What changes in sports would you want?

[EagleFan]

Part of a conversation in another thread made me curious about this.

You are the sports czar and can change anything that you want in sports, no limits. What would you do?

[EagleFan]

As for me:

Baseball
- Do away with the draft
- Cut down the number of regular season games
- Do away with minor league affiliations; allow reserve players to be loaned out
- Promotion/Relegation; setup the minor leagues as a tiered system
- I would even love to see inter-league tournaments added


NHL
- Change the points system so a regulation win is worth 3 points; give teams more incentive to try to win the game in regulation instead of just playing for the point late.


NFL
- Get rid of Thursday games, except the Thanksgiving games.


NBA
- Fewer regular season games, no back to backs
- Change the draft so that the top three picks go to the three teams that missed the playoffs with the best records and then go to the bottom teams starting at pick 4


College BB
- Conference champion is the only automatic bid for conferences
- Conference tournament champion gets a automatic bid to NIT (as a fall back if they don't make the primary tournament)


College FB
- Increase the playoffs to 16 teams
- All conference champions make the tournament
- At large bids go to the highest ranked team that didn't win their conference
- No more than 2 teams from any conference make the playoffs


(will add in other ideas as I can)

[rowech]

Post-game yellow cards issued for diving after officials review video of the game.

Widen the basketball court.

NHL and NBA cut the number of playoff teams in half

[CrescentMoonie]

NBA
Widen the basketball court is a huge one.
Agree with no back-to-back games.

Soccer
I'll up the ante and say red cards issued post game for diving with an escalating amount of extra games suspended for every one that is given that way.
Diving/embellishing also is an auto red card during games.

NHL
2 points for a win. 0 points for a tie or loss. No overtime during the regular season. Earn those points or get nothing every game.

Baseball
Literally none of the ideas above. The US isn't Europe or anywhere else and that system won't work here.
Cut down manager visits to the mound to 1 every 2 innings unless making a pitching change.
No stepping out of the batters box or off the mound during an at bat, enforce 20 seconds maximum between pitches.

Miscellany
Make all serious suggestions of promotion/relegation in any sport an imprisonable offense.

[larrymcg421]

NBA

Lottery odds start from the middle. The 8th seeds get the best odds, then the 7th seeds/first to miss playoffs get the next best odds, then 6th seeds/next best to miss playoffs and so on until you have the worst odds for the worst team and the champion.

[digamma]

On the relegation point, basketball and maybe hockey are the only sports where it can work in the US. Smaller arenas, smaller rosters allow more teams to field top league level rosters. Relegation in baseball or football would be a miserable experience.

[digamma]

I also think conference tournaments only work if there is a NCAA bid carrot. Otherwise the top teams in mid major conferences would not participate or would rest their stars. It probably kills the television deals that keep those tournaments afloat. Why would I tune in to see Lehigh play American for a bid to go to the NIT? I might watch that game if an NCAA bid was at stake.

[EagleFan]

Miscellany
Make all serious suggestions of promotion/relegation in any sport an imprisonable offense.

Why? It keeps teams from tanking and makes the season more important. Creates a sense of urgency for the lower teams.

You must really hate that I would rather see the baseball season cut down to under 60 games with more time off between games.

:D

[digamma]

Triple dola...
I'd like to see the rules the NCAA experimented with in the NIT be incorporated. I like the beauty of a 20 minute half, but getting to the bonus with 8 or 9 minutes left in the half can be a real drag. Resetting the fouls at the ten minute mark seemed like a good compromise.

I'd also go to six fouls before a foul out. And I'd think about pushing the three point line back.

In college football, I would try to do something with the replay system. I'm not sure if it is a challenge system like the NFL or what, but the delays can really break up the flow of the game.

[Young Drachma]

Baseball to shorten to 5 inning games.
Raise the NBA hoop and widen the court and/or add a 4-point shot.
Echo the 3 point win in hockey as some others have said.

[CrescentMoonie]

On the relegation point, basketball and maybe hockey are the only sports where it can work in the US. Smaller arenas, smaller rosters allow more teams to field top league level rosters. Relegation in baseball or football would be a miserable experience.

Relegation doesn't work in the US because of TV contracts regardless of the sport. It works in the Premier League in England because they have 5 metro areas over 2 million people and there are half a dozen teams in London. The US has 34 metro areas over 2 million. England's second biggest metro is Birmingham at 3.6 million which would make it 16th in the US right behind Seattle.

Just imagine telling a TV exec that the Knicks and Nets both got relegated and NY is no longer represented with an NBA team. Then imagine the giant loss of revenue that is specified in the contract if the league loses that market.

[NobodyHere]

I'd like to see a much tougher stance on PEDs. 1st offense and you are out for the season. 2nd offense and it's a lifetime banhammer.

[Young Drachma]

I'd make MLS a three-tier league, that way, pro/rel would work but the league sells its games as a package and you still play the teams from each division of the course of a season, but teams in MLS3 aren't eligible for the overall title and same with MLS2, say.

