Jan 4, 2020
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A Baby Boomer Looks into “The 20s”…
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Baby Boomer = anyone born between The 40s and mid-60s. It is an “attitude” as much as it is a birth date.
For about 75% of you reading this, The 2020s will be a unique decade. The Last Decade many of us might be around. YIKES!
Actuarially speaking… many of us have reached that age where the phrase “but he/she was so young” will NOT be included in our eulogies. We’re not “playing with house money” YET but another 10 years … well, who knows.
Three members of my high school class (’65) have diagnosed Alzheimers. The first one scared the bejeebers outta me several years ago. The most recent two convinced me I better get started on a more lasting legacy than “He nicknamed Carol Folt ‘Chancellor Chihuahua’ and asked “Did Carolina Marry A Stripper?”. … OK, there were all those incredible commentaries about “growing up in a small town” … “being a dad” … and, of course, “Pretty DownEast Women”.
Not to diminish those lofty achievements but do they guarantee me a first ballot induction in the Internet Hall of SmartAlecks?
A Shout-out to those BLBuddies who are well into octogenarianism and the special few who are sailing beyond even that channel marker. Continued Fair Winds & Smooth Seas My Well-Seasoned Friends!
The reason for this allusion to The Grim Reaper relative to today’s topic IS…
After 60+ years as The Darlings of Madison Avenue / America’s All-Time Consumer Targets … we ain’t any more.
What ever-decreasing number of us left are more into “downsizing” than “consumering”. I’m down to four pair of jeans… three pair of Dockers… and one navy blue “Funeral Suit”. My goal is no more than 20 hangars in my closet.
We Boomers still have opinions as Right /Wrong as they ever have been… BUT the Gen Zs and Gen Xers and those Millennials aren’t paying us the rapt attention they oughta. We didn’t pay attention to our elders either but there were so gosh darn many of us BBoomers we overwhelmed’em.
Two Factors I predict will dominate the Decade of The 20s are…
- Our on-going generational irrelevance as BBoomers. “Old Man Used-to” is approaching the 18th green.
- Technology… there are no indication that “technology” intends to slow down. How we receive information and how we impart it is headed towards Sci-Fi levels. Issac Asimov and Ray Bradbury saw our future. A “technology generation” is about 18 months now. It WILL speed up…. 2001 A Space Odyssey was 19 years ago. Orwell’s 1984 was 36 years ago. YIKES!
- There is always that Third Factor … End of Days / Rapture / Apocalypse / Armageddon / A Rogue Asteroid / etc. I COULD drop a few socio-political what-ifs in here, but I’m not gonna. You’re welcome.
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Predictions for Sports in general…
More and More options for everyone’s discretionary time and $$$. But still only 24 hours in a day.
The Internet / Social Media influence in Sports will grow like malignant kudzu. Several dozen leather-lunged howler monkeys raging away in ALLCAPS will continue to scare ADs and Trustees into costly knee-jerk decisions. The rampant incivility among Hated Rivals will get scarier as The Great Unhinged feed off of “fan-site porn”.
“Most” fans are still solid citizens who can recite The Golden Rule and sincerely try to follow IT in their daily lives.
Alas, the Lunatic Fringe, which is in every fan base (except Wheaton’s!), is growing more Lunaticy (?) by the game. Removing the CapsLock key on their keyboards MIGHT help, but I doubt it. This is all predicted in Revelation By John. I forget the specific chapter.
Spectator “interest” might stay at current levels but how that interest manifests itself is ever-changing. No one is going to be expanding stadiums or arenas. How many ways can the experience be delivered?
I will watch 140+ baseball games for the 4th year in a row… without “going to” a single game. My personal disdain for NFL and NBA is not the tip of any iceberg but neither am I alone in my choices.
Salaries in Pro Sports will keep escalating… until the owners writing the big checks don’t have $$$ in the bank to cover them. TV Contracts will be a bigger bigger % of sports revenues. Those will downsize ONLY if fans in significant numbers stop watching or streaming or whatever …
Sports Betting will become easily accessible 24/7 to every fan. IMO… Anything that fuels human frailties / addictions tends to have negative impact on society. I can’t do anything about it. … sigh.
Sports Journalism will descend deeper and deeper into “woke”. Whatever that is. There ARE legitimate issues when 300,000,000 people try to co-exist. But holier-than-thou pinheads employed by failing media platforms are more of “a problem” than “a solution”.
