at giving money to layabout blacks for work the blacks’ ancestors did 150 or more years ago. Those ethnic groups aren’t too friendly right now, so expect some fireworks. Then, imagine the carpetbagging lawyers, quack geneticists and genealogists flooding the state to help the oppressed get their payouts–for a fee. A Tom Wolfe novel couldn’t cover in fiction what will happen in reality. And once the funds are… Read more »
Not that I don’t agree (I do) with Z’s basic contention about changing demography, but he has a bad habit about linking to articles that don’t support his argument. The article about college football for example doesn’t blame the Baby Boomers, but leans on an economic explanation. Essentially, the price of attendance has become too expensive for many fans. The Baby Boomer alumni are still filling their share of the stands, but the students are staying away. The basic problem with college football is indeed a “Boomer” problem — not a “Baby Boomer” problem but a “Boomer” problem. A Boomer… Read more »
We seem to forget another partial explanation for such decline in college sports—DIE. Colleges that the Boomers went to are now cesspools of progressive dogma. Why should I donate a nickel to an institution such as that?
I wish that were the central reason, but I fear it is marginal. Your average Griller–and these are the most reliable college football fans–cares one helluva lot more about his alma mama’s football team than he does about his granddaughter’s mind being pumped full of anti-white pollution. As long as his Wildcats are contending for a conference title on a regular basis he couldn’t care less about the horrific damage the professors and administrators are doing. Just one reason I hold Grillers in such profound contempt.
Didn’t say it was a central reason, only one of many for the decline.
At most football factories student tickets are already priced into tuition, thus they are not being priced out of the games.
Fair enough, I wouldn’t know. I’m just going by what the article claims.
NHL is going full woke as well: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11534043/PICTURED-Trans-ice-hockey-player-formally-known-Kyle-left-female-male-rival-CONCUSSED.html They are doing things like hosting shemale vs. hemale tournaments. BLM worship. Indigenous ceremonies and land acknowledgements before games (mainly in Canada). Female commentators. Completely disgusting and unwatchable. That doesn’t even include commercials. It’s as if they said ‘American ads are 80% Africans – we need Canadian NHL ads to be 99% Africans!’ Very occasionally there is a white woman in a mixed race relationship or an ugly, dorky white guy. It seems like they have to go even more woke than the NFL and NBA, since most of their players are… Read more »
“NHL is going full woke as well”
Commissioner (((Gary Bettman))):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Bettman#Education_and_family
Back circa the mid- to late-1990s, when analogue-to-digital conversion techniques went crazy, and file sharing exploded, the Frankfurt School realized that the writing was on the wall, and there were no longer any shekels to be made in the 75-year lifespan of 20th Century intellectual property rights [books, records, motion pictures], because everything would be immediately copied and posted on pirate file-sharing websites, and the value of the intellectual property rights would quickly fall to precisely zero. However, the Frankfurt School did see an opportunity in LIVE sporting events, because Bubba wants to experience his “Show Me The Money!!!!” kneegrolatry… Read more »
“Sports are super cringey to me now. It’s sad seeing working class white people drunk and howling at NFL games. I am so disinterested in sports that I feel pity when I see sports fans.” Nail on head for me as well. Which is really amazing. I grew up in NY state as a HUGE NY Giants, NY Yankees, NY Knicks and NY Rangers fan. I would watch every baseball, football, basketball and hockey game I could. My true love was Giants football. I never missed a game for 30+ years. Now? I don’t follow any of it. Haven’t watched… Read more »
I once saw a commercial during an NFL game where a white woman was dating/married to a white man and she neither mocked, cucked, or made him look like he was an idiot.
Or did I? That seems so very long ago. Maybe it was a dream?
I got rid of my TV and stopped ALL sportsball in 1987. Even then, it was nothing more than which rich white guy had the money to buy the best ni**ers, and today it’s FAR worse.
No, thanks.
Anybody still watching that s*it has only himself to blame.
What is it about these non-binary trans people where they are so utterly unattractive? In past, you expect MtF trans people to be attractive enough they can fool you in a bar or nightclub. Kind of like the ladyboys of South East Asia. These “woke” non-binaries are utterly unattractive.
Abelard: They’re not supposed to be attractive. Their entire point is wearing makeup with a beard – to shove their dysgenic, satanic existence down your throat and make you celebrate it as whatever they claim it is. The Ontario ‘teacher’ with triple z fake boobs may think he’s attractive, but he knows he is also a deliberate parody and spectacle. And the students have been told if they notice or photograph him, they will be expelled. And their parents? Why, they keep sending their kids to the school, of course. What else would you expect them to do? Everyone knows… Read more »
The only people who still watch the NBA are boomers and some Gen X people that grew up in the Bird-Magic-Jordan era. The truth is, even if for some reason you wanted to follow the NBA, it’s hard because players all become mercs who change teams constantly, complain, take days off for no reason, and in general just show total contempt for the fans and league. As such, young people don’t watch the games and don’t root for teams, they just follow players and watch clips on social media, which does not hit the bottom line for the league. The… Read more »
All of the youngsters in my family love the NBA and want all of the merch. It saddens me because this is another hooks into the minds of children. I am sure that is a reason why the New Religion was so eagerly taken up by these sports leagues. The politics are the politics of those who own and run them. I am working on a way to get the parents to give up the sportsball watching. It is an anti-white cancer. The, “land acknowledgements”, at NHL games do not surprise me. Abrogating the people’s claim on their land is… Read more »
Canada, like the rest of the anglosphere and most of Europe, is an adjunct of the GAE, BLM is the official anti-white terrorist organization of the GAE, and DIE is its ideology.
Different origin myths. Canadians are racist because we’re on stolen native land. Americans are racist because of slavery. Solution: open borders with China, India, and Mexico.
Of course, Canadians also have a long history of anti-black oppression and slavery, and Americans are also on stolen land. But it’s not the primary origin story. Hence why certain stories are more prominent in some areas but still visible in other areas.
None of it makes logical sense – they just hate white people and want us dead. Simple as.
Different origin stories, but we’ve arrived at the exact same place–hell.
The restaurant closest to where I live is a sports bar. It sure as heck is not the Baby Boomers I see glued to the TVs. It’s all 20s and 30s. I’m one of the 3 or 4 greybeards I’ve ever seen there.
If I were loaded with money (which I’m not), I’d like to open a restaurant with a difference. To wit: fewer than zero TV monitors; melodic jazz or classical background music at a volume that permits conversation; real (though not necessarily expensive) artistic decor; knowledgeable waiters and waitresses, not “servers” who’ve been trained to upsell (“how about a nice big juicy baked potato to go with that?”). Yeah, I know. It would probably go bust in the first six months, since the oafs who want loud theme restaurants way outnumber civilized diners. Then again … just maybe … once they… Read more »
As well as dropping LSATs, medical schools in the US are dropping MCATs, or lowering the acceptable score for applicants from the favored demographics. There is serious discussion about lowering medical school GRADUATION requirements for folks who are vibrantly diverse enough. Your neurosurgeon in 2035 may have an IQ of 85.
“Your neurosurgeon in 2035 may have an IQ of 85.”
“Don’t worry, scrote. There are plenty of ‘tards out there living really kick-ass lives. My first wife was ‘tarded. She’s a pilot now.” – Dr. Lexus, Idiocracy
JDaveF: “Your neurosurgeon in 2035 may have an IQ of 85.” In the samizdat community, we’ve been talking a great deal about the v@xxines & the shedding of spike proteins, and moast of us now understand that simply entering a doctor’s office is becoming a very very risky endeavor in Klownworld. I’m especially terrified for parents of young children; imagining scenarios at the pediatrician’s office wherein the parents might turn their back for a just moment, and unbeknownst to them, a Nurse Karen Ratched would sneak into the room & v@xxinate a child & then slip back out the door,… Read more »
Sign seen on the web:
Unvaxxed sperm will be the new Bitcoin
(Homemade street sign held by an attractive young miss, that’s a white pill for sure)
Speaking of DIE in the medical field. The other day I had the distinct displeasure to show up at midnight in the local ER. Not a single White staff member to be seen. The doctor on the floor wore some type of civilian dress—jeans, tennis shoes, etc. and was a rough looking smallish brown/black guy who I’d cross the street to avoid. 3g4me called it right. Boomer’s get what they deserve. Before one jumps to too many conclusions, the doctor actually was helpful wrt the problem and the medication I told him was needed. I can be a pain in… Read more »
“Your neurosurgeon in 2035 may have an IQ of 85.”
