The GenericCorporateSponsor.com Bowl

Because I work in the sports world, go to a lot of games and am engaged to a sponsorship and marketing expert, I've become somewhat of an advertising snob.  In fact, my first true post on Caught Looking was about how Citi Field's outfield is completely plastered with ads, and how the Yellow Pages-esque view takes away from the ballpark's otherwise beautiful look and feel.  This isn't to say I'm some sort of old fashioned geezer who wants all corporate references removed from my sports - I understand that corporate affiliations are a vital part of each professional sports team's business, and find that in some instances sponsors can actually add value to the game experience.  All of the random sponsored college bowl games that have cropped up over the last several years, however, are not examples of sponsors adding value to the sporting events they attach their names and logos too.  In an effort to grow revenues, the NCAA has over expanded its bowl schedule and lessened the significance of making it to the college football postseason.

Last night I tuned in to ESPN for some of the Belk Bowl between Duke and Cincinnati, and I learned a couple of things.  First, I learned that Belk is more than the name of a random college bowl game played in Charlotte, NC - it's actually a chain of department stores with locations throughout the southeast.  Interestingly, I ddn't learn this from watching the Belk Bowl - not once did anyone mention what Belk was or why they were sponsoring one of the NCAA's 35 college bowl games.  In my Googling spree I also learned that while Belk does have over 50 locations in Duke's home state of North Carolina, they don't exist anywhere in Ohio and only have a few locations in border state Kentucky.  Why the Belk Bowl wouldn't include two teams from within Belk's regional footprint (the company has 16 states with stores to choose from), is beyond me.  Last, I looked up the Belk Bowl on Wikipedia and found out that  the game, which matches the ACC's #5 team against the Big East's #3 team, has changed names three times since its inception in 2002.  Originally founded as the Queen City Bowl, the game rotated through two other sponsors (Continental Tires and Meineke Car Care) before shifting to Belk for the first time last year.

A small crowd watched Cincinnati toak home the 2012 Belk Bowl title in Charlotte.

I'm picking on the Belk Bowl here because it's a game I actually watched, but a similar story is true for all of the NCAA's fringe bowl games.  They all feature random sponsors that are in no way integrated into the flow of the game, with no logical relationship to the teams playing or geographic regions represented.  There's zero fan recognition because the title sponsors change so often, the games are rarely memorable and there are too many of them to keep track of.  To top it all off, different bowls have sponsors that are arguably competitors - like Little Caesars and Chick-Fil-A, for example - that makes things particularly confusing.  The NCAA has created a college bowl landscape that is littered with random corporate tie-ins, which has made it very hard to create any sense of history or tradition.  Unlike NCAA basketball's post-season tournament, which is filled with memorable moments throughout its history, few of college football's bowls are thought of for more than their funny names.

What does it mean to win the Belk Bowl?  Is this something for Cincinnati to be proud of, or should they be disappointed that they're not playing in a bigger postseason game?  Should Duke be content with breaking the school's 18-year-long bowl-less streak thanks to the Belk Bowl invite?  Because of the inflated number of college bowl games and the inconsistency of the matchups from year to year, it's nearly impossible for players, coaches or fans to truly weigh the significance (if any) of a lower tier bowl game.  College football's current bowl structure leaves every bowl champion (except the national champion) with an unsatisfying feel of "what could have been," and despite the photo above I can't believe that Cincinnati is overjoyed with the way its season ended.  Unfortunately, if companies like Belk, AdvoCare and TaxSlayer.com keep putting up money for bowl title sponsorships, we won't be getting rid of these irrelevant postseason games in favor of a better system any time soon.