I think that's how you do pro/rel. Rebuilding teams can rebuild, but still have something to play for.

[digamma]

Relegation doesn't work in the US because of TV contracts regardless of the sport. It works in the Premier League in England because they have 5 metro areas over 2 million people and there are half a dozen teams in London. The US has 34 metro areas over 2 million. England's second biggest metro is Birmingham at 3.6 million which would make it 16th in the US right behind Seattle.

Just imagine telling a TV exec that the Knicks and Nets both got relegated and NY is no longer represented with an NBA team. Then imagine the giant loss of revenue that is specified in the contract if the league loses that market.

Oh, I know all that and agree. My point was that it's even more of a non-starter in baseball and football because of stadium and roster sizes.

[albionmoonlight]

My radical NBA idea:

Each team has 3 badges that can be on the court at a time (the badge is some big obvious red circle that sticks on the uniform). If a player with a badge shoots a 3 pointer, it is worth 3 points. For the other two players, they are worth 2 points.

This allows for good spacing (you always have three guys who can stretch the defense), but also encourages the re-development of good post play (because your 4 and 5 are going to make a living by the basket again instead of standing in the corner waiving that they are open).

[AENeuman]

Wow, seems like some here really hate baseball... why not just play out each year on some sort of computer simulation where owners adjust the rosters and lineups? ;)
The only baseball I would do is limit the amount of relievers on a roster.

Golf
Regulate the drivers. MLB can't use metal bats, PGA shouldn't be able to use the latest and greatest just to show off the product.

[CU Tiger]

I'd make PEDs legal in all sports. We are already encouraging human beings to physically wreck their bodies for our amusement. Why limit how far they can go? I want to see a 700' home run off a 120 mph fastball. Bring on the peasants to amuse me.

Football
Current targeting rules are altered to any hit that is ruled targeting the offending player and the corresponding player on the other team must sit out so long as the injured player is out. (LB takes out opposing QB - LB and QB sit out until QB is ready to return) If no time is missed the yardage is still applied but no ejection.

Horse Collar rule is eliminated in all but the original intent open field run down scenario. Its dumb and un-necessary.

TV timeouts eliminated mid drive. Period.

An injured player who gets a play stoppage may not return for the duration of possession.

Baseball
One step out of batters box per at bat. Additional step outs result in a strike up to and including strike 3.

Pitcher has 10 seconds in the pitching circle with ball in hand to deal. At which point a ball is awarded.

Runners blocking the base path are fair game for spikes or being ran over.

Bench clearing brawls are encouraged and unpunished. However every player who enters the field of play from the dugout is ejected. The odds are at best 9-4...think twice before you charge the mound big boy.

Intentionally walked batters are worth 2 runs while on the base path. We want homers let us see them.

NBA
Disband the league

Golf
Either require the shotgunning of a beer from each tee box or eliminate the game from existence and let cows graze the courses.

NASCAR

If you cant buy it of a showroom floor you cant run it. You are allowed to change the seat to a suspension seat and add a roll bar and swap the glass for lexan. Nothing more.

[JonInMiddleGA]

End the DH
End regular season interleague play in MLB
End the stupid "Chase" in NASCAR & restore the traditional points system
End NHL shootouts as finishes

I'm sure there's other stuff but that's some starters

edit to add: Ohhh, contract MLB by at least 4 teams.

[ISiddiqui]

Miscellany
Make all serious suggestions of promotion/relegation in any sport an imprisonable offense.

Yes. 1000% agreed with the caveat - 'in sports leagues that currently don't have it'.

[murrayyyyy]

Celebrations and taunting allowed.

No drug policies (it's their body so fuck'em if they can't walk at 35)

More orange slices at halftime.

[ISiddiqui]

Relegation doesn't work in the US because of TV contracts regardless of the sport. It works in the Premier League in England because they have 5 metro areas over 2 million people and there are half a dozen teams in London. The US has 34 metro areas over 2 million. England's second biggest metro is Birmingham at 3.6 million which would make it 16th in the US right behind Seattle.

Just imagine telling a TV exec that the Knicks and Nets both got relegated and NY is no longer represented with an NBA team. Then imagine the giant loss of revenue that is specified in the contract if the league loses that market.

It also doesn't work in the US because of the massive size of the country. England is roughly the size of Alabama. You could have vast swaths in the US with no major league team at all. Granted it took quite a while for the Southeast US to get a Major League Soccer team as a result of closed expansion, but that lack of major league presence led to a lack of interest in the league itself - you get a major league team and suddenly fans are coming out of the woodwork (seriously compare Silverbacks' attendance with Atlanta United's). It's too much of a risk to leave an area of the country without a major league team.

[CrescentMoonie]

Oh, I know all that and agree. My point was that it's even more of a non-starter in baseball and football because of stadium and roster sizes.