And why not? He already has a very sharp knife.
Recently I happened to notice on their website that the Veterinary Medical School at UC-Davis, one of the most prestigious in the country, has dropped the GRE as a requirement — they cited other schools doing so, as well as a study showing the test is biased.
Given how long disparate impact has been a thing, I’m surprised these standard tests (SAT, LSAT, GRE, etc) have lasted this long.
Meh. A functional cerebellum is part of your whi priblidge.
Thank you. You have given me yet more reasons to avoid the medical system to the greatest extent I can, going forward.Picking up horse de-wormer and veterinary antibiotics at the feed store is starting to sound more sensible every day. 🙁
I had never even heard of pickleball until Vox Day mentioned it on his blog a couple of years ago. Tennis was huge in the late 70’s and 80’s. I never played it. But I remember the tennis courts always being used at the time. Racket ball was another huge sport. It was the quintessential yuppie sport of the 80’s. Today you never hear about it. The decline of golf is to be expected. The boomers took it up. But even GenX had no interest in it, not to mention the Millennials. But the idea that old people can’t play… Read more »
There are a lot of other sports besides soccer that are very popular in different parts of the world. Rugby, cricket, hockey, even volleyball and ping pong are hugely popular in varying places. And more. They don’t get any publicity in the US but they are big where they’re big.
Yes, they are. But in terms of the revenue and economic impact, they are a lot smaller.
> But in terms of the revenue and economic impact, they are a lot smaller.
This is due to the differences in the sizes of the economies: both raw and per-capita GDP. Revenue and economic impact of *everything* is smaller outside the U.S., not just in sports.
Revenue of soccer is small?!
Also, cricket is a huge sport because it’s the most popular sport in India,Pakistan,Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The popularity of soccer is easy to explain — all you need is a ball and it’s easy to fashion ad hoc goal posts. In South America you can see soccer being played on the streets or on pieces of dirt. Likewise for cricket, which just needs a bat, a ball, and wickets. But other sports can be expensive — such as golf.
No serious adult will play something with a name as idiotic as pickleball any more than he’ll use a digital function with a name as insipid as Twitter.
I never understood the college sports phenomena, and the sooner it dies the better. These aren’t fellow students at your university, they’re ringers that the college went out and got. They’re barely literate. This story always stuck with me: https://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/ncaa-athletes-reading-scores/index.html Highlight from the article: A study of UNC Chapel hill (a really good school) basketball and football players found 60% of players could read at a level between 4-8th grade, while 10% could read at a level less than 3rd grade. I certainly experienced this in college. I had one class where there were a few football ringers, and these… Read more »
This was starting in the 1980’s when I was in college. I remember being in a dining hall where a lot of the football players ate in and saw that they were rather thuggish and ghetto like. They were not at all like the rest of the student body. No doubt its far worse today.
But but but… who is going to rape the cheerleaders ?
Good riddence to professional sports at public university.
Things change, once upon a time long range target shooting was a hugely popular thing, hence Creedmore.
There were even shooting contests in New York citys central park.
Things change back, today there is a resurgence in marksmanship contests.of all types.
Could there be underlying reasons ?
More than 30 years ago, I was attending a school that had a mid-level D1 basketball team, with a single Final Four appearance in their historical pedigree. When the players were getting out of their “math” class, I had a class in the same room immediately afterwards and if I got there early enough I’d get to my desk before the teacher could erase the blackboard. Oh boy. It was 2nd or 3rd grade level problems, at best.
Most basketball and football players today don’t even attend class. The whole academic side of the so-called “student-athlete” is every bit as fake as Our Democracy.
As a former college basketball player at what is now called a Group of 5 or midmajor, I can attest that most of my black teammates were just stone dumb. They had tutors who did all of their work for them and were coaxed by the Orwellian “academic support staff” into useless crib majors like sociology or exercise science. Even still, most of them would fail if not “guided” by the tutors and become ineligible. It was a farce. They’re athletes first, students second. A lot of them I know had other students take their ACT tests and were instructed… Read more »
The courtroom future may be here a little ahead of schedule:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aesef0iN7LU
The judge finally realizes that she is running a daycare center:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6_p64-NQoM
One of the funnier things I ran into lately while clearing up a traffic ticket was a sign saying “Pull Up Your Pants” posted on the courtroom door.
These are mild compared to the utter carnival that was the Wakausha trial for Mr. Parade Massacre. Darryl Brooks acted as his own lawyer and in the back of my mind I was thinking another few decades of dysgenics and this guy will be a star attorney. That Idiocracy clip Z displayed looks to be right on target. Objecshun! Grounz! Irrelevant testimony! Grounz! Its facts! Hours and hours of this circus and the judge, God bless her, played along because we have to pretend these creatures that lope and slouch around us are not missing links and are actual humans.… Read more »
I visit the county courthouse a few times a year, to pay property tax, renew a fishing license and the like. One day as I was walking through the parking lot, a Melanic Homonid™ woman and her mid-teens son were exiting the building. Little Jamal said “Mom, you gotta try weed!” Mom’s face was priceless 😀
SCUBA diving is a sport first taken up in the general population by boomers. Im not sure if it’s done too much today except for young hot chicks on youtube breath holding (no breathing apparatus). Im curious if it too will die out as the population gets dumber due to the requirement for some basic understanding in physics and other technical knowhow. Ironically it should be a low effort sport perfect for the aging generation.
Terrific sport!!! Got NAUI Certified when I was 12 yrs old (Dad was a Navy Diver). My formative years were spent diving wrecks off Ocean City, MD & Chincoteague, VA + numerous trips to the Caribbean: Cayman Islands, Jamaica, & Bonaire.
@ one point divers were just above the pecking order from motorcycle gangs. I’m sure it’s been gentrified since then.
“Im curious if it too will die out as the population gets dumber … .”
Ni**ers don’t swim. Can’t swim.
Dead on about a great “sport” for older folks. My family (ages 58/55/21/20) got certified years ago and we dive on almost every vacation. The only benefit of being in shape is that you breathe less oxygen so you can stay down longer. In fact, the whole goal is to exert as little energy as possible so you can enjoy the beauty longer. If you can move your legs, you can enjoy scuba, but it’s more like underwater sightseeing than a sport.
White seascaping for the win, then.
Our great navies from tiny coastal nations conquered the world. Let us become the Benthics, the mermen- Captain Nemo had it right.
DLS: Excellent description. Fulfilled one of my dreams years ago when I got certified during my otherwise miserable Caribbean embassy tour of duty. Loved diving. Wish I had done more. Was able later to treat my then pre-teen son to a special class conducted in a local dive-shop swimming pool, although he’s never had the chance to properly dive since. I never enjoyed any of the standard team sports as either participant or spectator. Loved scuba, loved skiing, loved driving without speed limits on the Autobahn. Unfortunately learned/experienced these things in my late 20s and had only a few years… Read more »
“It is hard to overstate the warping effect the Boomer generation has had on the American culture.” Not for me it isn’t. As an early Gen Xer, I have been acutely aware of this my entire life. I wasn’t alive when Kennedy was shot. I was in nursery school during Woodstock and Vietnam. None of the classical Boomer shit means anything to me. By 1980 I was already sick and tired of hearing Zeppelin and Hendrix and Steppenwolf. Today there are people in their seventies still listening to that shit. Worse, the bottom fell out of the traditional economy during… Read more »
I hear you Xman. I am a mid-boomer. I remember when the off shoring stared in earnest in the 80s. I was amazed at all of the people who thought it was a great idea. Rush Limbaugh was a cheerleader for all of the trade deals, due to his GOP establishment ties. I argued with my friends that the man was out of his mind on that issue but they just looked at me like I had two heads. I remember telling them that we will not have a way to generate real wealth. The traitors ripped out the core… Read more »
Ross Perot was right and said it! The Bush’s shut him up fast.
You’re not a mid-boomer. You are likely a late boomer., probably closer to Gen X than the mid-boomers. The mid-boomers to me are the guys who got out of HS around ’72-74 or so. They are my baby-sitters generation.
Right there with you on the age bracket and disgust for all things Boomer, especially their music. I have enjoyed a lot of great music in my life, much of it equal to, or far surpassing the best Classic Rock. But I still got tired of it all after a while! For fucks sake Boomers, find something new to listen to!