Never Had A Chance

Merry Christmas, readers!  I'll be spending the holiday watching the excellent schedule of NBA games on ESPN and ABC, a relatively new Christmas Day tradition that I'm a huge fan of.  Just like the NFL has left its mark on Thanksgiving and NCAA football (and, when there's a season, the NHL) have taken over New Year's Day, the NBA has done a great job of branding itself as Christmas's sport.  And unlike the NFL, the NBA has stacked its holiday game lineup with its best matchups and most popular teams, so I can catch Boston at Brooklyn, Oklahoma City at Miami and, most importantly, New York at the Los Angeles Lakers.  To get in the NBA holiday spirit, I spent Friday night at Madison Square Garden for Knicks versus Bulls, a highly anticipated matchup between two of the Eastern Conference's better teams.  Unfortunately, some questionable refereeing and sloppy early play from the Knicks effectively ended the game before it even started.

After the National Anthem ended, the game was effectively over.

Madison Square garden is known for having a fantastic atmosphere.  From Celebrity Row to the upper levels, Knicks fans are loud and energetic even when the team is struggling.  With the team on a roll early in 2012-13, the crowd has been particularly passionate; gone are the days of the mid-2000s when a Knicks vs. Bulls game would bring thousands of red-jersey-clad Chicago fans into MSG.  This season, there's only one way to knock Knicks fans out of a game - by putting them in a ~20 point first half hole.  The Knicks started out Friday's game ice cold from the floor, missing virtually every shot in the first quarter and falling behind 14-2 just minutes into the game.  But despite their offensive woes and a number of questionable calls / no-calls, the team trailed by only seven after the first quarter.  That's when the refs decided to take over the game.

I don't like to criticize officials - recall that, before I eventually ripped them apart, I stood by the NFL's replacement referees long after most people turned on them.  Refereeing a professional football or basketball game must be incredibly difficult - the game moves very quickly, there are a ton of calls to memorize and any hesitation leads to instant criticism from players, coaches, fans and commentators.  Despite these challenges, a professional referee has two critical jobs that stand above all others - to call the game evenly and consistently on both sides and to maintain control of the game.  While it's hard to tell if the refs accomplished the former on Friday night (Knicks players, coaches and fans would argue that virtually every call went to Chicago, but obviously their opinions are biased), after 50 personal fouls, nine technicals and four ejections it became clear that the officials took the game away from the fans.

It's been said before: Fans come to games to watch players play, not to watch referees ref.  By allowing the players to reach the boiling point where the game becomes more about complaining than about playing, the officials failed to do their job.  Knicks fans came to MSG expecting an exciting and entertaining game, but were forced to watch three of the team's best players (J.R. Smith, Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler) get kicked out of the game.  Despite a furious comeback led by Jason Kidd, Raymond Felton and Chris Copeland (among a host of other bench players), the fans never really got into the game.  Thanks to the refs, they never really had the chance to enjoy what should have been an entertaining holiday weekend matchup.    

Brooklyn's Barclays Center

A few weeks ago, I had a charity meeting at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club in Manhattan.  As you might have been able to guess - I do write a "sports fan experience blog," after all - I'm not much of the clubbing type, and had never been to Jay-Z's establishment before.  I have to say, it was a pretty awesome spot - giant HDTVs everywhere showing (mainly) basketball games, tons of rare sports memorabilia on the walls and cool lighting that gave the club a very unique feel.  Surprisingly, I enjoyed my time in the 40/40 Club.  But while I can now officially say that I visited Jay-Z's club, in a way I wasn't really there.  Sure, I was physically inside the building, but the lack of a true club atmosphere makes it impossible for me to say whether or not I'd like the place at midnight on a Saturday.  Places like the 40/40 Club can't be judged solely on looks.  They need to be felt, and I can't say I've ever really felt what it's like to party with the 40/40 crowd (I imagine I'd hate it).

The reason I bring up this anecdote is because on Saturday afternoon I made my first trip to New York City's latest Jay-Z-inspired establishment, Brooklyn's Barclays Center.  I visited Barclays over the summer before construcution was finished, but this was my first visit to the arena for a real event.  Overall, I was extremely impressed with the building even before I walked inside.  The subway ride from the east side of Manhattan was incredibly convenient - a ~25 minute ride (tops) dropped us literally just steps from the building's main entrance - and upon exiting the subway we were immediately greeted by the Barclays Center's impressive and unique facade.  The staff was especially friendly - everyone we spoke to, from the people at Will Call to the security guards to the ushers in our section, was really sociable - and the building looks new, fresh and clean (as you'd expect from an arena that opened just weeks ago).

