Honest Soccer Question

[Notabot]

I was watching football yesterday, and I got to thinking about soccer (because the Colts were playing that badly), and a question came into my head: When do you go to the bathroom/show commercials during a soccer game? Do you have to wait for someone to get injured, or do you just hold it until halftime? I'm just really curious about that now.

[Cliffjumper]

Well, a fair bit is on the BBC, where the answer is "We don't". On the commercial channels it's usually held till halftime, where there are usually a couple of longer ad blocks than usual.

Though ITV have dropped a bollock on occasion: -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/ju ... oal-advert
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009 ... television

[Rack 'n Ruin]

The way my team is playing, I just hide in the toilet from kick off through to full time. It's better that way.

[Blaster]

Just turn the volume up really loud and leave the door open.

[inflatable dalek]

SO with American Football do they stop play for the ads or just run them over the game (in the same slightly annoying way ITV used to with Formula 1, you could pretty much guarantee all the best race action would happen in the breaks).

[Cliffjumper]

IIRC American football games are quarters - 20 minutes each, something like that. Regarding bathroom breaks, even watching in the pub (no Sky) I've never really had to bother, it's only 45 minutes...

To be fair on ITV, most of the time when F1 was on BBC it was part of Grandstand, who also managed to miss all the best bits when they handed back to Lynam in the studio, ranging from missing changes of the lead to missing the entire Canadian Grand Prix in 1982 when it was delayed following the death of Riccardo Paletti (it still filled out its' parts in the show, the live coverage was largely of people wandering around the grid sucking their cheeks and poking cars while Murray Walker recapepd the championship standings endlessly). On the plus side, we got James Hunt calling Olivier Grouillard a "****ing idiot" at one point.

[Notabot]

Yeah, American football is in 15:00 quarters, but there's also significant stoppage in the game, during which they know there will be a minute or two to run a commercial. Any score, any timeout, most changes of possession, 2 minutes before the end of either half, etc. all stop the game long enough for the networks and the fans to get their business done. There's a ton of built in bathroom breaks, and plenty room for commercialization as well.

[Cliffjumper]

Ouch... do they not miss bits? I did hate it when F1 was on ITV, because missing anything is basically stupid, even if it was dire, and ITV's commentary team made me want to go out and murder babies.

[Notabot]

You don't miss a second of the action. Even when they do an in-game update of other games, they do it during the huddle and play calling. Every once in a while they'll cut away for a 10 second update and the offense will surprise everyone by doing a hurry-up play, but that doesn't happen often. The networks know the rhythm of the game pretty well and can usually successfully guess when they've got enough time. And if you do miss something, they'll show the replay during the next down time, which comes around about every 30 seconds or so.

Wow, when you look at it clinically, it's not a very fast-paced game overall, is it?

As for commentators, there's good ones and bad ones. I enjoy Al Michaels, and John Madden was always entertaining. I'm glad that Tony Cornheiser or whatever his name was is off of Monday Night Football. A good halftime show would have been him getting punched in the gut by the other announcers. Just once, I wanted to hear one of the other two say, "Oh shut up Tony."

[Cliffjumper]

It'd probably really shake the rhythm out of watching for me... Which is odd when I think about it. I remember reading somewhere that in an average game of Proper Football, the ball is in play for something like 30-35 minutes of each half, and this is why they can show replays and the like while rarely missing anything actually happening... but having something else come up would knock me out of it.

[Notabot]

Some people watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials. Seriously.

[Blaster]

It'd probably really shake the rhythm out of watching for me...

This is what makes football unwatchable for me.

[Sades]

American and Canadian football are different as well. Don't for the life of me know how, though, just know they are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... n_football

[Blaster]

American and Canadian football are different as well. Don't for the life of me know how, though, just know they are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... n_football

3 downs instead of 4. Wider and longer field with one extra player on the field.

Then there is the single point on fieldgoals and punts for getting through the endzone. Small differences.

[Galvatron91]

Canadian football always seemed like it would be more open and prone to shootouts because of the added dimensions...it also seems like it allows for a lot more fun than the NFL does...btw, why isn't this in sports?

[Notabot]

'Cause I don't read the sports forum and was hoping to find the information before anyone noticed.

Does Canadian Football still have the goalposts standing in the playable endzone for the players to smash into?

[LKW]

Um... yes? Actually, I should probably leave the answer to Notabot's question to a Canadian and/or CFL follower, and just add the bits I know about the NFL which might help clarify how it's shown to us here.

I think the NFL does have an arrangement with the networks which makes the first one-to-two possesion changes of each half longer than your normal forty-second playclock would allow, allowing for a fuller commercial break. And the networks do seize on as many opportunities as they get early in each half to show commercials, in order to ensure that they can show all of the ads for which time has been sold. This does actually help with maintaining the flow of the game in the latter, most crucial portions of each half, as often most ads have been burned off with several minutes of game time remaining, and you may not see another commercial break for the rest of that half save for during the two-minute warning. And, yes, they are generally very good at knowing when to get their ads in without us missing any actual playing time. (I am now curious how many breaks there are during a typical half; I'm guessing eight or so, but maybe I'll actually try counting now....)

I do wonder if this is one reason why world football/"soccer" hasn't become as popular in this country, though. The NFL and NBA have team timeouts and ends of quarters; baseball has the top and bottom of inning field switches, as well as pitcher changes. (The NHL... well, has two between-periods, and does manage to squeeze in a couple commercials around penalties and such, though it does seem like I may have missed a bit of game action occasionally there.) To an American viewer, forty five minutes plus of unending play - even the down time is unscheduled and brief - may seem a bit intimidating, and even relentless, compared to what we're accustomed to.

[Vin Ghostal]

And the 897345 commercial breaks during each NFL game, not to mention the 30-35 seconds between plays when NOTHING IS HAPPENING, are why watching a game in real time (unless you're there in person or at a bar with friends) is lunacy. I just DVR all the games, and I can typically watch four games in about five hours.

[Warcry]

I know this thread is old, but in case anyone is still wondering...

Does Canadian Football still have the goalposts standing in the playable endzone for the players to smash into?

We do. Our end zones are bigger than what the NFL uses though, twenty yards instead of ten. If they put the uprights outside the field of play you'd see teams punting 30 yards out from the goal line.

The NHL... well, has two between-periods, and does manage to squeeze in a couple commercials around penalties and such, though it does seem like I may have missed a bit of game action occasionally there.

They actually have scheduled TV timeouts. I think there's two per period, probably as close to the 1/3 and 2/3 point as they can manage. Once the whistle blows when they're past that mark, play stops for a few minutes so the networks can run commercials. It actually spoils the pace of the game a bit if you're watching live.

International competitions usually don't have that, though, so you do miss some of the game when they cut away for commercials at the World Championships or Olympics.

[Cliffjumper]

Canadian football = Frank Yallop, Tomas Radzinski, Craig Forrest.


I miss Brend