Football controls the mainstream media universe in Birmingham, Alabama. It almost didn’t make any sense to post anything to The Terminal earlier today since I knew that any story shared would be dwarfed by the beginning of SEC Media Days, even a return to the 100.5 FM frequency here in town by Scott Register this coming Sunday. I doubt I’ll ever make daily sports posts to the site, but I’m seeing that traffic would definitely increase to say the least if we did.
The number of fans that hang on every word (good or bad) that is uttered by Les Miles or who are already trying to figure out what weeks they’re traveling to Tuscaloosa or Auburn takes some getting used to down here and it’s been more than 14 years total. I’ll admit I’m not any better when late February rolls around and I’m trying to figure out just who’s going to be making the opening day roster for the Yankees. I’ll also share that it’s been my experience that when the city’s major sports franchise is not football-related, they can still draw a crowd down here, so long as they’re winning.
It does make me wonder why folks are hung up on the idea of placing a sports franchise in a new “dome” here in town. I’ll agree that we desperately need the additional space at the BJCC so that the city has a fighting chance to regain and conventions that it has lost in recent years while retaining our current ones and allowing us to host larger events in the community. Some must realize though that while there are many expatriates from other cities like myself that would probably support a professional sports franchise in town (as has been done in the past), at this time it would still seem a little crazy if the team was competing with Alabama and Auburn for fan support.
As far as how it affects blogging, It just makes things very difficult to gauge when determining just what do you want to be and or cover in the community. I’m one of those that believes that sports allows people to escape for a while from life’s issues to worry about your team and how they’ll do against the enemy – I’m sure that it isn’t anything that’s unique to the Southeastern U.S – but it does not help if we seem to be using it as a way to lose focus on other issues that are in front of us already. Something to consider; discuss if you feel like it.
Cheers.