Thanks to a connection at the area, we had particularly good seats in the fifth row of the lower level (see the picture, below).  The arena is pretty small, both in terms of capacity and footprint, so virtually every seat is right on top of the court.  The upper level seats are stacked tightly, so that they seem simultaneously very close to the court (horizontally) but extremely high up (vertically).  Just like Jay-Z's 40/40 Club, Barclays has a modern, dark, sleek look - it's not bright and friendly like Indiana's Bankers Life Fieldhouse, but is instead chic and dark, like a bar. Our seats also came with access to one of the arena's eleven "Vault Suites," which are basically ultra-luxury boxes located under the arena with no view of the court.  We didn't hang out in ours for long - there were no other people there and there was no food, so we didn't have much of a reason to spend more time there - but it was apparent that the Vault Suites could be an awesome place for someone rich and/or important to host guests before the game or during halftime.

Check out the empty seats in the background - it looked like that in every single section.

While I loved the building, it's still hard for me to picture what it's really like to attend a big-time sporting event at Barclays.  I went for a Princeton basketball game versus Fordham, and at opening tip there weren't more than 1,000 people in the place (it might have been closer to a few hundred, realistically).  Never once did the crowd get up on it's feet, you could hear every sneaker squeak on the court, and I had dozens of empty seats on either side onto which I could stretch out, lay my coats, etc.  I'm guessing that, for a Knicks vs. Nets game or even the A-10 Tournament finals (coming to Brooklyn in March), the place could get loud and exciting, but I really can't say for sure.  In fact, the crowd was so sparse that I got selected for an on-court promotion (a shooting contest that I'm sad to say I lost) because I was virtually the only person in the entire lower bowl who was a) in my seat right after the opening tip, b) wearing a Princeton shirt and c) young enough to avoid having a heart attack under the basket.  The new Barclays Center has a ton of potential - I can't wait to see, hear and feel what it's like to be there for a "real" event.

      Replace "Ian Hummer" with "Deron Williams" and Barclays Center might feel a lot different.

There's an "I" in "Lin," But Not In "Team"

After last night's thrilling come-from-behind victory in Brooklyn I'll admit that I'm a little Knicks-crazy this week, so forgive me if this post comes off as a bit more biased than what you're used to.  Since the 2012-13 NBA season started, the Knicks have been grabbing sports media headlines with their consistently solid play, pair of 20-point victories over defending champion Miami and the emergence of Carmelo Anthony as a legitimate MVP candidate.  With Amar'e Stoudemire set to return before the end of the calendar year and join an already-deep rotation that features Anthony, reigning Defensive MVP Tyson Chandler, All Star-worthy PG Raymond Felton and a cast of other veteran role players (not to mention second year guard Iman Shumpert, also set to return from injury later this season), the Knicks seem poised to improve on last year's first round playoff exit at the hands of the Heat.  There's a positive energy around New York basketball that the Nets' move to Brooklyn has done nothing to slow down, and it seems like the Knicks are once again the talk of the town.

Last year's playoff run was, of course, largely thanks to the admittedly superb play of Jeremy Lin, once an obscure point guard out of Harvard who transformed into a household name (and a brand) virtually overnight.  Since New York refused to match Houston's offer to Lin over the summer, the Knicks and Lin have headed in completely opposite directions.  While the Knicks, at 16-5, sit atop the Eastern Conference with Lin's backup, Felton, leading the offense, Linsanity has struggled in his first year with the Rockets. His stats are way down from the ones he was putting up with the Knicks last January, and as a result the new look Rockets have struggled and currently sit at  9-11, 10th place in the West and currently outside the playoff bubble.  When Lin went off for a Linsanity-esque 38 points and 7 assists against San Antonio on Monday, the sports world barely took notice.  More importantly, Houston still lost to the Spurs at home.

