The Denver Nuggets and the Sacramento Kings open the season against each other on Oct. 30th and the Kings will make the event special for their fans. Check out Ben Golliver’s piece, from Sports Illustrated’s Point Forward:
The Kings announced Monday their Oct. 30 regular season opener against the Nuggets, set for Sacramento's Sleep Train Arena, will be televised without commercials.
It's an unusual move, and one aimed at celebrating the return of the franchise after an attempted relocation to Seattle earlier this year. The game will be televised on Sacramento's "News10," with the broadcast being dubbed the "Long Live the Kings" opener. All that extra on-air time will be filled with shots, one would expect, of Kings fans enjoying a hard-fought and truly sweet victory.
The commercial free aspect of sporting events has been implemented in English Premier League soccer games, making them a great viewing experience for fans. And consider this, from a Wall Street Journal piece from 2010:
According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.
In other words, if you tally up everything that happens between the time the ball is snapped and the play is whistled dead by the officials, there's barely enough time to prepare a hard-boiled egg. In fact, the average telecast devotes 56% more time to showing replays.
So what do the networks do with the other 174 minutes in a typical broadcast? Not surprisingly, commercials take up about an hour.
Things are a little bit different in the NBA vs. the NFL. There isn't standing around while the play-clocks wind down. Well, at least the defense has a chance to make a play while the offense is trying to stall in basketball. In the NFL, teams can eat up the clock while the defense is unable to do anything but wait for the ball to be snapped.
But wouldn't it be sweet to see what is discussed during timeouts, rather than see what new car you should be buying or what new chips are on the market? That's not quite what Sacramento fans will be getting on Oct. 30th, but there will likely be some cool new wrinkles that will be put on display.
Could a game or rather an NBA season really withstand a commercial free existence? Would it add to the game? Only if things were sped up so that there were not "TV timeouts" and breaks. Games might be over a lot faster and going to games might not be such a long experience either. Might be more enjoyable that way. Get in, see the game, and go on your merry way.
With talk of advertising coming to NBA uniforms, could the commercial free era be on the way? Don't plan on it. NBA owners wouldn't be likely to do one or the other – not with money talking.
But for one night, the people of Sacramento will get a look into a world we NBA fans will never know.
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