Are you a sports fan? If so, what’s your favorite way to experience a game? Attending in person? Watching or listening on a television or radio in the comfort of your own home? Going to a friend’s house to cheer on your team along with other rabid fans?
How about a watchalong streaming party — where you watch other people viewing and discussing a sporting event but don’t actually watch the game itself? Does that sound appealing?
In “Watching People Watch a Game. With 100,000 Friends,” Rory Smith writes about how younger soccer fans are tuning out broadcasts in favor of watchalongs:
With the lights adjusted and the cameras rolling, the production team gives Joe Smith his cue. In five seconds, he will be broadcasting live to a couple thousand people. Mr. Smith’s mind, though, is elsewhere. “Slate is definitely the best way to build a roof,” he mutters to his co-host, Jay Mottershead, as the countdown hits three. “All these years on, they haven’t topped it.”
And with that, they are on air. They will remain so for the next four hours, essentially uninterrupted: a broadcasting endurance test staged in a subterranean studio, all exposed brick and industrial lighting, in the middle of Manchester’s achingly hip Northern Quarter.
Before they have finished, they will have touched on subjects as diverse as: the slightly alarming frequency with which Mr. Mottershead has nightmares; the declining popularity of lemon curd; and the story of a man who attends Mr. Smith’s gym exclusively to read vintage copies of Cars magazine.
Occasionally, their freewheeling, faintly anarchic conversation is interrupted by what is supposedly the purpose of the evening’s activity: keeping track of the game between the soccer team they support, Manchester United, and the Danish champion, F.C. Copenhagen.
That is, after all, what will attract more than 100,000 people to their livestream over the course of those four hours. It is the diversions and the tangents and the stream of consciousness about roofing, though, that will keep them there.
Mr. Smith explores the popularity of shows like the ones that Mr. Mottershead and Mr. Smith host on Stretford Paddock, the Manchester United fan channel they co-own:
Most of their viewers, Mr. Mottershead said, are also watching the games, either legally or illegally. “They turn the commentary down and listen to us instead,” he said. They do so because they want a much more narrowly focused product: Stretford Paddock’s audience only wants updates on Manchester United, for example, not news about anyone else who is playing at the same time.
And, crucially, they want those updates delivered not by the compromised and biased mouthpieces of the mainstream media — what they see as retirees protecting their friends and business interests, or commentators with the nebulous but definite prejudice against their club — but by dyed-in-the-wool fans like them. “We might disagree on things,” Mr. Mottershead said. “But we all want United to do well.”
Still, after more than six years leading watchalongs with Mr. Smith, Mr. Mottershead has come to believe that what draws in fans is not simply a matter of having their obsessions met and their biases confirmed.
What his viewers are looking for, he thinks, is simple. They want someone to watch the game with them.
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
What is your reaction to the article and the watchalong phenomenon? Would you want to watch other people watching live sporting events? Why or why not? What aspects of watchalongs described in the article sound most appealing?
What’s your favorite way to experience a live sporting event? Do you have any memorable experiences of watching, listening to or streaming a game?
If you are not a sports fan, do you ever watch what the Times sportswriter Rory Smith describes as the close cousins of soccer watchalongs, such as gaming streams that proliferate on Twitch or unboxing videos that captivate children on YouTube?
The Stretford Paddock watchalong regularly attracts more than 100,000 people to its four-hour livestreams. Why do you think watchalongs are increasingly popular with younger sports fans? What do you think it reveals about sports in the digital age?
Mr. Mottershead believes that fans tune into his show for a simple reason: “They want someone to watch the game with them.” If you’re a sports fan, what explains your love of sports? Is the camaraderie and communal experience of watching as important as the love of the games themselves?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