I can’t say I noticed much of the 80s and 90s because I was otherwise occupied, looking for and finding adventure, and/or just plain being irresponsible. I’m definitely noticing now though.
Not criticizing, but trying to learn. What came after classic rock that is better?
Nora En Pure, Swiss-Afrikaaner, the absolute finest DJ on Planet Earth.
“Deep House” Music so good it’ll drive you insane. Not jingles or singalongs, rave instrumentals that will put you In.The. Zone.
(As the Dutchman told me)
Alzabeo, I did not downvote you. I am not familiar with those.
Did you make those names up? Forget it, of course you did.
Seems like X got stepped over; like Fredo. Xers are generally more sane than Millenials, but the majority zeitgeist of X was still fucking liberal and carrying-on the Boomer bullshit by and large. Certainly in regards to feminism, blacks, and illegals; the biggies.
A lot of the conservative Xers who remembered Reagan fondly, got conned into enlisting for Iraq and Afghanistan!
It has long seemed like the mission of boomers was to screw over the Xers
And to genocide them through tens of millions of abortions
Your post got me nostalgic for one of, what I consider to be, the best Gen-X bands: X.
I hardly listen to them or hear them at all, but when I do, they always impress me in new ways. Maybe that’s our version (“a” version at least) of the Beatles.
We had our great music as well, but “our” version of Classic Rock is 80s Radio. I gotta be honest, much of what GenX-ers consider classic is really insufferable. To be fair, I hated most of it *then*.
Punk that predates “hardcore” is boomer rock, literally and aesthetically. X were one of the good ones, but I most remember them for berating their fans for rockin’ out macho-ly to their macho rock song about rape. *That* was very GenX.
That is because you likely haven’t turned on a radio in the past 10 years. Anything produced during the Gen X era may as well be Mozart compared to the atonal low complexity garbage blasting the airwaves today.
N-gger music won, period. Everything is some flavor of hip-hop even country. Seeing young blonde white girls twerking their azz like a sheboon while covered in tats just reminds me how dysgenic this society is and how much I hate this timeline.
The culture has been totally Africanized, which means it is basically an anti-culture.
Though a very late Boomer, I loved a lot of 80s music. I love(d) classic rock, even though I was too young for it when it was new. The reason I grew to hate it was the “Classic Rock” radio format of the 1980s-90s before it was killed off, or at least fierce competition arrived, from satellite and later digital formats. I recall reading that a typical station had a catalog of about 500 songs. As good as [insert your favorite song here] may be, you will probably get sick of hearing it every day or two. Do these stations… Read more »
I dislike piling on the Boomers, but find that I can’t help myself in this case. It took me at least 20 years before I could appreciate the Beatles due to the incessant promotion of that band at every conceivable opportunity by my elders. In 6th grade, we were made to watch the Yellow Submarine just because our hippy teacher wanted to. It went over our heads, we were bored, but the teacher got to swoon over Paul again. When you’re constantly told from birth that this is the greatest thing ever, you really hate them. My considered appraisal of… Read more »
Paul was an underrated bassist in my humble opinion. And the unique chord shifts are partly why the Beatles songs are more difficult to play than you might think. One of the first songs I tried to teach myself on guitar was “I’m Looking Through You.” Its only 5ish chords but it was much harder for a beginner than I had anticipated.
Reynard, I entirely agree. In my list of what I appreciate about the Beatles above, I see that I left out many amazing melodies. “When I’m 64,” for example, has great melody, chords, and bass. It’s still hard for me to give the Beatles their due.
They didn’t always, obsessively hew to the stripped down early R&R chord patterns or forms of the blues progression. They, particularly McCartney, hearkened back to the English music hall tradition for inspiration from time to time, sort of a specifically Great British Songbook. Very little of jazz among their overt influences, and in their partial lack of slavish emulation of American/black formulas, a breath of fresh air. While listening to When I’m 64, in your mind’s eye you could easily envision a vaudvillian soft shoe being the story board conceit for the video. Made for a nice change.
Johnny Ramone said that the Ramones wrote so many of their own songs because he “didn’t have time to learn all those Beatle chords” and play regular old Boomer music.
As an avocational audio engineer, I appreciate the Beatles mostly for what they did with the equipment that was available at the time, when plate reverb really was a plate of sheet metal with a couple transducers epoxied to it, and to get hall reverb, you had to record in a hall, with appropriate mike selection and placement.
Yes, they had some songs with good chords and vocal harmonies, but far and away, it’s how they got the sound they did that captivates me.
Steve –
Playing 8 hour sets in Hamburg night after night. You can’t help but get good – & tight as a band – with a schedule like that. ;<)
Very Malcolm Gladwellian of you. It isn’t practice that made the Beatles so good. It was innate talent and creativity.
While they were not the only ones doing studio wizardry, what the Beatles and more precisely, their technical support, were able to do at the time was revolutionary. I’ve read that would-be copycats are still trying to figure out how they obtained some of the sounds they did. I’ve read similar claims for Hendrix. He was surely a competent guitarist but he had folks building him effects boxes that, apparently, remain mysteries.
Keep in mind, the Beatles were all in their 20s when they broke up. Imagine having their body of work at that age. In 8 years, they had 20 number one hits and 34 in the top ten. It’s hard not to appreciate that.
As a late Boomer, I was only 10 when the Beatles broke up, but I have a female cousin who was a fanatic. All she played was the Beatles. Got caught up in the “Paul is dead” stuff. As a result I detested the Beatles…until I started really listening to them again in my 40’s. While they may not be the greatest thing since sliced bread, I have learned to appreciate their musicality and influence on later bands. Also, as a drummer I really appreciated that Ringo was not a standard “drum roll on every rest” R&R type musician.
On the young end of GenX, and there is definitely a logjam for advancement at my firm unless you debase yourself to get patronage from one of the people in the good jobs.
The return of blue collar work over the past 8 years or so has been astonishing. Your right we’ve not seen this since 1982. As an automation system integrator, I work in these fields all the time. As a control system integrator, I am fully able to capitalize on this trend. The music situation is funny. The older to mid boomers still listen to their 70’s music, most of which is crap. I tend to like the hard rock like Zepplin (as well as disco and funk). But I have not really listened to rock since the 80’s. I think… Read more »
Abelard-
Thanks for sharing.
Your first paragraph confirms my instinct that giving up international work in MBS-stan to take a role in industrial automation and control systems is probably a good move at this time.
I’ve received calls from two recruiters this week for industrial automation work. I probably won’t go for them because I’m happy where I am now. But its reassuring the opportunities are out there. \ What did it for me 12 years ago was when Careerbuilder (remember them?) started showing the number of applicants for any given job posted. The high-level technical sales and marketing positions were attracting 120-150 applicants. The typical industrial automation and controls system engineering position attracted maybe 10-12 applicant, a magnitude or order less. I think the recession we’re headed into will be very similar to that… Read more »
Controls automation engineers will not lack for work if and until it all comes crumbling down. These are careers dominated by Whites and unfortunately Pashtu’s. Can’t remember the last black CE I saw in the last 30 years.
Please consider accepting a personal apology from a tail end boomer. I truly loath that most self absorbed generation in history. It may be a salve for your wounds to know 95%+ boomers have no savings or property of any real value, mostly due to their belief in their eternal youth, living as grasshoppers rather than ants. Unfortunatly those will continue to burden society. ( maybe Canada isn”t completely wrong advocating suicide) ) I too was tired of most of the music you mentioned. However I do have a renewed appreciation for Steppinwolfs “Goddamn the pusher” seems more precient today… Read more »
Aren’t collectivists and their White Guilt cute?
Twitter:
“I need to go to school to be a lawyer because in 10 years there will not be enough lawyers to represent these kids,its gonna be epic”
“Wait until they start suing their own parents when they detrans at a later age. Home owner insurance about to take on a new meaning.”
The decline in college football attendance is probably related to demographics, both of the students and the players (everyone can see that most of them do not belong on a university campus), but this is conjecture. What isn’t conjecture is that demographic change at a HS in Fremont California was so dramatic (Whites replaced by Asians, mostly Chinese and Indians) that they were not able to put football teams on the field for at least one season due to lack of interest from the male students. However every HS in that league now has a girls and boys badminton team,… Read more »
And I was definitely part of the tennis boom in the 1970s — I played nearly every day from the mid-70s to mid-80s — at one time I could not imagine never picking up a racket, but it has now been 20 years since I did — I don’t miss it.