Stadiums and rosters are irrelevant (maybe not stadiums). Second to TV markets is franchise ownership vs club teams. Tell someone that they have to spend $800 million on a team and that team may lose half of its value or more if it doesn't perform. Relegation would kill franchise values in the US and that would kill sports as we know them.

[cuervo72]

End the DH
End regular season interleague play in MLB
End the stupid "Chase" in NASCAR & restore the traditional points system
End NHL shootouts as finishes

I'm sure there's other stuff but that's some starters

edit to add: Ohhh, contract MLB by at least 4 teams.

On-board with all of these.

And again, I like the general idea of relegation. But you probably need to limit it to soccer, or at least leagues that are not very well established.

[Young Drachma]

Also, I'd end all draft lotteries and find some other way to allocated draft picks. Or just end drafts altogether and let rookies end up on the open market from Day 1.

[JonInMiddleGA]

And again, I like the general idea of relegation. But you probably need to limit it to soccer, or at least leagues that are not very well established.

Relegation is so far off my radar that it isn't even a thing to me.

The problem isn't the concept, it's the impracticality of it.
It's right up there with players sprouting wings in terms of realism for any league that's of any note in the U.S.

[Kodos]

NFL: Super Bowl halftime is same length as in regular season. No concert or other entertainment. Game starts at 4 p.m. EST. Only 1 hour of pregame show is allowed on Super Bowl Sunday. Only beer commercials are allowed to be shown during the Super Bowl. Anything that focuses attention away from the game and is designed to lure in non-fans is scrapped.

[ISiddiqui]

Also regarding relegation - in 2012 the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs would have been relegated. The benefits to having a closed system means that teams can tear out the rot and start over (which is what Epstein did when he got to Chicago). You can't do that if you are worried about being relegated. And the massive loss of money in relegation tends to prevent quickly returning to the top.

[Umbrella]

I think the NBA would be a good candidate for relegation/promotion. It would completely eliminate the tanking dilemma. The problem is you can't really have that with a draft concept, which is what starts all the tanking anyways.

I'll go completely outside the box and say get rid of the draft for the NBA. You can keep the salary cap as is, which would prevent power markets like LA or NY from buying up all the stars. Or not, if the worry about losing the big markets is there. Implement promotion/relegation with D-league teams. I think 2 teams is probably reasonable for that. The highest regular season D-league team, as well as the playoff winner, both get promoted. Get rid of conferences and divisions, and just have the worst 2 teams relegated. Top 16 NBA teams make the playoffs, matchups based on seedings. Get rid of the 1 year wait for rookies to enter the league. Let the teams determine how much to pay the rookies, within guidelines determined by salary cap.

I'm pretty sure most D-league teams are owned by parent clubs, so some way would have to be worked out for them to get individual owners. I know there is a 0% chance this would ever happen. But I hate the concept of tanking so much, I would be all in favor of drastic changes to get rid of it. As an added bonus, maybe more players would be willing to play in the D-league instead of Europe, knowing they have a possible 1-11 chance of making the NBA next year.

[CrescentMoonie]

Get rid of tanking by reversing the odds of winning the lottery and adding the 8 teams that lose in the 1st round of the playoffs to the lottery.

So, 22 teams are in the lottery. The odds favor the team that had the best regular season record among the first round playoff losers and go all the way down to the worst odds given to the team that finished with the worst record in the regular season. Brooklyn, your insane moves didn't work and your team sucks, well get ready because you're likely drafting 22 overall this year. Clippers/Utah loser, you'll probably get the best odds for the #1 overall.

To clarify a bit, the 8 playoff teams get their lottery odds first then the non playoff teams. If the 8 seed from the East has a worse record than the top 1-2 teams from the West that missed the playoffs, so be it, they still get higher odds in the lottery because they made the playoffs. Otherwise you could really cause conference inequality on top of what already exists.

Gets rid of tanking at the bottom of the league and incentivizes making the playoffs to get the best possible players and take the next step.

[murrayyyyy]

If you want to get rid of tanking, just draft like the NBA use to until the Bird Collegiate Rule was created.

Bird was drafted in 78 but continued to play in school the next season for Indiana State and met Magic in the 1979 finals because they had that Junior eligible rule back then because his HS class was 74.

They could get rid of tanking by having teams be able to draft and keep the right of any college player until the next draft. This way the kid could stay in school if they wanted to instead of making less money in the G-League compared to what they get under the table in college. NCAA becomes what it truly is, a better place for NBA players to develop.

[albionmoonlight]

NBA: Get rid of max contracts. As it is, having a superstar in the NBA gives you a huge advantage compared to other sports because only five guys play at a time. So why enhance that advantage by artificially capping the salaries of only those guys? Give the teams a cap, but let any player get paid as much as the market will bear.

[Young Drachma]

Yeah NBA should employ MLS designated player rule. In some ways, it'll let teams fill up on guys but you can trade them and when teams want to tank, you can deal DP slots. Or only have one or two per team and have a hard cap.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I do love the way people here are so willing to devalue the TV contracts that currently keep the major pro leagues afloat.

