What do you do during football (or insert fave sport here) season???

[Sonya77]

We have been flirting with the idea of giving up the cable. We live so far out in the boonies an antennae would do us no good. I'm perfectly fine with the idea...we are on the internet a lot, can get netflix, etc.....but.............


we are RABID football fans (GEAUX SAINTS!!!).

If you are into sports...whaddya do???? We can't pack up the kiddo and head to the local sports bar every sunday. We could listen to it on the radio...but that's never fun.

So....

whaddya do????


TIA,
Sonya

[loraxc]

I was going to suggest the radio. My FIL always listened to his Red Sox games on it.

My husband has been known to sit around and refresh the box scores online for Sox games. I do make fun of him for doing this, though!

Not sure there is a great solution.

[goldfinch]

We're not huge (or even small) sports fans although we do like the Sox (the Red ones.) I spent their curse-breaking season glued to the radio and bemoaning the existence of NESN (because we have a TV with an antenna.) I don't know what a good answer would be for a rabid fan, except possibly agree to cook meals for your TV-owning friends in exchange for use of their TV...?

Going OT here... Dennis Kucinich actually proposed a bill that would have required games to be shown on broadcast channels...

The Baseball Fan Protection Act

Although citizens are increasingly required to subsidize the construction of stadiums for professional sports teams, a rising number of sporting events now require a paid subscription service to view the events on television. As a result, many fans may never be able to watch the teams they love and support with their tax dollars. In turn, in the 108th Congress, Congressman Kucinich introduced the Baseball Fan Protection Act, HR 2745, which would increase the number of baseball games shown on free, broadcast television.

Under current law, franchise owners are able to write off half the cost of the purchase price of the team by capitalizing and depreciating players’ contracts. The Baseball Fan Protection Act amends current law, making the tax break available to franchise owners only if they offer local television broadcasters the option to bid on the rights to air games. If a local broadcaster offers a reasonable bid, the franchise owner must accept this bid. If the bid is unreasonable by market standards, or if no broadcast bidders are forthcoming, the franchise owner is free to accept bids from cable operators at any price the team can command. HR 2745 has been endorsed by the Pro Baseball Fans Association.

[tiffanilmt]

This is precisely the ONLY reason we have cable. DH is a huge baseball fan in general and even bigger Cleveland Indians fan (I'm also a fan) so we have to have a certain level of cable from April to October/November. We have dropped down to a lower level of cable during the off season. I know its a waste of money to have cable for only this reason but hey we're not perfect.

[Shell]

We're not sports fans at all, but I do enjoy watching the olympics. I am kind of bummed by not being able to watch the olympics this summer, but we won't reconnect the cable just for that. It is a bummer though.

A little off topic, but sort of the same line of thinking... I also missed out on watching the debates - although those I can watch online I suppose. Also, I was glad to have TV reception during 9/11, because it made me feel connected to the world during such a devastating time (we didn't have kids then - we disconnected our TV service when the first was born).

I think I could understand big sports fans wanting to keep some kind of TV reception. The key is for us to control the TV, not for the TV to control us!

[because]

Subbing...

We only have cable for DH's sports addiction (but they just took ESPN out of the package...) and we just killed all but the one TV that is in the unfinished basement. I'm trying to convince DH to cancel the cable but he's resisting.

C'mon sports fans, any good ideas on how to kill the TV and still let DH have his guilty pleasure?

[nataliebassoon]

Do you have some friends who are football fans of the same team, too? You could make a date watching the games at their house- they provide the cable, you provide the snacks? I grew up without cable, and this is what my family always did to watch college bowl games.

[Gorzong]

"NFL to stream lives games over the internet":

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...-internet.html

They also mention in the article that MLB already does this with MLB.tv. NHL broadcasts Center Ice over the internet (I use that, and it works pretty good). The NFL is doing some, but only if you're also a Superfan subscriber, so it's like $386 for the season to stream games on your computer.

Liam.

[laketahoemama]

My DH is a huge sports fan. Giving up TV was a big sacrafice on his part. But it ended up being a positive thing for him because now he gets together with friends at their houses or goes out to see games, which I feel like is way more fun than watching at home alone. He also listens on the radio at home which I personally cannot stand, but he actually really enjoys.