I too have nothing against badminton but it’s easier for lightly muscled Asians to play — the racket is lighter and the shuttlecock lighter than a tennis ball. Table tennis is also more popular with Asians — and again the same logic.
Badminton and table tennis invented by the British. If you don’t play American sports you’ll play British.
You just cannot avoid the Anglo matrix.
Laughs evilly.
Evolution of sports
British invent game
Spread it other countries
Other countries surpass Brits
Brits invent game . . . .
Fremont, I had rarely seen relatives there; not named in any wills, to my knowledge 🙂
One salutary effect of the replacement sports you mention is that they are self-selecting to minimize participation by, shall we say, the less desirable fraction of society 😀
In the not so far off future the U.S. will be Zimbabwe with nukes.
“In the not so far off future the U.S. will be Zimbabwe with nukes.”
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/kremlin-russia-and-the-west-have-reached-the-confrontation-stage
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/deputy-speaker-of-russian-senate-west-faces-existential-choice-continue-suicidal-strategy-or-engage-self-preservation
Just go ahead and rename it Zimbombwe.
I’m not a boomer, but I’m a middle aged Gen Xer. For me growing up, the local college football team was something most people lived and breathed. One can argue the healthiness of that level of fanaticism, but it was definitely good “water cooler” conversation, and it brought people together. I’ve cooled the last 10 years on college football, but there will always be a piece of me that cherishes the memories of my younger days and that naive love of the game. The difference between then, and now, is that 25 years ago, it was perfectly acceptable for any… Read more »
What is important is that young white children, adolescents and men abandon sportsball for more important and real warrior activities. It is clear that white men are not wanted. There are too many of us and not enough blacks. Why any white person wants to participate or spectate is a cause of deep sadness for me. We should take that message to heart and also be very practical about what lies ahead. We need to organize activities for our young men and make them feel wanted. Those activities should also provide a much more masculine and natural environment where practical… Read more »
My 12 year old’s classmate bagged a 120# deer on his far suburban property using a bow and arrow. Guts were left for the scavengers. Family friend was called who owned some knives and had some butchering skills. Everyone else hung out in the garage with Bambi hanging from the rafters.
Head and leftovers were double bagged and left in the dumpster.
The young Noname Boy asked Santa for a compound bow with a minimim 40# draw…
These young men and their friends will own the future.
Fantastic! In terms of skill, insist he learn the fundamentals of using a recurve. The compound is fine, but it takes far less skill. Skipping over skill development is skipping over personal development.
Great to hear that some young ones are being manly and that the community is supporting it. There are some great survival and outdoorsman courses around that make great father/son and group men activities.
Extra credit. He wants the compound because the little Rambo baked a recursive bow using PVC in his shop class over the summer.
Strong enough to bring down squirrel and rabbit, but he doesn’t want to risk it with larger game.
Paintball and woodsman skills
They distracted us with sportsball while they commandeered our government and our country. I am as guilty as anyone so charged. What can I say, some of that stuff was pretty damn good.
Sportsball is the opiate of Civnat Q. Normiecon, but today he has much less excuse for being so beguiled than he did 20 or 30 years ago.
I used to be like this with CFB and the NHL.
I’ve moved on because my boyhood heroes are retired or dead, sportsball is so mercenary that you’re rooting for laundry, and the players are all Facebook bros so there are no real rivalries anymore.
In my middle-class apartment complex, the tennis courts have been taken over by guys in their 20s and 30s practicing boxing while playing loud rap “music,” with the f-word and mf-word every word.
Rap is best described as a multi-decade exploration to determine just how many words rhyme with “witch”.
Ah dammit, they gettin’ ready.
They’re picking this up from their elders, fresh out of basic in prison* and learning squad unit tactics in the woke military.
*(Cartel latinos hold unit training drills and group PE- physical exercise- in the state farms and the big house.)
In Ktown ( LA), The tennis courts run by the city are surrounded by homeless encampments. There are people smoking meth, shooting dope into the veins of their toes, and screaming at the top of their lungs. On the courts is a different story. The Koreans show up expensive Izod tennis wear with floppy, white tennis hats, expensive carbon fiber rackets and of course a face diaper. They seem to have the ability to ignore the surrounding and act like they’re playing at Wimbledon. Things must be pretty bad in Korea. The Canary is dead? YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!
What I learned during the plandemic is that the bread and circuses must and will go on, even when everything else is shut down, even when there is purportedly a great plague which is supposed to be making it dangerous for humans to interact. This allowed me to view public funding of stadiums from a whole new perspective which probably should have been obvious already. You could say that they went on because the participants were motivated by financial reasons, but the regime made no such accomodation for cruise lines, restaurants, concert venues, and beauty shops which also needed the… Read more »
The Mexicans won’t show up when tickets are $100+, that’s for sure…
*Cough* — even whites have to think twice when looking at those prices. And $7 for a soda? It’s daylight robbery.
pyrrhus: That was not my husband’s experience when, pre-Covid, he had to attend Cowboys’ games at the office box with various customers. He used to come home claiming that the parking lot was filled with Mestizo families. His parking and ticket and food were covered; he could not imagine what those families were dropping for the same. He’s your quintessential tail-end boomer in that he’s still a football fan but hates the hassle of driving to the stadium and dealing with parking and the crowds to get to the box, where he then cannot even enjoy the game but must… Read more »
Considering a huge chunk of their income isn’t taxed because it’s cash under the table, their dollars go a bit further than your.
I find this all to be good news. I would rather some young person get lost on the web, even that sad anime stuff they look at, than sitting there feeding (((sports entertainment))). “Look at the shiny object on the screen while we take your country from you.” I was probably a second wave cord cutter. I should have done it sooner. What really put me over the top was that line on the bill “regional sports fee.” Local pro teams getting an extra top off from EVERYONE. It was up to something like $8.00 a month too. A secular… Read more »
My disdain for Boomers is second to none, but I have to admit the Boomers I play hockey with in the local beer league kick my ass on a regular basis, and good for them. Then again, I live in a part of the country where Boomers retire specifically NOT to play pickle ball.
If your local boomers don’t match your boomer stereotype, might that imply you might be overgeneralizing a tad?
Nah. Hate of “other” is a powerful means of unearned self-esteem, as numerous historical examples show…
“Nah. Hate of “other” is a powerful means of unearned self-esteem, as numerous historical examples show…”
Nah, the generalization stands. That sounds like a typical Boomer knee-jerk response as well.
The Boomers who kick my ass are exceptions, and not in all ways. It was really just an effort to post a more light-hearted example to add to the discussion in a small way.
Also, might want to refresh yourself with what a “generalization” …is.
Really? Older guys who can kick your ass are the exception? Who knew?
Outdoorspro,
I’m fascinated by all the boomer critics. The impression I get from our critics is how soft and effeminate we are, but my observation is most genX and millennials I’ve encountered have never even been in a fist fight, much less shot a firearm (nor know how to fight or shoot).
Beating your chest to impress my circle with your masculinity is not impressive.
“Beating my chest”? You’ve got a strange definition of that phrase, when my example of masculinity is getting ass kicked by boomers. Man, you really need to get a clue. And yes Steve, Boomers who can kick my ass (if you recall, I was very specifically talking about beer league hockey, not street fighting, ffs) are not the exception. I’m a pretty low-level player, so most people I play with are better than me. Oh shit, there I go, beating my chest again… However, Boomers who are in good enough shape to lace up skates and get on the ice… Read more »
I wasn’t being critical of you. What I was getting at is that maybe if you took a moment to look around, the “stereotypical” boomer is not very common. It’s not like every white dad was either Archie Bunker or Ted Bundy.
Me, personally, I have an older brother who is not the stereotype, two younger brothers who are mid Gen X but fit your Boomer stereotype to a “T” except for the abortions, and a younger brother and sister who are early Gen X and play the role you seem to think they should.
“Even if the standards do not collapse, the legal profession is about to experience a great die off.”
Well, every grey cloud has a silver lining. We have way too many lawyers. The last thing we need is more ambulance chasers and class action suits.
Oh, there will still be plenty of lawyers. They’ll just be drooling idiots. It’s possible you’ll be able to tell the difference.
