Sports’ Spectacular Shows

If you thought the IPL game was spectacular, the basketball live sport also dazzles and wins your heart. However, with technology and AI, will the sports fan choose to go to the stadium or watch it in the comfort of his or her home?

Many of us who have watched cricket and tennis through decades will remember the joy we could derive out of a slow-paced five-day test match that might end in a draw but gave us many moments of joy. Just the sound of the leather hitting the willow, the occasional lofted drive and a great bowling spell by a spinner, kept us motivated to watch again and again.

The commencement of one day games gave us a sense of urgency even though one of our greats carrying his bat for 36 runs through a 60 over innings could not have inspired us much. Fast forward to recent times and nothing short of a 100 in 40 balls or less and the instant gratification of cheer leaders and packed stadia in IPL will do, for the new generation and even for us.

Chatting with Manoj Badale, London-based co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals on a recent visit to his amazing entrepreneurial venture "Scale Space" and reading his book on the extraordinary success of IPL in India, the discussion was on the pioneering efforts of Lalit Modi in creating the IPL and a completely new genre of cricket and sports in this country. But, if I thought that this was redefining the format of sports in the country, a splendid evening in Los Angeles made me experience much more.

Finishing an advisory board meeting for an analytics and artificial intelligence company in the city on a Friday afternoon, I had the evening free and a HBS classmate, Mark Brown, offered to showcase to me American sport at its best. “But” he warned “you have to behave like an American.”

So, there we were on a Friday evening, driving to a Lakers’ game at the Los Angeles super stadium at 5.30 pm, for a game that was listed to start at 7.30 pm. Mark Brown and Mark Junior, did a pit stop at a fabulous bar where fully loaded margaritas were consumed in plenty before staggering over to the nearby stadium. And, while I had a previous taste of all the four big American sports – baseball, basketball, football and hockey in Boston and the Bay Area, this evening was going to be special from the time we walked into the charged atmosphere of the stadium and showed me how many frontiers are still available for Indian sports to conquer.

For a start, it was the seating in the special box. When I had checked in the morning for tickets to the LA Lakers game, it was fully sold out, but Mark in a true American style, had gone to the site where people who book seats or have season tickets cancel their plans at the last minute and sell seats. We were in a privileged place surrounded by Hollywood and music glitterati, all truly in a mood to enjoy the evening. The great LeBron James and his men were already on the field. And, a band of 40 cheer leaders, a few magicians and trapeze artists and other entertainers had arrived. The audio-visual effects were stunning and when the game started, it was like watching a theatrical production, not a sporting event.

A game which was just four quarters of fifteen minutes, was played out over nearly four hours. After every three minutes comes a five-minute stoppage for the vast television audiences to be shown commercials and the breaks witnessed multiple forms of entertainment. The fact that LeBron and his mates were in superlative form, added to the pleasure of the audience, and the one time their opponents from Memphis nailed a super basket and I clapped in appreciation, I got a stern admonition from Mark Junior to never show appreciation for the opposing team, when seated in a Lakers stand.

Overall, the overpowering spectacle of the game, surely enhanced by the audience mood and the free flow of alcohol made me wonder at the future of entertainment itself.

In the post Covid and Netflix environment, it takes more for people to venture out of the comfort of their homes and go out to work or play. Sure, the enhanced visual quality and the ability to observe the nuances of each player and move is enhanced through live or later watching on television. But, what cannot be replicated is what I experienced and the added benefits of the extravaganza of entertainment that titillated the sense in more ways than one.

The future will make sport come alive through immersive reality, artificial intelligence and metaverse. A friend who works in technology for the NBA had mentioned to me last year that they were already experimenting with technologies that could analyse the behaviour of defenders in a basketball game and guide the swerving direction of the charging shooter real time as he approached the basket. And, immersive reality could enable the game watcher on virtual media to run various simulations of a run-in football or basketball or a hit in baseball or cricket and see the projected outcome for a few minutes before switching back to the real game. Will future generations choose to do this from home or go to the field? May the best entertainment option win!