When the Knicks let Lin walk in July, everyone was talking about how New York was making a huge mistake.  After all, Lin had become the new face of the Knicks franchise, and Lin supporters argued that the point guard's value to the team far exceeded what the Knicks would have to pay to retain him (even after including the Luxury Tax implications).  What are those supporters saying now?  Clearly hindsight is 20/20, and there was so way to know for sure that Lin would regress dramatically in 2012-13 and that a guy like Felton would drastically outperform him - in the article I linked to above, ESPN's Ian O'Connor wrote in July that "there's no good reason to believe that Lin, a better player than Felton last year, won't be a better player than Felton next year and beyond."  But even if O'Connor was right - maybe the Knicks did luck into the Felton over Lin decision when the former became too expensive - the fact remains that the Knicks can always make another Jeremy Lin, but Jeremy Lin doesn't make the Knicks.

Fast forward to today and take note of the fact that Knicks fans are falling for the 2012-13 roster, including Lin's replacements (Felton, Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni).  While the excitement around those three doesn't match last season's Linsanity craze, you won't find a Knicks fan who wants to talk about how much he misses Jeremy Lin or about how badly the Knicks need to bring Lin back.  If the Knicks are winning, New York basketball fans will rally around the players helping to grab the victories.  Last year, it was Lin (and admittedly it all happened in an unprecedented way).  This year it's Carmelo, Felton, Chandler and guys like Kidd, Steve Novak and Rasheed Wallace.  At the same time Lin is struggling in Houston, both on the court and with fans who have fallen in love with the newly-acquired James Harden and view the Lin signing as more of an afterthought.  I still wish Lin the best and hope things turn out well for him over his next three years in Houston, but as of now we can say that no player - not even Lin - is more important to the Knicks than the Knicks are to that player. 

Caught Looking, Take Three

The New Orleans Hornets are one of the NBA's least historic and least popular teams.  Since the Big Easy got the Hornets from Charlotte in 2002 the team has had minimal success, the current roster lacks big names (Eric Gordon is hurt, leaving Ryan Anderson as arguably the team's most recognizable player) and the franchise's savior (top draft pick Anthony Davis) is injured.  None of these facts, however, stopped sports fans from flipping out when the team announced earlier this week that it planned to change its name to the New Orleans Pelicans prior to the 2013-14 season.  ESPN created the Twitter hashtag #NewOrleansMascotShouldBe to let fans try and suggest better names for the team, and countless sports media personalities have weighed in and criticized the move.  If the announcement that one of the NBA's least followed teams plans to change its name, logo and colors can get top billing on SportsCenter, its clear that American sports fans care an awful lot about team branding.

On this note, Caught Looking has worked hard since its inception in April 2010 to bring its readers a clean look that's simultaneouly aesthetically pleasing and unique.  To that end, the site was reformatted for its one year anniversary in April 2011 to great reviews - the light blue / navy blue / dark red color scheme has become a defining element of the site, and the capitalized and italicized Caught Looking font was good enough for MLB Network to blatantly steal.  That being said, there were things I always wanted to improve.  I wanted a logo that was more differentiated from Major League Baseball's.  I wanted to bring out the dark red accent color a bit more.  I wanted to add a defining characteristic that could be used as an icon on Twitter, Facebook, etc.  While I didn't want to become the Houston Astros of blogs (changing colors and logos constantly), I thought that my readers deserved something better.