Pro Soccer – for men at least – is finally getting a foothold across America only 50 years after Kyle Rote Jr and the Cosmos. Another option for spectators eyes and time.
The Future of Women’s Sports ?? The foolishness with transgenders is going to piss in that punch bowl before too long. What A Mess!
NOTE: I do not say the following just to be provocative …
The LGBTQ is THE Most Formidable Minority Activist Group EVER in America. Much more so than the Civil Rights Activists ever were. The LGBTQs are heavily financed, deeply entrenched and utterly ruthless in pursuit of their objective – To Turn American Society Upside Down. Potty-mouthed Soccer Lesbians are just one aspect of their overall strategy. … as a fan of Chaos, THIS is gonna be a Category-5 Humdinger.
Football … is in for a sea-change. Participation in Youth Football is declining each year due to safety concerns and “many other options” for youth participation. “Pop Warner” feeds the high schools which feed the colleges which feed The NFL. … Most of you don’t know this… BUT …
There is a very real problem with finding “officials” for Youth and High School FB… due in large part to parental hostility… verbal abuse and threats of violence. Year-round “Select Teams” in all sports will grow… which creates other issues. The % of AfAm FB/MBBers in high school / college will increase as “pro sports” are still seen as their best route for “success”. The Gladiator / Spectator Divide will further divide.
Fat Cats’ addiction to Bragging Rights will keep them anting up for the college sports “arms race” into the 2020s. Coaching salaries / buy-outs et al have no ceiling so long as Fat Cat boosters will “ante up”. The NCAA can’t stop it if they even wanted to. The College FB Playoffs WILL expand to 8 teams within three years. NOT if I had a say-so but… I don’t.
Some sort of “pay the AfAm College FB and MBB players” is inevitable sooner than later. It will be fun to watch if one enjoys administrative train wrecks and bureaucratic buck-passing. Who doesn’t?
My sport – Baseball – will see “the DH” in the NL within two years. Blah blah yadda yadda … it’s inevitable. Latin-American players will become a majority in MLB within five years or sooner. They are already over 35%. MLB clubhouses are adapting to the reality. An odd form of “Baseball-ese” is spoken between teammates. Will Joe Fan care if most of “his team” doesn’t speak English? Some will care … The Game will survive.
By 2025 both Ol’ Roy and Coach K … and Mack2.0 and maybe even Dave Cutcliffe will all be retired and off-the-stage. Their successors? No clue. You pick’em. Oh… DDoeren will be gone before Mack2.0.
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FYI: There is an awesome “gone viral” column over on SaidWhat about the Satire Site – Babylon Bee. – CLICK!
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More BobLeeSays … CLICK HERE
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Bud mister concurs that BL is accurate in his satire and predictions!! You should see the smile as he read
I have always been popular with retired Wyoming neurosurgeons.
BL thanks for the bulletpoint thoughts which are on target from my “mid-boomer” perspective. I too have 2 grandkids which are dominating my world as all my friends predicted. Thinking 10 years out is an intriguing and arduous exercise as a “Dids”. . The boomers were the generation and are still willing to be the fans that spent their money on sporting events and booster clubs. The events were “special” in their time because you felt a part of the event by being privileged to be there. You knew the schedule and would plan your life around it accordingly. .… Read more »
I’ve never given an award for Best Reader Comment EVER… but if I did, You just won it! Great points… Well Stated! . I expect BK won’t agree, but your points about “booster clubs” and “less zealous school spirit” by current / recent generations of alumni are Dead Solid Perfect. The recent announcement of WPC’s Bobby Purcell’s retirement may not be a “canary in the coal mine” but I bet Bobby would have interesting perspectives on this subject. . How rank&file UNCers refused to accept the Reality of TGU was, I suspect, largely from “our generation” who, after 50 years,… Read more »
Awesome points. A few questions to ponder. Millennials, generally, have already cut the cable cord or never had one to begin with. What happens when the TV $ dries up and ESPN’s model collapses? And does anyone anywhere care enough about women’s sports to dare dress a Shaq up as a woman to win a championship? I grant you, if it were reversed and a woman could make a team win, the Heels faithful would have 5 bearded women on the court, but does women’s sports have a $ draw large enough to overcome that PR weight? . Is there… Read more »
Dunno… a lot of toothpaste has come out of that “college athletics” tube. Hard to put it back in. You are correct that millennials are forsaking “traditional TV / cable” et al. Kid and Danny do not, by choice, even own a TV. . IMO, there is NOT a legitimate groundswell of public interest in Womens Athletics … BUT terminally “woke” sports media will try to convince “us” otherwise. The WNBA has survived only because the NBA was intimidated into permanently subsidizing it. The LPGA gets zero coverage for a variety of reasons. Womens Tennis is an aging Serena Williams… Read more »
There will always be someone who be either become or get recruited to be an “issue Champion”. It may not bring them immediate $ gains, but can you imagine the publicity and also notoriety a trans female would get? Pales in comparison to the first female cadets at The Citadel. College athletics at the major college level (P5 and G5) will never return to the 50s or 60s for obvious demographic reasons or the 70s or 80s for purely technology reasons. Recommend if you need to address nostalgia for the old days of college sports, become a fan/donor of a… Read more »
Over Christmas, Danny and I talked more about his experiences at Div-III Wheaton … All Positive … No IPFs… No Charging Stations … No Fake Classes … He thinks their very successful HFBC (85% Wins over 24 years) was making “about $150,000 … maybe”.