Golf participation has picked up a bit in recent years, especially post-COVID as people found more leisure time. A big driver of this is off-course participation at places like Topgolf or simulators. The National Golf Foundation has a lot of data on this.
https://www.ngf.org/
Of course, the overall demographic changes and economic challenges should be headwinds for golf participation going forward, but for now COVID brought more people out to the golf course.
Yeah, Covid gave golf a huge boost.
Golf is also one of the last place/activities where guys can get together with other guys and just be guys. Even the Millennials are figuring this out.
Golf will last longer than people think.
Yeah, but how many non-Boomers are going to go to the matches to watch or get the golf channel on cable?
As far as a guy thing, they’re changing that. Nothing is safe. They actually are using women as commentators in boxing now. They are absolutely awful. I though Larry Merchant was a douche, now he’s the good old days of insightful and excellent commentary.
The economics of golf are challenging even in good times. The early days of golf in this country, the 2 basic forms were clubs or municipal parks. Neither were money makers. The clubs required wealthy people (and still do) to in essence donate money through fees and dues to create a nice place to golf and socialize. Municipal golf courses were subsidized parks. As the 1980s rolled around, you had the creation of the suburban golf community, where a golf course was the centerpiece of an upscale housing development, and that golf course enhanced the value of the surrounding homes.… Read more »
I started playing during covid-mania. I love it. Where else can I drink, swear, have a cigar, drive a golf cart, and enjoy being outside?
Golf is a 4 (or 6) hour mini-vacation. It is the thing that sustains and recharges the family man. Early Mass and 18 holes is a perfect Sunday.
Yeah, you’re out on the course with your friends. So you can talk about anything you want without offending anyone. Being outdoors means you don’t have to concern yourself with thing covid-19 either. I can see how golf will last longer than most people think.
(Almost) the Last of the Boomers Z’s essay considers the changing impact upon the sports industry. Let’s look at how changing demographics might affect other parts of our lives. I’m officially (within 3 years) the tail end of the Baby Boom generation. I don’t claim any special privilege from that, but thought I might muse on how being in that particular phase of the demographic progression has and will likely affect me, and of course, those close in age to me. Pay attention slightly younger folk, as these trends will surely affect you too, although perhaps to a greater or… Read more »
I think we’ll see some pretty dark times for late Boomers and early Gen-X. Boomers hold a great deal of the wealth of the country in the form of real estate and stocks and they are counting on social security. But all 3 are in serious danger and every day it gets worse with new retirees. As they need money they are going to sell stocks and downsize their real estate. Just as they have driven up prices on the way up, they are going to drive prices down as they try and unload these assets. Enormous pressure will be… Read more »
The math on Social Security is nothingburger compared to Medicare and Medicaid. SS can be patched up with an unnoticeable level of money printing while BigMed has a nation-ruining level funding gap. “Canadian” solution incoming.
Yes, good points. On the up side, as Boomers seek to downsize, in theory that would make single family homes cheaper for younger families. But that’s not guaranteed. Smaller senior-friendly property gets bid up due to increasing demand, narrowing the spread. I’ve not seriously looked, but from time to time I see what 55+ communities are charging, and it makes my 4-BR SFH in the same town seem quite reasonable in comparison. Crazy. And I’m not talking about the senior places where meals, attendants and all services are included, either.
Boots on, one way or another.
Anyone else notice the over-representation of a certain tribe in the sports talker list? Greenberg, Finebaum, Kellerman, Eisen, Gottlieb, Schein, etc. So strange how such an nonathletic race loves to talk about athletic black men.
Jews have always loved sports (in a way that only the unathletic can) and blacks. They also love words. They also love to dominate the media and help fellow tribesmen.
Sports talk radio is the perfect place for loud-mouth Jews.
Being steeped in a different worldview than their own drives everybody nuts.
And in the ownership.
It allows them to legally own schwartzes.
You win! Lmfao.
Kellerman is the worst of them. He’s enormously radical in his anti-racist ranting. He’s gone on rants where his black cohost has been like, bro you might be going a step too far (not an exaggeration).
If you still have a shred of normie in you, as I do, and like to listen occasionally to the sportsball jibber jabber, Pat McAfee is wildly entertaining.
I think it’s no accident that the massive decline in boxing (which was doing okay, for boxing, until 2014 or so) coincided with the rise of Kellerman. He killed that sport. It was amazing to see him contrasted with Lampley in HBO Boxing’s latter days. Lampley is a far-leftist nut of an earlier vintage–he believes in all of the old causes and, I’m sure, most of the new ones. But he’s also a class act who never brought politics ringside, ever. He would have to patiently redirect Kellerman when the latter would veer off into insane shitlibbery on-air.
I wouldn’t put it all on Kellerman, however odious he may be.
The seeds of boxing’s decline were sown when they took it off national broadcast TV and put it on pay per view. They traded in the future of the sport for a big short term payday.
One of the reasons Ali was such a popular and recognized champion was his fights were on primetime network tv.
I play tennis, I picked it up again after a long break a few years ago. I played in college but got tired of it and quit, mainly because I realized I was never going to be as good as I wanted to be. When I started again, I was playing on the local college courts with adults and high school kids on the team. It amazed me just how unathletic most of the kids are now. A lot of them can’t throw or run, anything requiring coordination. Since I’ve started back, the collage has started tennis teams again. They… Read more »
> They have been amazingly competitive but unfortunately most of the players both men and women are not from this country.
For whatever reason, Tennis is one of the easier sports to get an athletic scholarship in, so a ton of foreign parents make them play to get them into an American university.
I’ve noticed this as well when I occasionally watch college golf. Many foreign players – particularly from China and Korea. Hell, the Koreans dominate the lpga these days and are getting more numerous on the men’s tour as well. A sad commentary…
Asians dominate the LPGA because of intense training, but can’t hit the ball very far. If manly black athletes like Serena Williams had the money to train when young, they would dominate the sport with length like Jack did in the 60s and 70s.
Nope. Blacks wouldn’t not dominate golf. First, they’re athletic advantage is fast-twitch muscles, i.e., speed. That might help a bit at golf, but not much. It’s more about hand-eye coordination. That’s why small guys like Rory McIlroy can be at the top of the driving distance list. Size and power help, but so doesn’t technique. There’s also the fact that black lack the discipline to become great golfers. Blacks aren’t going to sit alone at a driving range for hours on end. This is why Asian women have come to dominate women’s golf. They’re grinders. Golf is made for them.… Read more »
Rory can bench 250, so I wouldn’t say he is not strong. Strength has become very important in golf. It’s much easier to come into a green with a wedge than a 7-iron. I agree blacks don’t have an advantage over whites in pure strength, and don’t have the patience for the sport, but Serena was the most manly woman I could think of to compare to small-framed Asian women.
Rory is strong, but he’s not a big guy. Also, there are other examples of guys who drive (or did drive) a long way but who weren’t ripped. Bubba Watson comes to mind.
And, yes, Serena is very tough to look at. Black women in general are tough to look at. They are, by far, at the bottom of the dating totem pole – and they know it.
Not only does golf require hours of practice hitting a variety of shots, but there’s a large mental component to the game, requiring analytical skills, both on the course and when practicing. Even some of the big hitters, like Bryson DeChambeau, spend a lot of time with high-tech equipment studying his swing, trying to figure out how to hit it farther. (He also lifts weights.)
Citizen, it has been suggested that black women and asian men, who are both at the bottom of their respective dating totem poles, should start dating each other. Now that is a sport that would be entertaining to watch.
Golf is a grinder sport. This is a huge advantage to Asian women. Young white women just don’t want to spend every evening and weekend hitting golf balls with their dad. Asian girls do what their dad tells them to do.
That advantage falls dramatically with guys, because there are plenty of young white guys who are willing to pound golf balls all day and night.
Strength training makes literally everything easier.
It’s never too late. Cannot recomend practicle stength training enough. Not to be confused with body building.