[JonInMiddleGA]

If you want to get rid of tanking, just draft like the NBA use to until the Bird Collegiate Rule was created.

Umm ... doesn't that just shift which season a team tanks for?

[cuervo72]

Relegation is so far off my radar that it isn't even a thing to me.

The problem isn't the concept, it's the impracticality of it.
It's right up there with players sprouting wings in terms of realism for any league that's of any note in the U.S.

Well, that's the thing - of any note.

I don't really regard MLS as being of much note. (Sorry, futbol fans.) So if you want to have 64, or 128 teams or whatever with teams moving up/down*, go for it. Or Arena Football, or indoor lacrosse, etc.

[Young Drachma]

I do love the way people here are so willing to devalue the TV contracts that currently keep the major pro leagues afloat.

Meh. They're going to have to figure out a new model going forward anyway, with cord cutters galore and people fragmenting their TV watching.

[Young Drachma]

If you want to get rid of tanking, just draft like the NBA use to until the Bird Collegiate Rule was created.

Bird was drafted in 78 but continued to play in school the next season for Indiana State and met Magic in the 1979 finals because they had that Junior eligible rule back then because his HS class was 74.

They could get rid of tanking by having teams be able to draft and keep the right of any college player until the next draft. This way the kid could stay in school if they wanted to instead of making less money in the G-League compared to what they get under the table in college. NCAA becomes what it truly is, a better place for NBA players to develop.

Or just make it like hockey, where dudes can get drafted and still go back to school but the rights stick with the team that drafted them. Lots of stories this year of guys who played in the NCAA Frozen Four, then reported to their NHL clubs a few days later.

[bhlloy]

Or just make it like hockey, where dudes can get drafted and still go back to school but the rights stick with the team that drafted them. Lots of stories this year of guys who played in the NCAA Frozen Four, then reported to their NHL clubs a few days later.

+1. Hockey does prospects and player development way better than any of the other sports IMO. Of course it helps that there is the legacy of Major Junior hockey and that the standard of play in the NCAA is improving all the time, but still.

I can't believe people are seriously suggesting baseball do away with the draft. You might as well make it a 5-6 team league after a few years. At least in European soccer (or at least in the UK) there are schooling requirements that mean young players at least start with local clubs and you still have teams like Chelsea and City with reserve squads that are 60 deep sending players on loan all over Europe. If you let teams bid for kids out of high school in baseball, that promotion/relegation thing is going to look more attractive real fast.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Meh. They're going to have to figure out a new model going forward anyway, with cord cutters galore and people fragmenting their TV watching.

If that happens (when the current TV deals expire) then you're looking at so many changes financially in a league like the NBA that who knows what's left anyway.

Bottom line: the number of people who will give two shits about watching Maine (a current D-League semi-finalist I believe) isn't enough to warrant them moving to the NBA ... not even if they spend a D-League season unbeaten.

[Brian Swartz]

Disband the league

Ouch. I like your baseball ideas, at least the first two for speeding things up.

Miscellany
Make all serious suggestions of promotion/relegation in any sport an imprisonable offense.

Couldn't disagree more. I think it's a good idea for sports that have enough fanbase to support it.

Baseball

Along with the previously mentioned pace ideas:

** Eliminate the playoffs entirely. Baseball is about the long haul and everyone knows it's a crapshoot. The best regular-season team is the champion.
** Call the actual shoulders-to-knees strike zone, not the 'mid-thigh to lower chest' one.

Football

** Ban the sport. I don't think there's any way to make it reasonably safe in the modern era.

Tennis

** Rebalance the schedule with more grass-court events, including a couple Masters, and shorten the hardcourt season. Season's also a little too long in general, and could be shortened
** Implement more equitable profit-sharing based on a percentage of profits guaranteed in prize money, and early-round losers esp. in big events earning a bigger proportion. Having only about 100 players making a profit in a sport with the worldwide audience of tennis is absurd.

NBA

** Include all teams in the draft lottery with an equal chance.
** Eliminate guaranteed contracts.
** All intentional fouls are two shots and possession.
** Eliminate foul-outs. Fouls beyond six are two shots and the ball. Having stars sit because of a strange play or two isn't good.
** Eliminate the 3-point shot completely.

That's it for now ... good discussion!

[bhlloy]

NBA

** All intentional fouls are two shots and possession.




This simple rule change would probably quadruple the chance I watch an NBA game outside of the NBA finals in a heartbeat. Good call.

[ISiddiqui]

Bottom line: the number of people who will give two shits about watching Maine (a current D-League semi-finalist I believe) isn't enough to warrant them moving to the NBA ... not even if they spend a D-League season unbeaten.

100% agreement (and that doesn't usually happen)

TV rights money (or streaming rights money, whatever) depends on media markets. And especially in a massive country like the US, you can't ignore major media markets and expect something super profitable. European countries have a smaller number of big cities and the money flows to teams in those cities. 6/20 teams in the English Premier League are in London. Can you imagine the nosedive in ratings and TV money if 30% of the teams in the NBA (or any other league) were in New York City?

