Pointless things in sport...

[Hot Pepsi]

Except occasionally in the NFL.

Everyone is upset when it happens.

[Gangster Octopus]

That's something that the vast majority of Brexit voters would like to bring back...

[Sporting]

Until the 1960s the British National Anthem was played at the end of the last film at the flicks: I remember that almost nobody took a blind bit of notice while leaving the premises.

[tee rex]

Actually, absolute last thing. Anthems before sporting events.

Worse still: anthems before cricket. Or anything else where they don't run out to play immediately afterwards.

Bellow it out, shed tears, bulge those eyes, you're so up for it ... and then walk back to the dressing room and have a nap.

[Sporting]

Ties are not tolerated in the US.

Except occasionally in the NFL.

[Sporting]

I think he meant the dunk contest, not dunks in games.

Yes I understood that so the question remains.

[Hot Pepsi]

That ship has sailed. The right-wing think it’s desperately important to shoehorn militarism into every occasion possible. It’s not worth the effort to argue about it.

[Hot Pepsi]

I don't know so much about basketball so maybe someone could briefly explain what's wrong with the dunk? Ta.

I think he meant the dunk contest, not dunks in games.

[Hot Pepsi]

Extra innings in the 162 game MLB season..... C'mon no need for OT when the game has next to no impact on the overall season..... lets just call the game a draw and hit the exits.....

Or, if they insist on extra innings lets go the beer league softball route and stick a runner on 2nd.

Lastly, NASCAR.

Ties are not tolerated in the US.

Minor leagues are trying the guy on second thing. I’m not a fan.

NASCAR is fine. The point of oval racing is that they’re racing each other, not the track. F1 is predictable and there’s not much passing. NASCAR is more competitive. It can be boring on TV, though. You have to really understand and care about the nuances. I’ve been to a couple live and that is cool - it’s so damn loud - though the Trumpistan vibe can be a bit off-putting.

[Sporting]

I don't know so much about basketball so maybe someone could briefly explain what's wrong with the dunk? Ta.

[Hot Pepsi]

Oh and all star games. In every sport but especially NFL.

And the dunk contest. That shit jumped the shark like 20 years ago.

Yeah, everyone knows it and talks about t but nobody is willing to pull the plug.

[Hot Pepsi]

Actually, on the subject of one horse races - Olympic basketball.

Give the trophy to the US at the opening ceremony and let the field play for silver and bronze.... Added benefit would be the opportunity to scrap the 3rd/4th game.

The US has to make an effort to be that dominant. That wasn’t true in the 90s.

[Janik]

Snooker and tennis both work as 'best-of-X' sports with potentially unpredictable scheduling. Why doesn't this work for basketball or golf?

TV, particularly US TV, really hates that aspect of Tennis, mind. That is part of the drive towards best-of-three set matches, tie-breaks, etc.

[nmrfox]

Sisu. Ok I'm no big fan of that lot down the M69 but what this company has done to football in Coventry, as well as to Rugby fans in London, is beyond belief. What the hell they hope to gain from the whole mess evades me completely.

[Hot Pepsi]

Pick up basketball is virtually always played as first to 11 or 21

Most pick-up games of all sorts are like this because nobody keeps a clock and because it ensures that blow-outs are over quickly and new teams can be picked.

For the NHL all-star game they should use the pick-up rules where the team that scores a goal gets to keep playing and the team that conceded it has to sit down while a third (or fourth, or fifth) team takes there place, and repeat. The object is to see how long you can stay on the ice/blacktop/floor and still score goals before inevitably the better rested team knocks you to the back of the line.

They could do that in basketball too, but not after every basket. I think it's first to ten, usually.

[Kevin S]

You can force the match to go the full distance though, if the number of individual games won is made relevant to the standings in some way. So there's something to be gained for a team clawing it back from 0-4 to finish 3-4.

[Hot Pepsi]

I'm going with 49 minutes.

No, if one team won four games before the complete 7, it would be over early. They could pad it out with interviews, etc - which is what they do when volleyball is on TV - but advertisers wouldn't want to pay much for the ad space in the time after the game was over.

[Patrick Thistle]

I’ve often thought basketball would be better has a best-out-of-seven seven minute games, than one 48 minute game. So more like volleyball. But then it wouldn’t work as well for TV, because the duration would be harder to predict.

This. I would watch this.

[ursus arctos]

Pick up basketball is virtually always played as first to 11 or 21

[Kevin S]

Snooker and tennis both work as 'best-of-X' sports with potentially unpredictable scheduling. Why doesn't this work for basketball or golf?

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

More than one pundit on Match of the Day. I get why you need a presenter plus 1. But you don't need a second person to repeat the presenter's question back to them as an answer.

Not the only example of over-resourcing in football coverage - see also the two-commentators thing on Five Live (if they still do that), and the multiple pundits for games in big tournaments- some or all of: studio presenter and panel, commentator and pundit, touchline reporter and pundit(s) etc.

[Sporting]

Time-outs.

[seand]

I’ve often thought basketball would be better has a best-out-of-seven seven minute games, than one 48 minute game. So more like volleyball. But then it wouldn’t work as well for TV, because the duration would be harder to predict.

I'm going with 49 minutes.

[Sporting]

But the running times of regular golf are hard to predict too.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I’ve often thought basketball would be better has a best-out-of-seven seven minute games, than one 48 minute game. So more like volleyball. But then it wouldn’t work as well for TV, because the duration would be harder to predict.

That's what killed off matchplay golf, which (as the Ryder Cup demonstrates year after every other year) is by far the more dramatic and entertaining form of the sport. As matches can finish anything up to sixty minutes ahead of schedule, or potentially run on sixty minutes late, TV hated it.