I don’t know if the little Vote up button thingy works but Dr Wire got my vote anyway.
Absolutely!
Many of the issues you rightly point out will be won or lost by simple attrition whether or not one cares, fights, surrenders, or just ignores it. Something we have never heard or thought of will present itself as the new line in the sand to defend. Like what is the future of work. AI, VR and other disruptive technologies. . I believe the next 20 years is going to be our/their end of horse and buggy/internal combustion engine moment at a faster accelerated pace. Beam me up Scotty but let me tell you when because I don’t know yet… Read more »
My predictions were limited somewhat to keeping the column under “It’s too long to read” length.
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NASCAR has flat-lined… pull the plug … PGA Tour without Will Tiger Beat Jack is reduced to “Four Majors” PERIOD.
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So you’re saying that magic carburetor capable of 100 miles/gallon WILL finally be released for use ???
Agree with you on Nascar. Once the current TV contract is up circa 2023, it will be over. Nascar is going to try one last “hail Mary” pass with Miss Hallie Deegan, hoping she will reignite the sport like Earnhardt Sr. did. But I think its over, regardless.
NASCAR has already become “a secondary sport” as far as media coverage… think LPGA. There will always be a fiercely devoted following but nowhere near enough to garner significant TV $$$s. It’s rather sudden descent into general public irrelevance will make an interesting case study. . My own experience for about ten years in the mid 90s… the GOBs were still the reigning kings of the sport… but I found after 5-6 major races at the legendary tracks, it was “just a lot of noise and hassle”. I recall walking away from Charlotte (Lowes) Speedway the “last time” thinking “done… Read more »
Elon Musk and other plug-in car makers will make the 100 mpg carburetor a mute point in the next 20 years. If NASCAR survives will it have to add fake engine noise makers in the future for nostalgic purposes. I can see an opening for the non-traditional sexes to contribute there.
The mind reels at all the possibilities!
Some years ago somewhere in my mid 40’s I was looking a piece of dress clothing for work and having looked in several outlet stores for a bargain and not finding it I figured go to Belks men’s dress clothing section and just buy it at full price. Walked in and could not find it there either so asked the salesperson about it. They told me they no longer carried the item and after my asking why since it was a regular piece of dress clothing for men they said very bluntly that like it or not I was no… Read more »
SELLING THE EI BEACH HOUSE !!! I thought that was IT! You’re not the first guy I know that decided “da beach” was NOT where he was gonna finish the race. We’ve been choosing Wisconsin over EI for the past year … for obvious reasons!
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I try to avoid the too obvious traits of “our age” but if I enjoy doing certain things certain ways … WHY NOT?
Great article.. With select SEC schools as the exception, the days of 75-80k fans packed into stadiums for football games will be a thing of the past. Attention spans and lack of WIFI bandwidth at events are killing attendance and will continue to do so.
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I also wonder what the shelf life will be for NASCAR. It does not seem to be a fit for the millennials for the same reasons as above in addition to the fact lot of them don’t drive very often or even own a car.
I see no future whatsoever for NASCAR. All the tracks even Daytona are downsizing / removing large blocks of seating. TV ratings are down and the drivers are no longer major celebrities. All sorts of theories on what broke that camel’s back… but it IS broken.