[CrescentMoonie]

Couldn't disagree more. I think it's a good idea for sports that have enough fanbase to support it.




The fanbases are completely irrelevant. TV markets are the single deciding factor above all else. Add in franchise ownership and saying that pro/rel in the US if even remotely feasible is criminally obtuse.

[CrescentMoonie]

100% agreement (and that doesn't usually happen)

TV rights money (or streaming rights money, whatever) depends on media markets. And especially in a massive country like the US, you can't ignore major media markets and expect something super profitable. European countries have a smaller number of big cities and the money flows to teams in those cities. 6/20 teams in the English Premier League are in London. Can you imagine the nosedive in ratings and TV money if 30% of the teams in the NBA (or any other league) were in New York City?

The TV money would probably go UP if 30% of teams were in NYC. NYC metro is bigger than Chicago and Dallas combined. It's roughly the same size as LA and Dallas combined.

There are 14 metro areas in the US over 4 million people. There are 7 in the EU. You couldn't do a pro/rel league that is EU wide and it's twice as ridiculous in the US.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Can you imagine the nosedive in ratings and TV money if 30% of the teams in the NBA (or any other league) were in New York City?

That might be better than having one in Maine and another in Toronto (I have no idea where the Raptors D-League team actually plays however) to replace one in Brooklyn and one in Los Angeles.

[cthomer5000]

As mentioned above, and somethin i've said many time:

Intentional fouls in basketball = 2 free throws (no 1+1, no rebounds) and possession of the ball.

Failing that, offer the team who has been fouled free throws OR possession (with a fresh shot clock).

A third option - institute an NFL-esque clock runoff if the team being fouled wants it.

If non-stop intentional fouling is a viable strategy, you need to create rules that destroy that. Period.

[JonInMiddleGA]

If non-stop intentional fouling is a viable strategy, you need to create rules that destroy that. Period.

Unneccessary. Get oafs that can't hit free throws off the floor if you don't want it happening.

[stevew]

Baseball-play 2 81 game halves with a 2 week AS break in the middle. Break ties with a 1 game playoff (or more, as necessary).

[ISiddiqui]

The TV money would probably go UP if 30% of teams were in NYC. NYC metro is bigger than Chicago and Dallas combined. It's roughly the same size as LA and Dallas combined.

There are 14 metro areas in the US over 4 million people. There are 7 in the EU. You couldn't do a pro/rel league that is EU wide and it's twice as ridiculous in the US.

The last time there was a Subway World Series (Yankees vs. Mets in... 2000 was it?) the ratings were the lowest in the period. I know people assume more NY teams = more ratings and TV numbers, but the rest of the country just tunes out.

Basically there is only so much a media market can have in terms of teams before it is saturated. Where all the fans of a sport in a city will tune in and watch. For the English Premier League, I don't think Watford or Crystal Palace or even West Ham add much to TV media money. London's soccer fans eyeballs are already watching due to Arsenal, Chelsea, and Tottenham. The other teams add marginal increases - diminishing returns strikes at that level.

[cthomer5000]

Unneccessary. Get oafs that can't hit free throws off the floor if you don't want it happening.

We're all entitled to our opinion. I think it's a great overall sport mired by rules issues which often make the last few minutes of games come completely unrecognizable when compare to the first quarter.

[JonInMiddleGA]

The last time there was a Subway World Series (Yankees vs. Mets in... 2000 was it?) the ratings were the lowest in the period. I know people assume more NY teams = more ratings and TV numbers, but the rest of the country just tunes out.

The value isn't in having two ... it's really in having one.
(and in having them for the entire season package, not just the WS)

08: Philly vs Tampa: 8.4m avg
09: Philly vs Yankees: 11.7m avg

[thesloppy]

I hate the broken late game, foul-fest of NBA basketball as well, and I think the game would be improved by playing to a set score, instead of to a time limit. I know at one point I decided there was some great reasoning behind having each NBA 'game' be a best-of-three to 21, with the team that wins 2 of those games getting the win for the night...but I can't remember what that reasoning was. I guess it was formed around the basic premise that in games that tight, with a set end-point, there'd be a lot less reckless (or strategic) fouling.

[ISiddiqui]

The value isn't in having two ... it's really in having one.
(and in having them for the entire season package, not just the WS)

08: Philly vs Tampa: 8.4m avg
09: Philly vs Yankees: 11.7m avg

Exactly. You don't need more and more NYC teams. 2 or 3 will capture the market in terms of eyeballs.

You would think that NYC probably COULD handle another baseball team based on its population, but do people think there are unserved baseball fans still in NYC? Or would fans peel off from backing the Yankees or Mets to back Team3?

[cthomer5000]

I hate the broken late game, foul-fest of NBA basketball, and I think the game would be improved by playing to a set score, instead of to a time limit.

