Good morning, rise and shine.
Since I was 14, I have been getting up at 6am with few breaks. First it was high school, then various jobs and commutes, and even now if I wanted to become Millionaire Blogger Slacker, my kids are up for school at 6. So there is no sleeping in.
Last night I was staring at the NFL kickoff time. 8:25pm Eastern. Why?
Various articles put the average length of an NFL game at three hours and various minutes. Let’s call it three hours.
That’s an 11:25pm finish.
Even if you have the luxury of getting up at 6:30 that’s still 7 hours sleep. Do you people have jobs where you can get up at 7:30 on a weekday? What is this life and how do I get it?
On to baseball, and the game that is dragging on and on and on. The average length appears to be around 2:56, let’s call it three hours again, and anyone who has watched playoff baseball knows that the games are longer in the postseason, if for no other reason than extra commercials (never mind Creeping LaRussa-ism with bullpen usage.)
8:08 starts, add three hours, yep 11pm again. 7 hours sleep.
Now let’s look at where The Americans live.
47% of the population lives in the Eastern Time Zone. 14.1% live in Pacific. Logic clearly dictates the needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few.
Am I suggesting a football game start at 4pm Pacific? Yeah I am.
Am I suggesting the World Series start at 4pm Pacific? Yeah I am.
14 percent vs 47 percent.
Another 32.9% live in Central.
Could the World Series start at 6pm locally? Sure could. Cubs fans have figured out how to deal with 1:20pm weekday starts for a century, I bet they could figure out 6pm. A football game at 6pm? I bet they could handle that too. Not only that, but an earlier start time could have a positive impact on ticket prices. According to Razorgator, the cheapest World Series tickets are north of $800 in Cleveland and would be north of $1,500 if it ends up in Chicago. An earlier start time should reduce those preposterous prices.
Finally, let’s look at some maps.
Here’s where the football teams are. I imagine their fans are too.
And here’s the baseball teams.
TV is focused on the areas with fewer teams and fewer people. WHY?
Now before you hit the comments with some “then don’t watch” comment, I don’t. I don’t even look at the three night football games now, and I don’t even look at non-Mets postseason baseball. And nor does the next generation that lives at my house.
Let us sleep!