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“Making a stadium experience” better than a Home Theater w/ a 60″ HDTV is a challenge. The social aspect of “Tailgating” is the one feature that is keeping many schools with good attendance. The fan interest is still solid but HOW they manifest that interest is changing.
FYI, Gen Y and millennials are one and the same. Gen X, Gen Y (millennial generation), Gen Z. Gen Z are the young ones, and even they are entering their twenties this year.
I see all sorts of generational delineations … I’m fine with the ones you describe.
I have occasion to work regularly with a group of young lawyers. Last week I got my first “OK, Boomer” from one of them. Didn’t have the heart to point out that this particular lawyer, who is three years out of law school, is still living with his Mom.
Stereotypes exist for a reason … these current troubling times seem to be exaggerating those generational stereotypes.
I may have missed your column on this but what is wrong with an 8 team playoff? Sounds about right to me. Happy New Year BobLee and keep ’em coming.
It is not an issue I am passionate about any more. It runs contrary to the “student-athlete” concept but thats been blown to smithereens so what the heck. The scheduling will interfere with semester exams but those are a joke any way. The #9 and #10 teams’ fans will scream UNFAIR of course… yawn.
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Again, I’d stick with The Four; but “at least eight” is inevitable.
Yes the LGBQ community does protest, but they are protesting for their own rights and there is nothing wrong that. Furthermore technology will always be accelerating and making the majority’s lives better if you can’t keep up that’s your own fault, the world doesn’t need to wait for you.
We disagree re: LGBTQ’s motives but thats OK. Technology can be a double-edged sword and often moves faster than society can adjust. Another point for us to disagree on. I bet there are more than a few others… LOL.
Sorry for this being too wordy, but yet another thought-provoking piece. I’m a 1964 model … a figurative “young-un” among your readership, I suppose. Since I was born so late in the boomer demographic, I consider myself on the fringes (which I think explains a lot about my complex way of looking at life). I just got my first grandson and I’m starting to think about legacies, counting the years down to retirement, etc. . About the future of sports: I think when they look back at the 2020’s, they will see sports at a crossroads. One direction is the… Read more »
Comparisons to Rollerball… ThunderDome… Running Man et al are scarily appropriate… and certainly possible. Pretty much how the Roman coliseum events “progressed” from hand-to-hand combats by trained gladiators to Christians being eaten by savage beasts… the public’s thirst for “blood sports” has been verified down thru history. . A reversal of that trend would be welcomed but I don’t see a clamor for it. Note that football crowds cheer violent contact by THEIR team but cry UNFAIR when penalties are called on their own “headhunters”. I hope the 20-somethings you are observing are indeed the rules and not the exceptions.… Read more »
BL, another entertaining and thought-provoking column. Since I fall outside the boomer limits at 83, I still like to keep thoughts as sharp as possible. Still enjoy sports at all levels with football, baseball, and both men’s and women’s basketball. These are things that both Elaine and I enjoy in person and on the tube. Lots of evolutions but I know enough of the coaches and kids to feel good about the younger generation (of course my intimate knowledge is tied to State athletics and former players in pro ball). . Elliott Avent speaking at Raleigh Sports Club in several… Read more »
BLSays has always a significant Octogenarian Faction. With additions and subtractions (sigh) throughout the years.
LGBTQ has already infiltrated and either divided or is trying to divide what most would have considered the last stand…Protestant religion. They long ago made their way into Catholicism through the seminaries and convents, so its destruction is assured as well. Not sure what is left for them to forever alter. Schools? Eliminating civil marriage altogether? Who knows. . Pro video gaming is likely larger now than the NHL right now, in the 2020’s, it will be bigger than the NBA, MLB, and possibly NFL. Having a generation of kids who didn’t participate will help the demise of the 4… Read more »
Very Well Said.
Great column…echoed many of my thoughts as I was driving the 5 hrs back from Christmas with the 3 1/2 yr old GD in GA last week…now I’m 68 & how will things change for her and me over this new millennium.
my decision…sit back…enjoy the drive/ride and watch the world evolve.
Please continue to entertain us and cause us to think more in 2020.
Happy New Year….
Go Pack
Thanks! I’m actually sleeping better and worrying A LOT LESS about “stuff” these days. Finally understanding that Serenity Prayer advice.