I'd forgotten about this, but I have definitely proposed this to friends in the past. I'd be on board.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Exactly. You don't need more and more NYC teams. 2 or 3 will capture the market in terms of eyeballs.

You would think that NYC probably COULD handle another baseball team based on its population, but do people think there are unserved baseball fans still in NYC? Or would fans peel off from backing the Yankees or Mets to back Team3?

I'd say it's likely you'd get a weak sister #3 for a very long time.
Same with Chicago.

You'd get some adoption during the post-season hypothetically I suppose but I'd be more concerned about the viability a third for 162 games. Costs are high, interest relatively low, that's a bad combination.

[larrymcg421]

Instead of two shots and the ball, how about three free throw shots for any foul beyond the three point line? That would get rid of another pet peeve - teams fouling while up three and forcing the other team to shoot two free throws.

[CrescentMoonie]

The last time there was a Subway World Series (Yankees vs. Mets in... 2000 was it?) the ratings were the lowest in the period. I know people assume more NY teams = more ratings and TV numbers, but the rest of the country just tunes out.

That 2000 WS, while lower than the years surrounding it, was higher in the ratings than all but 2 WS from 2005-2016 and was fairly close to 98, 02, and 03.

[CrescentMoonie]

Exactly. You don't need more and more NYC teams. 2 or 3 will capture the market in terms of eyeballs.

You would think that NYC probably COULD handle another baseball team based on its population, but do people think there are unserved baseball fans still in NYC? Or would fans peel off from backing the Yankees or Mets to back Team3?

And pro/rel means you potentially have 0 which is what kills your national TV deal.

[Young Drachma]

I hate the broken late game, foul-fest of NBA basketball as well, and I think the game would be improved by playing to a set score, instead of to a time limit. I know at one point I decided there was some great reasoning behind having each NBA 'game' be a best-of-three to 21, with the team that wins 2 of those games getting the win for the night...but I can't remember what that reasoning was. I guess it was formed around the basic premise that in games that tight, with a set end-point, there'd be a lot less reckless (or strategic) fouling.

The Basketball Tournament, that summer tourney that's taken off the past few years is going to experiment with these rules in their qualifying rounds this year. NBA is watching, but the idea is too radical even for the D-League to attempt it.

Elam landed on something more radical: eliminate the game clock from crunch time. Under Elam's proposal, the clock would vanish after the first stoppage under the three-minute mark in the NBA and the four-minute mark in NCAA games. Officials would establish a target score by taking the score of the leading team and adding seven points -- then restart the game without a clock. The team that reaches that target score first wins.

Here's more on the 'Elam Ending'

Zach Lowe on The Basketball Tournament's innovative end-of-game rule (http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19078511/zach-lowe-basketball-tournament-innovative-end-game-rule)

[Young Drachma]

And pro/rel means you potentially have 0 which is what kills your national TV deal.

This just isn't true. Look at pro/rel leagues around the world -- not that you folks do -- and realize that those leagues do not relegate their bread and butter teams, it's always the fringe teams that get dropped.

Even in scenarios like in Mexico, where storied clubs eventually get dropped, owners figure out ways around it or they change the entire point system to make sure the signature clubs don't get dropped because of a bad year.

The idea isn't really about exclusion, it's about adding more markets, more cities and increasing interest in the game by giving people a chance to see more games closer to where they live, rather than paying out the nose once or twice a year for a game and/or being excluded from watching games because it requires some kind of expansive package or whatever.

The point is pro/rel could add to the market cap of these leagues, because the fallacy right now is that there's a limited talent pool or something, but there isn't. Baseball thrived back when there were only teams in the east, the games were only on radio and the west coast had a near major league that wasn't a major league at all.

Times have changed, but dropping leaguewide media contracts and letting teams do what baseball already does and let clubs sign their own media deals would be a windfall for teams like the Cowboys, etc., but it'd stiff teams in markets like Oklahoma City.

The setup right now creates these situations where owners can pit cities against each other, which is the real argument against pro/rel, is this artificial scarcity. There are dozens of ways pro/rel could/would work and could expand interest in these leagues in some cases (though not all..) and actually have games matter.

[thesloppy]

Here's more on the 'Elam Ending'

Zach Lowe on The Basketball Tournament's innovative end-of-game rule (http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19078511/zach-lowe-basketball-tournament-innovative-end-game-rule)

Cool! I find it interesting that he still settled on a rather convoluted system, involving timed play for 90% of the game, and adding 7 points to the leading team's score to get the target score, saying "basic worked better" when compared to more complex systems....but why not just make the target score set from the beginning of play? I'm sure there's a simple reason, but they need to lay it out for my tiny brain.

[stevew]

First to 100

[murrayyyyy]

Intentional foul rule I saw a long time ago to fix things. Give the team that is fouled the option to inbound the ball with 14 seconds left on every non-shooting foul or shoot the shots.