The slow demise of the Boomers will be very interesting to watch. Besides their technical and managerial expertise, they’re the last generation to actually believe in America the “idea.” They are the last line of defense for colorblind civic nationalism. That’s not to say that there aren’t a fair amount of Gen Xers and even a few Millennials who believe that as well, but they’re out numbered. The vast majority of Boomers, even Leftist Boomers, still believe in the Constitution and the ideals of the Founders. (For Leftists, they just remove the bad race awareness of the Founders and keep… Read more »
Speaking as a late Boomer (they used to call us “Generation Jones” because we are different enough from the classic Woodstock/Vietnam Boomers to merit a different title) I can tell you that it is entirely possible to dislike and regret what the Boomers did as a generation, while recognizing that the country is going to be much, much worse off without them. Boomers and older Xers are the last large concentration of competence in America today despite the existence of a few quite competent Millennials and Zoomers. When they go, a lot of other things are going to go as… Read more »
You’re already seeing it in some professions, particularly ones that Asians and Indians have no interest, such as pilots. The Boomers are annoying in many ways, but they were competent at their jobs. They are not being fully replaced in higher skill jobs as they retire. This will cause issues. It’s just the natural progression as the US becomes “Brazil of the North.” Society will still function, just not as smoothly. Parts of cities will be very nice. Other parts will look like Africa. Some rural areas will be picturesque. Other areas will be dumps. We’ll see that progression in… Read more »
This is a very astute observation and matches I observe going on around me.
This is one of the reasons why I don’t the boomers the way guys like Vox Day do. Whatever their faults the two things about the boomers I’ve always found true were that they were competent in their work and careers and they had a good work ethic.The other factor is I never had much contact with the original Woodstock/Vietnam/Hippy boomers. All of my experience have been with the boomers that came out of high school in the early to mid 70’s, my baby-sitter’s generation. These people are roughly about 8-10 older than me and were the offspring of my… Read more »
Although it was in a very different context, 60s pianist and off-color comedian Tom Lehrer famously sung “We’ll all go together when we go.” 😀
That courtroom scene from Idiocracy reminded me of the Derrick Chauvin trial. It was such a ridiculous display it insulted the whole idea of the “show trial”.
There was no difference. The fix was in and an honorable policeman doing his job got crucified. Which led to one-one third of the Minneapolis police department resigning in fury and disgust. And the same people who applauded Chauvin getting sentenced are the same ones scratching their head in perplexity about why crime has gone up in leaps and bounds in Minneapolis. How is this different from “Idiocracy?”
Has Idiocracy been reclassified to a documentary yet?
The guy who made Idiocracy, Mike Judge, needs to revise it to change the part he got the most wrong–that it’s set 500 years in the future.
It’s no laughing matter — the film got pulled down because it was too close to being a documentary. Don’t want the proles finally putting two and two together and realising they inhabit an actual idiocracy.
The mRNA vaccines are going to significantly thin the ranks of the boomers very soon, so pissing & moaning about this demographic cohort is a waste of time. And no true dissident is going to shed a tear for the demise of sportsball, so what good is it to piss on them? Yes, the middle class is disappearing rapidly along with fecundity, but the old farts on this blog are not going to solve that problem either. So what to do? First, stop chasing the carrot. Voting harder-harder is not going to fix anything. Second, get the fat ass off… Read more »
Damn straight. Five & you’re an ace.
What will happen with college sports is things will go back to the way they were. Our college basketball team in the mid 1990s played in a sweaty gym that seated about 2,000 people in bleachers that electrically retracted into the walls. There were no fancy luxury suites or jumbotrons. Most of our fans were bored students who swigged a 5th of JD or a case of beer before walking through the door or our families (grandparents and mothers for the black players of course and maybe an uncle or two). We saw how the other half in college sports… Read more »
The financial studies showing the local economic benefits of sports stadiums were as phony as current day drug studies and vote counts.
If that’s the case, I suggest we all take up soccer. Cities can at least make the vig on some of those huge stadiums by renting them out for soccer matches, with seats at 10 pesos a throw. Start laying the groundwork now that there are a bunch of White kids becoming “football hooligans,” and then watch the fun as the FBI tries to work the crowd.
I don’t like what the NFL has done to football, still think it’s because they courted lady fans in the ‘00s. Yeah, lots of downtime, but at least you used to get 60 minutes to have fun and take out your frustrations, so you needed a breather.
Also don’t understand the appeal of soccer. Running around and faking injuries for 88 minutes, 2 or so decisive minutes.
One of the major changes to football no one notices is they now keep the clock running on out-of-bounds plays. The rationale was to shorten games, but they still run at 3+ hours. So the result was even less plays, made up for with more advertising delays.
2 or so decisive minutes. That’s a feature, not a bug. Handegg is a superhero movie, explosions going off all the time, so it’s about polite golf claps and let’s have another hotdog. Soccer is a thriller, building the suspension slowly so when it’s finally discharged, the stadium explodes. In handegg, the best team always wins, in soccer there’s always the risk of seeing your world-beating team being knocked out by a lucky shot from Team Iceland or a poor decision by the referee. That said, soccer is not really about the game – not for the majority of fans.… Read more »
Fair enough. Playing a sport changes how you watch it, so I’d probably enjoy soccer a lot more if I’d played it. I can’t imagine enjoying football as much if I hadn’t played it, either.
Well, yes, but it’s a bit beside my point. I’m not arguing the merits of soccer itself – I never played soccer and I never watched club tournaments, only national games. I’m arguing the merit of sportsball as a vehicle for unabashed, flag-waving, anthem-bawling, street-fighting patriotism. Imagine every four years the national coach would hand-pick the best players from all over America and for one month they’d be off the corporate payroll, working for only peanuts and honor to show Johnny Foreigner who was boss. And imagine that other countries fielded real teams, making it a real competition where America… Read more »
Idk. The olympics are kind of like that, and they don’t do much for me anymore. Mostly I only enjoy watching sports I’ve played, I guess.
Except nobody cares about shot putting or the 400 meter relay, nobody fights in the streets over the Olympics.
Except, of course, the 1980 USA vs. USSR hockey finals, if you’re old enough to remember that.
Now, imagine it wasn’t a fringe sport like hockey, but football. Or like Rocky vs. Dolph Lundgreen, only real.
As long as the tourism and retirement industries follow, I’m OK with it.
Getting serious, I wonder if the Great Replacement is also part of it. It all seems like the spirit of the age.
There will be a big mess to clean up. The whole End Times narrative feeds the egos of the people who want to be the GOAT and the laziness of people who suck.
The great replacement is a proverbial hail Mary. It’s an attempt to keep the population growing in spite of declining birthrates because capitalism demands perpetual and remitting growth. In a sense, things like pensions, social security, and retirement accounts can only happen as long as the number of taxpaying workers greatly exceeds the number of non-working income receivers. Since white boomers didn’t birth a generation larger than theirs (but smaller than theirs), there are three strategies that have to be attempted to ensure that they can be financially safe in their non-productive years: reduced demand for energy (going green), immigration,… Read more »
Very well said!
I doubt the people who own the robots will want to finance the pensions of people who don’t provide them value, so I’d guess boomers will be taken care of until they stop consuming. It’ll be a new reality for everybody.
The boomers who had kids will be glad they did as long as they didn’t alienate their posterity in the meantime.
Robots aren’t the breakthrough they’ve been hoped to be. The biggest issue is that they can’t handle variability or complexity cheaply. It takes lots of software and computational power to turn a machine into a bad driver. It’s currently unknown how much it would cost to make a machine into a perfect driver.
Hyperinflation and mRNA spike protein delivery systems will take care of the pension problem.
The conservatives arriving through the southern border love soccer. Some of the stadiums will be repurposed, along with the focus of college sports and other parts of the culture.
True, plus these stadia have a very short lifespan. Few make it 40 years without major renovations, and that was factored into things at the time they were built. Even if it were in the trillions of dollars, spread over half a century, that’s basically round-off error.
I see very few following sports. I hear more about it on this site than I do IRL, and my daughter is dating a hockey player.
If E.B. White’s Decline of Sport comes to pass, I’ll shed no tears.
From my perspective as a golfer, it still seems pretty popular, especially compared to tennis, despite being expensive. That said, the average age is certainly older and a few courses in my general area have closed down and gone to seed. Maybe it’s just the existing players getting funneled onto fewer courses. At any rate, Tiger Woods can’t disappear soon enough – it really is pathetic how the professional golf reporters all but cream their shorts anytime there’s a hint he might play in some tournament. Time to freaking move on. What continues to amaze me is the money these… Read more »
The Corona panic has been good for golf- lots of younger people played during the lockdowns because they were among the few recreational facilities that were open. Let’s see if they continue to play.
I’ve heard people say professional golf is a money laundering activity, and seeing all the money the Saudis are throwing at it now tells me they are probably onto something. Hard to picture a ROI for those astronomical sums.
