East Coast or West Coast: What's better for sports viewing?

I don't think I could stand waiting until 1 PM for football on Sundays, but having basketball games extend into the morning hours would be pretty cool too.

And as for you people in the central time zones, you don't count

 

CENTRAL TIME! FTW!

 

+1

 

I'm happy right here on the West. Prime time for games here. And Early for East games.

 

The fact MLB caters to the West Coast for postseason start times and still keeps breaking its own records for lowest ratings tells you the actual significance of the region.

 

I do have to say when visiting Vegas during football season, I love being able to wake up and start the football day. Granted, when I'm in Vegas, I'm usually betting the games and have incentive to get up. But normally at home in NC, I sleep in on weekends and still end up starting my day with football. As much as I like football, I don't think I could wake up at 9am on weekends to watch it. I'm too much of a night owl.

 

I enjoy watching NHL playoff games until 2 in the morning.

 

(This thread was buried for two months, so sue me, Integral. Go Pistons!)

Whether it's a basketball or a baseball playoff game, this debate will come up regarding the starting times of games. PTI watchers have no doubt heard Mike rib Tony on many occasions over his sleeping through late playoff games. Now I know the West coast (namely California) has a sizable population, but it seems to me many games involving Eastern and Central teams are still skewed to fit the viewing schedule (especially baseball) of people in the Pacific Time Zone. Now I am not asking for day World Series games, because that is not going to happen. But do many major games have to start around 9:20 EST? How are you going to raise new generations of fans if they can't watch games on school nights? Keep in mind baseball and basketball ratings are not even that strong anyway: it's not as if this strategy is a smashing success. Somehow, it is still in place.

To me, this debate does go to the root of the problem, and that is the undeniable fact the Northeast (Boston, New York & Philadelphia) and Midwest (Chicago, Detroit & St. Louis) are better sports markets than the West Coast, and yet they are somehow snubbed for a region that does not seem to take sports as seriously as the older parts of the country.

 

To me, this debate does go to the root of the problem, and that is the undeniable fact the Northeast (Boston, New York & Philadelphia) and Midwest (Chicago, Detroit & St. Louis) are better sports markets than the West Coast, and yet they are somehow snubbed for a region that does not seem to take sports as seriously as the older parts of the country.






Can't deny the snubbing with the start of games last on the East Coast, but better sports markets? I hate to use a tired cliche, but there's that old East Coast bias. Can't speak for the rest of the West Coast (obviously), but I think we take our teams (save for the Galaxy, Chivas USA, because who really cares about the MLS?) seriously out here in La La Land. Just because there's that old image of easy going, carefree SoCal doesn't mean it's true in all aspects of life out here. Without the westward expansion, sports just simply wouldn't be the same today. Just because there's more people in a city/ a total region, which constantly through the media tells themselves were #1/we're the best sports region doesn't make it so. Just as sports moving west is a logical metaphorical extension of the westward expansion of the United States, this is also an extension of East Coast views/thinking about the West Coast.

 

In Australia, East Coast is the best.

Of Course, 80% of the population lives in the east, so it's basically a given

 

As someone who grew up on the West Coast and now lives in the Northeast, I can safely say that sports culture is bigger and better in the Northeast; I have lived in both Boston and New York, and if you look at the amout of sports media here it is at least 10x greater in column inches in the local papers, gets more time in local news and is a more popular topic of conversation at bars than it is in L.A. (my hometown). I would say that sports coverage seems to be inversely proportional to other entertainment news, so naturally, the West Coast, the home of the film and internet industries give them more attention, that void is filled here by sports. (At least in Boston and New York vs. L.A. and San Francisco--I can't speak about the rest of either coast.)