HOW NON-SHOOTING FOULS ARE TREATED IN THE BONUS. If a team is in the bonus and there is a non-shooting foul committed against them, the team can elect to shoot two free throws OR inbound the ball on the side with the shot clock starting at the higher of 14 seconds or the time on the shot clock when the foul was committed. This change would end most off-ball intentional fouling.

Shocked no one asked for FIBA rules with regard to goaltending, once the ball hits the rim it's fair game. Takes one more call away from the refs that I saw them get wrong multiple times during the NCAA tournament.

[cthomer5000]

This just isn't true. Look at pro/rel leagues around the world -- not that you folks do -- and realize that those leagues do not relegate their bread and butter teams, it's always the fringe teams that get dropped.

Even in scenarios like in Mexico, where storied clubs eventually get dropped, owners figure out ways around it or they change the entire point system to make sure the signature clubs don't get dropped because of a bad year.

The idea isn't really about exclusion, it's about adding more markets, more cities and increasing interest in the game by giving people a chance to see more games closer to where they live, rather than paying out the nose once or twice a year for a game and/or being excluded from watching games because it requires some kind of expansive package or whatever.

The point is pro/rel could add to the market cap of these leagues, because the fallacy right now is that there's a limited talent pool or something, but there isn't. Baseball thrived back when there were only teams in the east, the games were only on radio and the west coast had a near major league that wasn't a major league at all.

Times have changed, but dropping leaguewide media contracts and letting teams do what baseball already does and let clubs sign their own media deals would be a windfall for teams like the Cowboys, etc., but it'd stiff teams in markets like Oklahoma City.

The setup right now creates these situations where owners can pit cities against each other, which is the real argument against pro/rel, is this artificial scarcity. There are dozens of ways pro/rel could/would work and could expand interest in these leagues in some cases (though not all..) and actually have games matter.

This might be the worst argument for relegation I've ever seen. Oh don't worry - they'll just change the rules like in Mexico or Argentina if a team that matters gets relegated! Then what's the fucking point?

The big problem is that things like the draft and playoffs don't really sit that well with promotion/relegation.

Also relegation is often a financial disaster, look at how many teams in England have dropped multiple division after relegation in the last 10 years.

I love promotion/relegation in the leagues where it exists, but it's 95% out of historical status quo an the fact there there is really only 1 major sport in those countries.

The USA is so different from a sporting and geographical standpoint that it seems awfully silly to just jam another framework onto things.

[SirFozzie]

This just isn't true. Look at pro/rel leagues around the world -- not that you folks do -- and realize that those leagues do not relegate their bread and butter teams, it's always the fringe teams that get dropped.

2 examples:

Manchester City: 2000-2001, 97-98 to 98-99
Chelsea: '75-'76, 76-77, 1984-1985 to 87-88

And more to the point:
"Since the start of the Premier League in 1992, seven clubs have never faced the drop; Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester United, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. However there are no English clubs currently in existence that have never been relegated from the country's top division" - The Guardian.

Which European football clubs have never been relegated? | News | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/jun/02/which-european-football-clubs-have-never-been-relegated)

[SirFozzie]

Cool! I find it interesting that he still settled on a rather convoluted system, involving timed play for 90% of the game, and adding 7 points to the leading team's score to get the target score, saying "basic worked better" when compared to more complex systems....but why not just make the target score set from the beginning of play? I'm sure there's a simple reason, but they need to lay it out for my tiny brain.

Prevent a matchup of two bad shooting teams going for six hours? :)

[CrescentMoonie]

This just isn't true. Look at pro/rel leagues around the world -- not that you folks do -- and realize that those leagues do not relegate their bread and butter teams, it's always the fringe teams that get dropped.

Those leauges often have 4-5+ teams in their one major metro area. The US has twice as many metro areas over 4 million people than the entire EU combined. The major US markets have 2 teams, at most. They also have other sports competing on equal footing against them which isn't common overseas.

[Umbrella]

Interestingly, the last 3 NBA relocations are now the 3 smallest TV markets in the league (New Orleans, Memphis, Oklahoma City). I don't think the size of TV markets is as much as a driving factor as people think.

[bhlloy]

2 examples:

Manchester City: 2000-2001, 97-98 to 98-99
Chelsea: '75-'76, 76-77, 1984-1985 to 87-88

And more to the point:
"Since the start of the Premier League in 1992, seven clubs have never faced the drop; Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester United, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. However there are no English clubs currently in existence that have never been relegated from the country's top division" - The Guardian.

Which European football clubs have never been relegated? | News | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/jun/02/which-european-football-clubs-have-never-been-relegated)

This isn't a vote for promotion/relegation in US sports leagues with franchises because it's not and it would never work, but these days the chances of a City or Chelsea getting relegated are virtually nil, so I don't disagree with the original premise.

The difference between Man City in 1997 or Chelsea in 1988 to their current incarnations with billionaire owners and millions of fans across the world is absolutely night and day.

