Today in the Ticker: An MLB ballplayer with a hoodie under his jersey, German soccer does a climate change campaign, and more.
Uni Watch News Ticker for Oct. 3, 2022
Posted in:
Baseball
MLB
- Rays P Easton McGee had a small-capped NOB yesterday. (From multiple readers)
- Yesterday’s weather was terrible for much of the Mid-Atlantic, so it might not be surprising that Orioles C Adley Rutschman wore a hoodie under his jersey. (From Mike Sgroi)
Football
College
- Since Oklahoma has lost twice in a row to purple-clad teams, there’s already a joke tweet about Texas wearing purple against them next week. (From Kenny Kaplan)
More
- Now that the Bengals have debuted white striped helmets, it’s back in the news that Grandview HS in Texas already wears something very similar. Their team name is the Zebras. (From Tim Reyes)
- The Falcons’ stadium has a wall full of Georgia high school helmets. We mentioned this before when the stadium first opened but said it was for every team that won a state championship, which seems to be what the cutouts along the top are for. There’s also info on past pro players the schools have produced. (From Joe Bailey)
- Here’s a shot of Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor and Senatorial candidate John Fetterman in his high school football uniform. (From Paul Ricciardi)
Hockey
NHL
- The NHL is launching a new program of digitally projected ads on the dasherboards, which will be visible on TV. Among other things, this means the board ads can now be animated, not just static.
Soccer
USA
- OL Reign winger Megan Rapinoe got a No. 100 shirt for reaching 100 appearances for the team this season.
- Charlotte FC shares a stadium with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and both played at home this weekend. The soccer game on Saturday was played on an almost fully-painted football field, minus any end zone or midfield decoration, with yellow soccer lines added.
International
- England: Captains in men’s and women’s leagues wore armbands promoting a Football Association campaign called “Play Safe.” There were also warm-up shirts.
- Germany: Some pro games, including in the men’s and women’s DFB-Pokal, the men’s 3. Liga, and the women’s top two tiers, are part of a climate change campaign over the next few weeks. It includes corner flags and captain’s armbands with warming stripes showing changes in average temperature since 1900. It’s the same idea as the design worn on English club Reading’s sleeves for this season.
- Turkey: Iranian center-back Majid Hosseini, who plays for Kayserispor in the men’s Süper Lig, wore black wristbands on Saturday to support his country’s ongoing protests.
Auto Racing
- The W Series’ British drivers carried a memorial for the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club chair, Lorraine Gathercole, in Singapore this weekend.
Grab Bag
- American and Indiana field hockey got Pinktober started by wearing pink socks.
- Movie details: At least one scene in the upcoming movie Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile shows the title character wearing a Florida shirt, which of course shows an alligator and not a crocodile. (From Michael Hochman)
Comments (11)
This new NHL dasher board technology is very disappointing. They used it during the last World Cup and, maybe it is just me, but I found it so distracting that every time the boards changed, that it took my attention away from from the action on the ice. I actually stopped watching the tournament and I’ve been dreading this being adopted for all NHL games ever since. It’s been bad enough with the changing ads on the ice and the ads above the boards, and now this.
It’s now come to the point that it is not enough for advertisers to pay for commercial content, now we have to watch revolving rink board ads during play as well.
When will this stop?
I expect I will be listening to more games on the radio this year.
From a new story on ESPN: “The NHL expects there to be an adjustment period for fans, but that it’ll ultimately improve their viewing experience. The league worked with two analytics companies, and Wachtel said research indicated that fans will be more comfortable watching a game with one brand wrapping around the boards than “26 different things that your eye can catch.” He said that was confirmed by the research firm MediaScience, which does neurometric eye-scanning.
“Like anything else, you’re going to have your people that don’t like it, that think it is difficult to watch. But over time, like everything else, people will get used to it, and we’re not concerned at all whatsoever,” Wachtel said.”
I just have to say. “Get off my lawn”
Like everything else, people will get used to it, because they have no other choice and it’s happening anyway. We are not concerned whether they like it or not or concerned with the product the NHL is producing at all whatsoever. We’re all making money so why would anyone really care?
I love this research analysis because, at least to me, it’s saying: “Fans will adjust and ignore these ads the same way they do with the current ones”
Which begs the question: Why bother with them at all?
I would be curious to see the direct correlation and ROI on this.
*Ditto for jersey ads
I was actually thinking about this yesterday, as I was watching football with my 10 yo and under nieces and nephews. They have a ton of awareness of State Farm simply from the Mahomes commercials. And sort of view the company fondly for having funny commercials. Which got me thinking the value in ads seems less about being plastered everywhere just for awareness (which is the supposed value in uni / arena ads), because they are just sort of there and you tune them out. But rather there is legit value in ads that people like. These companies would be better off spending money on a funny and memorable marketing gimmick instead of just paying to plaster their logo wherever possible.
That’s why if I need the services of a company that advertises with the sports team I will purposely go to one of it’s competitors.
Same.
And animated dasher ads is a terrible idea for hockey. Hockey already translates poorly to TV. Small black puck moving at speeds over 100mph on a sheet of ice more than twice the size of a basketball court, being fought over my large man moving faster on skates than people can run, on a surface bounded by walls. Let’s throw more motion into the mix and see what happens!
Given how poorly the NHL has done with digitally-tracked objects on the glass and the ice so far, I’m expecting the digital boards will be a disaster for at least the first three years, by which point the tech will have either advanced to the point that each object isn’t bouncing around, lagging behind camera moves, and clipping over players the ways the previous attempts have, or hopefully will have been dropped entirely.
It feels like none of the other major NA leagues are as willing to diminish their core product for a quick buck as the NHL, and that’s saying something. Add me to the old man shakes fist at cloud group on this one.
Will the NHL ads change during play? If they stay the same while play is ongoing, and update when the camera shot changes, I’m not sure they’ll bother me any more than the previously existing ones.
It’s laughable to think any pro sports league gives a $hit about its fans.
Only their money.