Ice Hockey.

[King Kool]

I generally have no use for sports at all. Hockey certainly takes skill, and it's kinda nice, but I almost never watch it. Soccer, baseball, basketball, wrestling, never cared for any of them. (I am also confused by the excitement some people derive from NASCAR.)

[empath]

NASCAR (and to a lesser extent F1) racing falls into the category I consider "shouldn't be a spectator sport" - it's far more interesting to DO than to WATCH. It's got good company of golf, for example.

Hockey? I havne't held much interest in hockey ever since the goons took over. Fire the guys on your teams that are solely there to 'incite' an opposing player into the penalty box, and I might do more than skim the standings and feign interest when my fanatic co-workers bring up the subject...

[Tapir12]

Fire the guys on your teams that are solely there to 'incite' an opposing player into the penalty box, and I might do more than skim the standings and feign interest when my fanatic co-workers bring up the subject...

That irritates me about hockey too. I am probably in the minority with you here, but I would love it if all the goons and fights disappeared from hockey. I generally dislike watching violence though. No wresling for me and even football can be pretty brutal.

As for fandom, my entire family are pretty intense Canucks fans. I used to be, but got out of it a bit while I was away at school without TV. I'll watch it now, but I don't follow it anywhere near as much as I used to.

[goat]

Hockey? I havne't held much interest in hockey ever since the goons took over. Fire the guys on your teams that are solely there to 'incite' an opposing player into the penalty box, and I might do more than skim the standings and feign interest when my fanatic co-workers bring up the subject...

Actually... a lot of that is disappearing from the game. After the lockout rule changes the game has become a lot more about skill and speed. A lot of the brawlers can't keep up and are dropping out of the league, making room for smaller, faster guys with better hands.

Personally, I'm more in favor of keeping them around in some capacity. It adds an interesting dynamic to the game sometimes. If a team is down, a good fight can change the momentum of the game completely.

I do, however, agree about drawing penalties. With the current rules, forwards heading to the net get a lot more protection than they used to, but this certain people into diving a little bit to draw penalties (I'm looking at you, Marian Hossa). While I was less inclined to complain about that while he was playing for DET, it is admittedly a pretty cheap move.

[Tim]

There's a lot less goonery and shenanigans than there used to be, for sure. I find the pests more annoying than the fighters.

[Master Gunner]

In Washington, there was some fighting that broke out when the Pens won game 7. I mean come one people, we don't live in Canada.

You should see the riots in Montreal whenever they get kicked out of the playoffs (at least they only have one team now, I'd hate to live there if they still had two).

[ecocd]

Why do Americans watch Nascar, seriously? How is that an entertaining use of one's time? They just drive in a circle. For hours.

Coming from a family with uncles that have attended NASCAR races, I might be able to add some insight. It's the experience. People camp for a week before the event on the stadium grounds. Sure, many only come on Friday, but there are some people that just take a week off to camp out with friends or people they've met at previous NASCAR races. Without the NASCAR atmosphere, there would be no NASCAR.

Think of a NASCAR race as PAX and it makes a lot more sense. Who wouldn't love to have a PAX available somewhere in the country every weekend? I know I'd travel to one or two of them.

Sure there are good TV ratings, but that's more about the drama than the cars. NASCAR has done a stupendous job in allowing characters to develop within the racing community. Officials don't tolerate smack talk about officials, rules and regulations, but they turn a blind eye to personal attacks. People don't watch the cars, they watch the people.

[Ben]

Nascar is pretty damn boring to me, motorcycle racing is way better and I can only really bother watching it for a couple minutes at a time. The only good things that I can see having come out of Nascar is the innovations made to engines to improve performance and Ricky Bobby.

[Brad]

Why do Americans watch Nascar, seriously? How is that an entertaining use of one's time? They just drive in a circle. For hours.

Coming from a family with uncles that have attended NASCAR races, I might be able to add some insight. It's the experience. People camp for a week before the event on the stadium grounds. Sure, many only come on Friday, but there are some people that just take a week off to camp out with friends or people they've met at previous NASCAR races. Without the NASCAR atmosphere, there would be no NASCAR.

Think of a NASCAR race as PAX and it makes a lot more sense. Who wouldn't love to have a PAX available somewhere in the country every weekend? I know I'd travel to one or two of them.

Sure there are good TV ratings, but that's more about the drama than the cars. NASCAR has done a stupendous job in allowing characters to develop within the racing community. Officials don't tolerate smack talk about officials, rules and regulations, but they turn a blind eye to personal attacks. People don't watch the cars, they watch the people.

...

Are you telling me that the car drivey people are hyped up in the same way as professional wrestlers? Are there terms for protagonist drivers and antagonist drivers? What are they in wrestling, Graham? Heel and toe?
Does (insert name of drivey-man here) smack talk his opponents before a match?

[Genghis Ares]

NASCAR fucking blows.

[empath]

Actually 'heel' and 'face' - co-worker in my last call center was also a minor league wrestler and organizer; fun guy - I should look him up, again.

But yeah; from my experience the fans do develop likes and dislikes in the same way as wrestling fans. Case in point: Funny song that highlights the rivalries and fanaticisms in NASCAR¹

As for the ROLES, that would imply that NASCAR is scripted, and I'm not overly convinced about that - too much could go wrong to ruin a pre-planned outcome.

But I'm pretty sure some drivers will smack talk and the like.

♫All we hear is FOOTNOTE ga-ga♫
1. Wow - I think my 'little tag' there is actually longer than the original URL!

[Allen!]

I played hockey from the age of 4-15 at which point I fucked up my ankle pretty bad which took me out of the rest of that season and the next one, and after that I wasn't really able to get back into it with other activities taking over (see: Golf) I very much wonder what my life would have been if I didn't injure myself as badly as I did. I can promise you I would have continued to play hockey as long as I could, which drastically would have changed my life.

Yeah your ankle went south hardcore, man.