Tiger wasn’t the problem. He did a lot to popularize the sport. He was politically neutral, and identified honestly as about 20% black, 25% white and 50% Asian. It was the media that tried to make him into a BLM type symbol.
When Tiger emerged onto the golf scene, the assumption was that all of these inner-city black kids would take up golf. As usual, the magical thinking is based on the black kids seeing someone “who looks like them,” which is a foundational component of their quest to equalize racial outcomes.
Wolf, no doubt. I just appreciate that when he was at rock bottom in his personal life, he never played the “Whaaa, I’m too black for white people, but too white for black people” card.
Yeah, but he surely was an asshole when being interviewed post round.
Baseball, was and should be, America’s sport. The fact that it isn’t would be great ore to be mined for a thesis. Just a rudimentary look at the underlying reasons and one gets a primer on why we are where, and what, we are today.
In some sense there’s hope, as the sport is becoming oddly de-Africanized. The Phillies starting 9 in the World Series consisted of 8 whites and one Latin. Unfortunately, the whites act like groids and the Hispanics act like Hispanics.
I didn’t think the Phils acted like groids, I found them pretty dignified in their cool demeanor and celebrations. Hoskins, Harper, Realmuto, the lanky 3B with the cool bouncy hair I forget his name now (Bohm?). The lone non-white was the Hispanic Segura. I was upset they lost to an almost entirely Latin Astros team.
The choreographed shucking and jiving after home runs is right out of the jogger playbook. Pete Rose or Larry Bowa would put a stop to those kinds of shenanigans, and rightly so.
It’s not just playing sports (racquetball, tennis, golf, etc.) that are in decline as boomers age out (or die.) There are other activities that are in similar decline, like being a private pilot, wargaming, ham radio, the list goes on. I seriously wonder if the younger generation even has hobbies that don’t involve looking at a screen (social media, playing games on Xbox.) As for watching sports in person, I have no desire to go to a game (and I love hockey and baseball) and be assaulted during every stoppage by music so loud it’d put a Queensryche concert to… Read more »
The Private Pilot angle is interesting as my late father had a private pilot’s license and owned an airplane. Kept it hangared at a somewhat local airport. About ten years after he passed I took lessons and got my private pilot’s license. I flew for a few years and gave it up in the early 2000s. The big stumbling block is airplanes are out of reach price wise for your “average Joe”. Lots of people buy “shares” in an airplane, like a condo timeshare, or join a flying club that owns an airplane or two and charges dues. I had… Read more »
I read a statistic that said that there were something like 850,000 pilots with an airman certificate in 1975 when the country was only 200 million people, and something like 650,000 today, and the population is 330 million.
The general aviation fleet remains largely built during the 1950s-1970s, with 1950s technology and instruments. Guys are still flying around in 1958 Cessnas today, it’s almost like having a 1958 Studebaker for your daily driver.
Another Boomer activity in serious decline is hunting. Deer populations have rebounded significantly from the 1970s, but all the hunters are now 70+ years old…
Can you imagine what it costs to fill to 80 gallon tanks in a plane plus the emergency reserve? Not to mention the cost of insurance? Most people can’t afford hobbies because everything has become finacialized because after we sent all our jobs to China, well we had to pass tokens around somehow.
Hunting is an odd situation due to politics. My current state of residence has a huge hunting industry, trophy game and dangerous game, $10k a week package tours etc.. It has resulted in an absolutely Byzantine/Kafka-esque licensing and fees regime so dense that I dont even try. I get a small game license every now and then for pest control, but an actual game license? Fuggetaboutit. My home state is the opposite, they are overrun from the protection policies of thr 00’s and have no “sexy” game to draw sport hunters, to the point they have a problem with fatal… Read more »
“The general aviation fleet remains largely built during the 1950s-1970s, with 1950s technology and instruments. Guys are still flying around in 1958 Cessnas today, it’s almost like having a 1958 Studebaker for your daily driver.” The thing about airplanes is at least for single engine, fixed gear aircraft like the Cessna 152s and 172s I flew, as long as the airframe is solid and corrosion free, the airplane will fly for a good long time. Upgrading electronics is pricey, but relatively easy. “Steam” gauges like I learned on in 172s keep working for years and years, and will work in… Read more »
Those instrument panels suck if you have bifocals, though, I can see the alt, inclinometer, and tach petty good, the ASI sort of, but all the switches under the yoke are a real bitch.
General aviation (piston engine planes, not turbo props) was generally devastated by liability lawsuits in the early to mid 80’s. This why so many people fly piston engine planes that were made in, say, 1974, and it stills costs more than a high end car. No one drives a car from 1974.
Despite living 2 hours from the nearest MLB park, 20 years ago I’d catch 10-15 games a year; now, maybe 1 or 2. I still go to a lot of college hockey games- we have a team in town; they’re good, (recent national champs) and convenient, not to mention the players are held to high standards on and off the ice by the coach.
But the in arena experience, as you describe, is getting worse and worse. It’s an open question as to when/if the commotion of the in-venue experiences will drive me out.
I stopped watching basketball in the mid 80’s as the Showtime Lakers and Michael Jordan era turned the sport into a completely urban spectacle. College basketball is even worse in terms of combining hype and shvuggie culture. So it was refreshing last week to volunteer at and attend the basketball tournament at my daughter’s primary school. Most of the teams were from financially beleaguered Catholic schools or rural districts. The games were primarily contested between all-white squads and featured sportsmanship and team-based effort. It jarred me to realize after all this time that basketball is actually a fun sport when… Read more »
As Zman says basketball is a human flea circus. When the average white people play it is rather fun. The two hand set shot even makes a return.
Agreed. It’s why I still enjoy high school basketball. I love watching motion offenses. As painful as watching girls basketball is as a spectator it is very rewarding to coach as girls focus much more on basics and generally are better listeners than boys.
Classic youth basketball during the Depression era, from Angles With Dirty Faces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5PjH0YehCU
Moving to Flatlandia USA from Chicagoland it’s a culture shock to see coverage of “The High School Game of the Week” on local news and see, GASP 😮, white kids playing football and basketball. And positions like running back, receiver, or cornerback. Nearly six years here and I still get surprised.
Semi-on-topic: Here’s a link to an Unz story about forgotten football (and race riot) history from my home town, Washington D.C. It’s worth mentioning that I lived much of my life near DC and had never heard of this incident until the Unz article.
https://www.unz.com/article/a-true-thanksgiving-day-story-americas-forgotten-sixties-black-riot/?highlight=football
Never heard of pickleball, just looked it up on YouTube, it looks fun. The lazy msns tennis
Another such indicator is racquetball. Is it even played these days?
I have fun memories of racquetball as a kid. If you were losing, you would just hit the hard rubber ball as hard as you could directly at your opponent with the intent of causing them pain. Good times…
One more story: My racquet sports instructor in junior high school would punish us for misbehaving by viciously insulting us and making us hold uncomfortable physical stances for minutes, like the “dying cockroach.” Built character!
In 1985, before a Saturday morning high school soccer road game, we were getting bored waiting for our coach and assistant to come out of the school. So we all piled off the bus, picked up the assistant’s Chevette and turned it around 180 degrees. When our coach stepped onto the bus a few minutes later, he had a face like thunder. He pointed at all of us and menacingly intoned, “you’ll pay for that on Monday”. Didn’t say another word. Monday after practice, he had us run separators until we nearly swallowed our tongues, screaming bloody murder at anyone… Read more »
When I played football in high school, we won our first game, and the coaches rewarded us with all the White Castles we could eat Monday in the cafeteria. So of course we ate ourselves sick and had a food fight. The coaches immediately took us out to the field and lined us up on our backs in one of the end zones. They then made us roll 100 yards to the other end zone. Guys were puking and rolling sideways and backwards before they even got to the 50 yard line. Good times.
Yes, racquetball. It was huge in the 80s. There were numerous tournaments and it was a real thing. It was also hard on the knees and joints and boomers discovered that quickly. It’s a challenge finding courts these days.
I remember in the mid-70s, I think right before racquetball took off, there was a brief period where American handball* was a thing. Similar to racquetball with out the racket and with a smaller, heavier, denser ball. You just wear lightly padded gloves that protect your hand from the repeated impact.
I guess it is still played, but it seems like it has mostly dropped out of mainstream sight.
We played it against the school wall as kids, due to the complete lack of required equipment other than a small rubber ball.
