anotherlimey

Must be a trick question, I've not seen any crowds at EPL games this season.

Giantaxe

Taking a knee started, several years ago, as a respectful form of protest during the playing of the national anthem, something that as a holdover from WWII happens before every sports even in the US. It's bringing attention generally to racial injustice, a relatively recent example of which is the homicide of George Floyd. Although I guess you could argue it fits awkwardly into a situation where there is no national anthem being played, the fact that it has spread to other countries and is highlighting racial injustice there is to be applauded, imo. I think I will nominate Colin Kaepernick for the Nobel Peace prize.

Lion in Winter

We could always go back to this, instead, but it wasn't that popular either in many circles, tbh.

el collado kid

Do you not all think if most of us took a knee most of us would not get back up on are own, just thinking out loud

Former Lancastrian

That was a marketing ploy by the manufacturers of leather gloves. Note they couldn't even decide which hand should be raised and I think this also applies to which knee

kimilseung

They has to share the gloves of the Australian guy on the left, if I remember.
Edit: I misremembered, sharing the gloves was his idea.

Lion in Winter

Only semi-related. I've actually run a lap around that stadium (not at the same time, obv). The gates were open for some work to get done, so I just walked in. Mid-1990s.

BristolUK

I posed as if I was about to run in this one




Panathenaic Stadium, Athens

Lion in Winter

Yeah but you have to be naked to run in that one.

BristolUK

I had a strategically placed discus

Lion in Winter

I'm sure there's a Frankie Howerd joke in there somewhere.

caretaker

I'd say so.

paulry

The NBA has decided to remove BLM messaging next season. Could this be because their support of BLM has put fans off and affected their bottom line?

BristolUK

It could be, although I saw somewhere that ratings on some matches compared to the equivalent stage last time were down due to the uncompetitive nature of the games.

But if it is, in a sport where over 80% of the players are black then it's very sad. But I guess that's polarised America for you.

Lion in Winter

If it's true, then I would imagine it's conceding to the advertisers rather than the fans - corporate advertising is where the franchises make the big bucks, not ticket sales. Big business will have no interest in social justice until there's money to be made (or lost if you don't). And currently, most big business is afraid of explicitly tackling racism. Nike has taken a different direction for some time, so we'll see how that goes with the NBA.

https://abc13.com/sports/new-nike-yo...viral/6347453/



and


Edit: I see that they're taking stuff off the floors and jerseys. Nike practically is the NBA, so we'll see about their ad content, and what the players have to say. I would imagine that Trump being voted out would quiet things down a bit.

Several other reasons are offered for the drop. Other sports have suffered drops too, but not as large. No live audience making games dull, disruption of the end of last season, legal and illegal streaming rather than tv watching. The biggest drop was among young people, rather than the grumpy old codgers, but the makeup of the measurable audience in terms of ethnicity (because yes, they measure that here ) didn't change. So it would be difficult to attribute the drop to BLM visibility alone, however much some people might want to.