| Sports is a great unifier. People of different
races, creeds, ages, backgrounds, careers... they can all get together and
root for something common.
Well nuts to that. We need to face the fact that people on the west coast
absolutely ruin sports for everyone else in the country. Why?
Because they whine, and whine, and whine until schedule-makers create
schedules with THEM in mind, while the other 80% of the population of the
North America that ISN'T on Pacific Time gets the shaft.
The NCAA Men's Championship game didn't start until basically 9:30pm Eastern
tonight. So I didn't watch it. And I know many other NCAA hoops
fans who chose to not watch it either. Why? Because a 9:30pm
Eastern start time is unacceptable when the two teams playing are Kansas
and Syracuse -- both in either Central or Eastern time-zones. How much
of a disservice is that to those fans?
Now I know what you're thinking, this is harsh right? This is overreacting
to a minor problem. Well guess what it's NOT a minor problem and something
needs to be done with it *now* if we want sports in this country to continue.
West-coasters always constantly whine about how "early" games come on.
God forbid an 8pm Eastern game comes on at 5pm Pacific. Big deal, like
they care all that much to watch the first period or quarter (or couple innings)
of a game? Instead the compromise is that those of us living in the
Eastern time zone are treated to 10:30pm start times for 7:30pm Pacific starts.
This doesn't sound bad at first, until you realize that this means
most games and sporting events that start at 10:30pm Eastern don't end until
around 1:30am!!
Monday Night Football is the biggest sinner of all in this. A while
back ABC moved MNF to an 8pm Eastern start time in order to better-accomodate
Eastern and Central time-zoners. What resulted was unprecendented whining
from Pacific time-zoners about how "early" that was, and how "unfair" it
was for them to do that! And ABC of course caved and switched it back
to 9pm Eastern start times (6pm Pacific). The result is that noone
on the East Coast ever actually gets to see more than usually just a half
of football on Monday Nights. If you really want to stay up for a full
MNF game you'll sometimes be up until 2am Eastern trying to complete a long,
penalty-filled overtime game. Do you people on the west coast even
really FATHOM that? Can you even fathom staying up until 1 or 2am to
watch a game?
The NHL is the biggest culprit of this. Detroit and Columbus are the
only two cities in the Western Conference who reside in the Eastern time
zone. Everyone else is Central, Mountain, or Pacific. So whenever
these teams go on the road their fans get screwed. It's even worse
during the NHL playoffs. The Red Wings first-round opponent this year?
Anaheim. That means Wings fans get the honor of having to stay
up until 10:30pm just to watch the START of at least two playoff games in
that series. That's just ridiculous.
Now I know you're saying "Yeah but 7:30pm starts in Detroit are 4:30pm starts
in Anaheim, and who's out of work then?". Well, who cares? Anaheim
fans are out of work by 6pm their time so they can at least watch the END
OF THE FREAKING GAME! We easterners don't get the right though, we
have it shoved down our throats that for some reason we're supposed to just
accept only seeing the start of games... Well guess what, that's NOT
acceptable!
Here's what needs to happen. ABC needs to move Monday Night Football
back to 8pm Eatsern time to try to ensure that the game is over by midnight
on the east coast. As for west-coasters, they can take a flying leap
because this doesn't affect their ability to see the important parts of the
games -- the END. Besides, there aren't teams in LA anymore, and fanbases
in San Diego and Seattle aren't very big. The only large Pacific Time
market in the NFL anymore is the Bay Area with the Raiders and the 49ers.
In terms of NHL, NCAA etc? Well, what needs to be done is the schedules
need to be tailor-made to who's playing who. For instance, the
Anaheim-Detroit series needs to start at 6pm or 6:30pm Pacific time when
playing in Anaheim. That hour or hour-and-a-half makes a HUGE difference
to us folk on the east coast and doesn't hamper anything for the fans in
Anaheim. If a series with teams only one or two time-zones apart takes
place, schedule-makers can be a little freer with their late start times
then. Why did the Syracuse-Kansas game need to cater to the west coast
schedule, championship game or not? An 8pm or 8:30 pm Eastern start
time would have been perfectly accpetable since no west-coast team is involved!
How much of a slap in the face is that to Jayhawk and Orangemen fans
to tell them that even though their teams are involved, the west-coasters
are more important than them?
THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE! THIS IS BASIC MATH!
That's why this is inexcusable and I can't take it any longer. Time
zones are not complicated things. Start times are not complicated things.
What are east-coasters to do?
Simple. Refuse to watch games with needlessly-late start times. All
of them. When national ratings begin to go in the toilet (since 3/4
of the sports markets are in the Eastern or Central time zones), network
and league schedule-makers will have no choice. They're not going to
remove their heads from their rears any other way...
Otherwise we're going to continue to get screwed for absolutely no reason
whatsoever...
-- Rik A. Kyser |