*Completely different than the current olympic team sport.
I grew up in an Italian neighborhood, and I remember well the men in their white wife-beater t-shirts playing handball for hours. I tried it once, but damn that ball hurt.
Huh. I never thought of it as an ethnic thing, but the neighborhood I lived in when we were playing handball was pretty heavily Italian!
“Those little brown guys swimming over the Rio Grande may be natural conservatives, but they will not be taking up the game of golf any time soon”
A couple of years ago I was playing a local municipal course and witnessed a Hispanic family preparing for a picnic on one of the greens. It was high entertainment watching the staff trying to explain, in English to a group that did not speak English, that although this nice green flat spot was located in a park, they couldn’t have a picnic there.
With a decline in golfers, it’s logical that a lot of golf courses will disappear. I know of one a few miles from home that’s now a housing development. It’s too bad, because golf courses are aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but many are on expensive land, especially in metro areas.
I live near The Villages in Florida. Every housing “village” surrounds a golf course. In fact many new 55+ communities going up here (and there are a LOT going up) have golf courses imbedded.
It looks nice now, but I wonder how it’ll all look in 25 years.
They’ve planned ahead. Think of all the nice cemeteries you can fit on a par 5 with lake hazard.
Florida is probably the exception to what we’re talking about here. Tennis is still a popular activity there.
Yeah, here it’s always 1986.
One of the things I appreciate about Florida is that it really does feel like you’re back in the 80’s. The girls on the beaches are hot and there are no “hipster” styles like we have in the Portland area.
I belonged to a course in town for 25 years- it closed with the golf bust. They’re gonna put solar panels on it. I’d be happier if they built a nuclear plant.
Well, at least the upper midwest is known for it’s constant sunlight, so you know the ROI will be strong and the energy produced will be reliable.
Seeing the virtue solar fields in northern Wisconsin/ Minnesota/ North Dakota always makes my heart warm while my family freezes.
The NFL is reporting record TV ratings, interest in watching seems unchanged to me, so I think they have to gaming the numbers by counting people who watch snippets of the games on their phones. The Thursday night games are only on Amazon this year which is what they are blaming for those numbers being down. This article claims that in person attendance is up which amazes me because going to a game in person is an expensive and much worse experience than watching it at home or in a sports bar.
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/11/14/Upfront/NFL-attendance.aspx
From the linked article: “Box score attendance data has limitations. They generally include all tickets distributed, whether sold or given away. Team and ticketing industry veterans say there’s little rigor or oversight to methodology, which changes from time to time. For instance, this year the Pittsburgh Steelers started including tickets distributed but not used — making their numbers appear larger than in prior years, when they counted actual attendees.”
While I think NFL attendance has held up better than most sports, they all lie about their numbers.
Right, all sports leagues have lied about attendance for years, baseball is particularly bad about doing this. The only way you could get a true feel for actual attendance would be if the teams released data on revenue from parking and concessions to compare from year to year. If food and drink revenue is down 10% there is no way attendance is up. I’m sure they will never do that.
I can see attendance going up and concessions going down. The latter are even more ridiculously priced than the former.
Every single industry that relies on gate receipts will game their numbers by papering the crowd or just flat-out lying about the actual number of attendees. In 1987, the WWF sold out Wrestlemania III at the Pontiac Silverdome weeks in advance. The crowd shots were amazing on the day of the event. It was a massive success by any imaginable standard. In the middle of the show they announced to the PPV audience that they had set a new indoor attendance record of 93,000+ people. But a few years later it became quietly acknowledged that the actual number was closer… Read more »
Every day, my disgust with the Rooney family increases. It is kind of remarkable that in the NFL, the Rooneys, Potato Irish Yinzers from Pittsburgh, control the league, and not any of the upstarts from major markets like Jerry Jones. They have been there since 1933, and I have to assume part of that power comes from their very cozy relationship with national level Democratic politicians, who come to pay court to the Rooneys, not the other way around. Obama, Clinton, and Biden all did. I’ve thought that whoever the Rooneys support will be the next President of AINO in… Read more »
Can you imagine President Fetterman?
Biden/Fetterman 2024: Yeah, we don’t know what they’re saying either. 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏼♀️
Strokey and the Biden? I like it.
It used to be that the NL counted butts in seats (or clicks of the turnstile) ; while the AL counted tickets sold. Since the differences between the leagues are vanishing if not altogether gone, I doubt that that’s true today.
Gambling would be my guess. Going to an NFL game is the 21st century version of “going to the track”. (Also, as can be seen in everything from U.S. college enrollments to Japanese housing trends, the biggest names get bigger, even in a failing market, as they sponge up the failures of their competitors).
Other than the specific game you are attending though, it is easier to keep track of gambling from home and you can bet from home. That is certainly driving some of the continued interest in pro sports, but I don’t think it is a factor for in person attendance.
I’m hard pressed to think of any acquittances who still closely follow the NFL who aren’t also in at least one fantasy league. Point being, interest in such gambling used to flow from interest in the sport, whereas now it appears flipped. Maybe it was always that way though and I just never noticed it.
Gambling and fantasy sports are driving professional and college sports today. The leagues have embraced gambling wholeheartedly with the accompanying risks of game fixing. Tennis has already had issues with this at its lower levels and the NBA, my guess, is rife with corruption.
Doesn’t anybody care about the impending complete extinction of bowling? In the early years of television, when local programming was important, bowling was a mainstay of the tv scene. Local pro bowlers became minor celebrities and bowling leagues for the plebs were everywhere. Today, almost nada. Bowling’s blue collar complexion just doesn’t fit into upward social mobility, ergo the rise and now decline of golf.
In my neck of the Rust Belt, which was traditionally a bowling strong hold, we’ve lost lots of bowling alleys but that corresponds to the decades-long bleeding of normie whites, who mostly move several states away to find jobs. In terms of the remaining whites, participation seems to be the same as it ever was on a per-capita basis. In other words, it’s not that the sport is losing popularity, it’s just that its core demographic is, by numbers, less and less. It’s not the same as sports like tennis, which people simply stopped playing altogether.
A sport where beer is an integral part of the game, what’s not to like?
The best sport of all is darts. After all, what other sport can be played–and played well I might add–with a beverage in one hand, the implement in the other, while smoking?
Of course, in many places, the ban on Vitamin N has made the trifecta impossible, but still….
NB: Easy on the joints too, so the Booms can part til they drop deap from old age, cirrhosis of the liver, or lung cancer.
If you ever find yourself in our neck of the woods you can join our Thursday night dart 🎯 league. We play at a local brewery so there’s plenty of beer 🍺. Dudes only, we play Cricket or X01.
I was pretty fair at Cricket, but we are talking the Pleistocene era. Marlboro Red was my girl, and Bass Ale my drink. We were tough in those halcyon days. I recall jabbing one of my forearms with a dart to impress [??] a gal with my toughness [??]. If I ever get to wherever you are, I’m in, sans the jabbing.
The problem with bowling is that it became too rote: watching a pro is like watching a robot play. Baseball, in addition to it’s other flaws, has been combating the same issue with limited success (in both cases technology helped make a simple game a bit *too* simple).
Truth to that. Today’s bowling ball technology is like having a video game on cheat mode. My grandfather built a small bowling alley/bar in North Bergan, NJ during the Hoover administration. As a young kid in the 70’s and early 80’s, Saturday afternoons at his house meant the PBA tour on ABC and the voices of Chris Schenkel and Bo Burton. But even before he died in the late 90’s he was lamenting the ridiculousness of scores. I have 5 cousins from that side of the family who have logged at least one 300 game, something our grandfather never dreamed… Read more »
what changed? the ball, the floor, or the pins?
I recall seeing a documentary on the demise of bowling and one of the contributing factors was that precisely machined floorboards with a precisely implemented wax job led to *very* consistent results (I’m sure machining precision in the other equipment helped as well).
I believe the balls are weighted on one side, which makes it easier to curve.
“Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community” by robert putnam (2000) explores the decline of civic involvement, goodwill, social trust, etc. vis a vis bowling and other formerly normal social and civic activities. All old hat around here, but interesting to see hints at the underbelly of Progress “way back”in 1995-2000. One of his main points is that of “individualizing” one’s leisure time. We see that in full now but also some crossover in things like gaming that have become social with live real time multiplayers and recreation, if you will, around spectating and commentating in gaming. Even… Read more »