Little off topic, but I've really started to question what exactly we're buying into with professional sports and where leagues in general are heading. I made a post somewhat connected to this issue before, but tonight one of the most disguisting things I've ever seen in professional sports happened.

Near the end of the Raps game, with the Raps enjoying their largest lead in a game in franchise history, a 43 point lead, the crowd began booing the team. I thought to myself "wow, now THERE'S some class, booing their own team for piling up the score too much. Even if you don't think it's unsportsmanlike to not let up, you have to admire the quality of the fans."

And no. The crowd was booing the team because they had their bench players on the court, and therefore wouldn't hit the 100 point mark necessary for the crowd to get a free slice of pizza. I think I'm going to stick to the WWE, at least they acknowledge their product is entertainment, not sport.

Basketball sucks!

with the price of tickets they have every right to boo when they miss out on a pizza. Especially when it's against the worst team in the league.

Very Interesting: http://www.tsn.ca/nba/news_story/?ID=232413&hubname=

My comments, essentially what I posted above, were screened out, and the part about the fans booing has since been taken out of the article. I guess TSN realizes they shouldn't partake in making the game look that idiotic. Nice journalism.

I never get the whole Pizza thing..its pretty stupid if you ask me...

Did you write the article for the Canadian Press??

it's a pretty common thing, and I disagree with it being stupid. Promotions for the pizza place. Food for the fans. Something silly to cheer for.

San Jose used to (might still have) the 'four in the net pizza you get' promotion. Only a personal pizza but still. I remember some blowouts where sometime after the third goal, a spontaneous pizza chant would fill the arena. Quite funny if you ask me.

I don't see why anyone would think it's stupid.

Because its hokey..I have been to tons of sporting events , and the fans dont care about the game and just worry about the stupid $2 slice of pizza...The Leafs dont do it, because they dont need gimmicks..The Raptors games are full of gimmicks..Sell the game and not the gimmicks.

For the Pens, it's 7 goals, and they get Wendy's chili.

7!

when they cut the prices for tickets in half, I'll start to agree with you.

Also, if they're only giving out a $2 slice of pizza, then Raptors fans are getting seriously jipped.


edit: I have to say that I much prefer a game when they're not blasting music and doing all sorts of crap from the jumbotron, but when you're spending all this money you have every right to boo almost anything

LOL, are you retarded Goose ?

I was at the game as I go to about 15 games this year.

It was mock booing not real booing and it happens every time they get close to the 100 in a blowout and don't make it. The game was in garbage time the entire 4th quarter and the only question was whether the Raptors would get to 100 for the free pizza. The crowd was chanting we want pizza we want pizza for the last 5 minutes of the game.

If they edited something you wrote it's because it's a total non issue. It's like a hockey crowd groaning when their team misses an empty net with 3 seconds left and the other team has pulled the goalie when they're down by 2.

I didn't realize it was joke booing, though it's still part of an underlying issue regarding the fact that sports don't stand well enough on their own anymore to hold the rapidly deterioting attention spans of the average fan, and that in the competetive professional sports market league's are increasingly forced to resort to bigger and more intellectually degraded gimmicks to "sell the sport".

I think the tsn comment moderation, alongside the fact that they pulled that part out of the article, is noteworthy, however. If they weren't claiming what they do is 'journalism' it wouldn't be an issue. If the comment alone was screened out, fine, irrelevant, but the fact that they also edited that part out of the story is what I find particularly interesting.

If the 'retarded' comment was an attempt to get a rise out of me, then follow it up by juxtaposing my comments re: the new AHL owner, I'm not quite that blunt. Though the point is duly noted, FCP Info.

edit: 2nd comment went through, and actually I wonder seeing if it's a CP piece if TSN itself modified the article, or whether they had the initial draft put in after the game, then posted the revised, edited one by the CP writer afterwards. That would make more sense than TSN actually editing itself (which again, would have been questionable I think). So largely irrelevant on both counts, ignore lol.

The retarded comment was just some joking because that's exactly what all the booing was, joking around as the home team won a blowout.

The reason that the booing isn't newsworthy is that it happens every single time the Raptors have a big lead and have a chance to get to 100 and they don't.

All the pizza give away is a marketing tie in with a sponsor of the team.

I get the marketing tie in, I just think it's indicitive of a larger trend towards the sensationalization of sports wrapped up in retarded gimmicks - actually my friend thinks he had the idea before any professional team, when we used to play NHL 94 like 10 years ago he used to joke that the Penguins had a marketing tie with a pizza company and that if he scored in the third everyone got a free slice. As a testament to the falliability of Wikipedia, as I joke I put it into Tocchet's name, and even through all the revisions it went through with gambling scandal it's never been flushed out lol:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Tocchet

I don't think they still do this....but maybe.

I remember chanting "CHILI! CHILI! CHILI! CHILI!" back in the early 90s when they'd get 6.

I don't know first hand, but guys on the Pens boards were talking about how they got their chili after the Buffalo game.