Take a look at the top of the screen this morning and you'll see Caught Looking's brand new header and logo, custom designed by Santiago Formoso (@truhoax).  Santiago came up with the idea to integrate the backwards "K" into the logo - the symbol for a strikeout looking in baseball scorekeeping - and I loved it.  Not only is the new header more unique, but it brings out the dark red accent color and, with the backwards "K," adds an element that readers can easily associate with this blog.  I've still retained my signiture font, and replaced the old MLB-esque logo with something that's both new and classic.  The other change you'll notice is that, for the first time, I'll be publicizing my real name (not just "MLBwhiz") front-and-center.  I'm proud of what I've been able to accomplish over the past 30+ months of writing, and I think it's time to promote myself a bit more than I have.  I'm really excited about the site's new (and third-ever) look, but would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for ways I can improve what the blog looks like moving forward.  If the New Orleans Pelicans can spark a national debate, there's no reason Caught Looking can't do the same.

I also want to use this format change as another opportunity to thank you all for reading this blog.  As always, it is your support that continues to fuel my desire to analyze, criticize and write about the sports fan experience.  As we head towards 2013 and I start to think ahead to some upcoming sports experiences that I have scheduled (including my first official trip to Brooklyn's Barclays Center for Princeton basketball vs. Fordham, an in-person look at Marlins Park in Miami and a Duke basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC), I'm excited to post on them for you below my awesome new blog header.        

TV Anywhere . . . Sort Of

So, my excuse is admittedly a lame one.  After having been away for five days over Thanksgiving break and with only limited time to watch TV last week, our DVR has gotten pretty full.  In an effort to avoid recording any additional shows, last night our TV was turned to CBS in order to watch 2 Broke Girls and Mike & Molly in real time.  Now, I know what you're thinking.  First: who watches sitcoms in real time anymore?  Second: 2 Broke Girls and Mike & Molly?  Really?  And third: What about Giants at Redskins on Monday Night Football?  Well, desperate times call for desperate measures (and yes, a full DVR classifies as a desperate time), CBS is America's most watched network for a reason, and thanks to Time Warner Cable's TV Anywhere app I was able to watch the first half of the Giants' crippling loss on the iPad.

This summer I bashed Time Warner Cable on this blog, and I stand by that bashing: Their channel selection is terrible, their services are overpriced and their TV quality is spotty at best.  All of that being said, I've been relatively impressed by the TWC app for the iPad.  In an effort to avoid turning into a zombie, I've resisted the urge to put a TV in the bedroom.  When there's competition for TV time, I've started using the iPad as a second, portable TV screen.  Partly because the iPad screen is pretty small, the picture quality on the TWC app is extremely good, and the application is relatively user friendly.  You can watch live TV and stuff from your DVR, and it all loads pretty quickly.  Yes, the NFL viewing experience is far superior on a larger screen (though I guess "bigger is better" applies to 2 Broke Girls as well), but there are benefits to watching sports on the iPad.  I'm not going to say I watched the Eli Manning-to-Martellus Bennett touchdown pass while on the toilet, but I'm not going to say that I didn't, either.

The TV Anywhere app might be TWC's best product, but that's not saying much.

Before I go and give too much credit to the TWC app, it's important to highlight its (many) drawbacks.  Primarily, despite the fact that it's called "TV Anywhere," it only works when connected to your home wireless network.  So while it's good for watching NFL games on the toilet, you can't watch TV while riding a WiFi-enabled Bolt Bus from D.C. to New York, as I tried to do a few months ago.  Thus, the universe of instances where TV Anywhere is useful is most certainly a finite one.  I understand why this is the case - local market restrictions, concerns over cannibalization of traditional television, etc. - but it doesn't make it any less frustrating.  Because the video content is designed for a large TV screen, some of the graphics on the ESPN broadcast were also difficult to read - again, I don't blame this on ESPN or TWC, but it's a fact.  So TV Anywhere should probably be renamed "TV Anywhere Inside Your 800 sq. ft. Apartment."

Would I watch a sporting event on my iPad again?  Absolutely.  It's certainly not ideal for a game that you really want to focus on, but it's great for passively watching something while you're also walking around doing other stuff or restricted to a room without a TV.  Now, if we can get the TWC app to truly work anywhere, that would be something different.  Either way, next time I get kicked off the coach because Mike & Molly is on, I'll have my iPad ready to go.