[Umbrella]

Newcastle is probably a better example. Big club, bad owner. They have bounced up and down a bit the last few years. I could see the Knicks being like that if the NBA had relegation.

[CrescentMoonie]

Interestingly, the last 3 NBA relocations are now the 3 smallest TV markets in the league (New Orleans, Memphis, Oklahoma City). I don't think the size of TV markets is as much as a driving factor as people think.

That didn't affect the markets that matter at all and it doesn't change how the networks are going to view things. As long as NY and LA are well represented, everywhere else takes a back seat.

I still don't get the New Orleans move other than maybe bad ownership. I think Memphis was an exchange rate deal and those two metros were much closer in size in 2001. OKC was a lying ownership group taking over and moving a team after promising not to.

Look at what MLS has done. They've openly talked about 2 franchises in NY and LA since day one and worked to make it happen as quickly as they could.

[cuervo72]

Baseball-play 2 81 game halves with a 2 week AS break in the middle. Break ties with a 1 game playoff (or more, as necessary).

The '81 Reds would like you to screw off!

[stevew]

I do like the Fiba goaltending rule.

[Atocep]

The Wilpons forced to sell.

[mckerney]

Football:
If the NFL is going to keep having team play on Thursday night require that the teams playing are coming off a bye week.
Do away with coaches challenges, have all replay review decisions come from the league/conference office.

Golf:
Have official scorers keep track of score and don't take calls or emails about rule violations from TV viewers.

[albionmoonlight]

If you announce a franchise move, you have to leave immediately. You don't get that last awkward season in your former city.

[ISiddiqui]

That 2000 WS, while lower than the years surrounding it, was higher in the ratings than all but 2 WS from 2005-2016 and was fairly close to 98, 02, and 03.

Yes, TV ratings changed fundamentally in the late 2000s. Difficult to judge 2000 to 2005, but one can say that the WS between the Yankees and Marlins a few years later got higher ratings than the Yankees and Mets.

[ISiddiqui]

This just isn't true. Look at pro/rel leagues around the world -- not that you folks do -- and realize that those leagues do not relegate their bread and butter teams, it's always the fringe teams that get dropped.

This isn't a vote for promotion/relegation in US sports leagues with franchises because it's not and it would never work, but these days the chances of a City or Chelsea getting relegated are virtually nil, so I don't disagree with the original premise.

The difference between Man City in 1997 or Chelsea in 1988 to their current incarnations with billionaire owners and millions of fans across the world is absolutely night and day.

Newcastle is probably a better example. Big club, bad owner. They have bounced up and down a bit the last few years. I could see the Knicks being like that if the NBA had relegation.

Newcastle is a decent one, but a better one is Leeds. An iconic team which is struggled for a long time (and now is doing decently in the Championship). Now granted a lot of that is their own making - they borrowed significantly to keep making Champions League and the one year they didn't the losses spiraled). Leeds though was a 'big club' before the insane money started flowing into the Prem.

And yes, one can say that Man City and Chelsea won't go down any time soon, but that's due to the fact that they have ridiculously lavish billionaire owners who are willing to print money. However, neither Man City nor Chelsea was considered a 'bread and butter' team prior to the rich owner. They spent their way to it.

Of course this is another concern. If your team isn't owned by a free spending billionaire you have basically no chance (even Leicester is owned by a free spending billionaire). And even then the chances aren't that great if you aren't one of the top 4 or 5 big money teams.

And lets not forget that in the EPL, Aston Villa, who were relegated last season are one of the most storied teams in the English football's history.

[wustin]

For college basketball I want them to keep it how it has been for the last idk how many decades or completely do the 180 and have it emulate the NBA. Quarters and NBA foul system, no physical play, etc.

Otherwise you have the shitshow that was the national championship which reminded me of the 2004 Pistons/Pacers playoffs. Where both teams would shoot like shit and rack up 25-30 fouls against each other.

[SirFozzie]

Golf: If a person makes a good faith signing of their scorecard, then post round penalties do not incur the additional penalty of signing an incorrect scorecard.

College Basketball: 10 minute quarters, calling games more like the NBA does.

Pro Basketball: Get rid of the one and done rule. If you're good enough, you're old enough.

Football: No commercials between kickoff and resumption of play (so you can have timeouts between the touchdown/Point Try and the kickoff, but not between kickoff and first and 10.

[CU Tiger]

Football: No commercials between kickoff and resumption of play (so you can have timeouts between the touchdown/Point Try and the kickoff, but not between kickoff and first and 10.

thats done this year

[nilodor]

NBA
Go with that idea Zach Lowe discusses where once there is 4 minutes left in the game, the game goes to a set score 7 points higher than the leading teams.

No timeouts during last 4 minutes, all timeouts remaining convert to free clock stoppage and ball advancement.

All
Stadiums no longer can be funded by public money. Only land donation and infrastructure (roads/rail) is allowed.

[Atocep]

I think the easy solution for the end of ncaa/nba games is give teams the opportunity to pass on free throws and instead just take the ball out of bounds.