Pro Sports Effect on the Community
Nick Licata, the Seattle City Council's chair on culture is on record as saying the Seattle Sonics, our NBA franchise, add no cultural value to the community.
He is wrong. Pro and college sports have a tremendous impact on the psyche of the communities they play before. They draw a community together and focus its members against a common foe, giving people who would otherwise have nothing in common a reason to gather side by side.
I experienced this in person last week. The Seattle Seahawks were preparing to play the Green Bay Packers in the NFL's divisional playoff, and the entire community was gathered in solidarity behind our team. The Governer of Washington declared Friday January 11th "Blue Friday" and extolled all citizens to wear blue in support of our Hawks.
I only had a couple of sales calls scheduled on Friday, so I did some "in-person prospecting" (formerly known as cold calling). In a normal hour of IPP's I get 3-4 hostile "F*&$ing Salesman" reactions. However, this time I ended each cold call with a "GO SEAHAWKS!" and twice the person's hostile demeanor immediately disappeared as they smiled and responded in kind.
What else can bring a community together like sports? There's nothing else this community can a gree on. Our intolerant "tolerance" prohibits us from gathering in accord on anything; art, politics, celebration of religious holidays, etc. Nothing binds us together like one of our teams in the playoffs.
Now if only the defense had shown up on Sunday.
He is wrong. Pro and college sports have a tremendous impact on the psyche of the communities they play before. They draw a community together and focus its members against a common foe, giving people who would otherwise have nothing in common a reason to gather side by side.
I experienced this in person last week. The Seattle Seahawks were preparing to play the Green Bay Packers in the NFL's divisional playoff, and the entire community was gathered in solidarity behind our team. The Governer of Washington declared Friday January 11th "Blue Friday" and extolled all citizens to wear blue in support of our Hawks.
I only had a couple of sales calls scheduled on Friday, so I did some "in-person prospecting" (formerly known as cold calling). In a normal hour of IPP's I get 3-4 hostile "F*&$ing Salesman" reactions. However, this time I ended each cold call with a "GO SEAHAWKS!" and twice the person's hostile demeanor immediately disappeared as they smiled and responded in kind.
What else can bring a community together like sports? There's nothing else this community can a gree on. Our intolerant "tolerance" prohibits us from gathering in accord on anything; art, politics, celebration of religious holidays, etc. Nothing binds us together like one of our teams in the playoffs.
Now if only the defense had shown up on Sunday.
posted by Fishpimp | 6:41 AM
2 Comments:
Nick didn't say that sports teams in general had no value, he said that the sonics had no value. Try ending your cold calls with "Go Sonics" and see how well that works.
It worked like magic back in 2003 when they were in the playoffs.
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