What changes would you make if you were the Sports Czar for a day?

[billy logan]

The "house-sized" soccer goal is well-defended! Happy Thanksgiving, everybody

Japan beating Germany, WC '22, group stage match

edit2add: re USA college gridiron football TV broadcasts:

Have each schools' band play, live, the Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS sports (whatever network's) thrilling intro, bumper theme. Instead of the recorded version.

Local color. Human, on-site, game day, the old college try, input. Have viewers vote at the end of the season for the best rendition of, for instance, Fox's dah du dahdahdah DAAA! Piccolo players would get to bask in some of that red white and blue Saturday glory

Yes, the whole band (or a smaller pep band) would have to be ready to play it on the signal from the broadcast director when e.g., they break to commercial.

University music directors would love the challenge.

 

[VintageSG]

Formula 1 :- Add a loop-the-loop
Golf :- All golf courses to be turned over for agriculture, all future tournaments to be played on crazy golf courses
Snooker :- One frame in ten, one of the reds is made from nitrocellulose. Boom!
Darts :- Blindfolded, player spun until dizzy
Horse Racing :- The horse has the whip

 

[Skyhook]

FIFA:
1) Either shrink the field size by 50% or remove the goalkeepers. Or... use the volleyball rule that the ball
needs to go over to the enemy side on the 3rd touch at the latest or the enemy will score a point.
The game will be much more interesting then.

2) Sometimes you need to be able to eliminate one of the teams if neither agrees to lay down and lose.
First there's time extensions. Fine. Then there's sudden death overtime. Ok. But then... penalty kicks!
Even though some(as in extremely few) goalies are somewhat adept at catching penalty kicks it's
still a game of chance, not skill! What's worse; it's a contrived situation that does not reflect the merits of
either team during the match. I'll still allow the penalty kick-off though, but only after this step:
The statistic "shots on target" decides! That is, the amount of times a goal would have been scored
if the goalkeeper hadn't successfully blocked it. It took actual skill in the actual game to make those
shots happen. The team who made more of those would arguably be more worthy. Also, if this rule is
in place teams know that it's a possibility they will win by this stat. This will encourage gameplay that
racks up that stat. And... if we have a drastic increase in shots on target, then we will have a much more
interesting game and maybe even a winner by the end of standard time.

F1:
1) Can we please have some 30cm high concrete blocks lining the track around the S-curves?
I'm fed up with cars taking shortcuts.

2) No pit stops! Drive smart and you'll make it all the way.

 

[BryMelvin]

You have unlimited powers, no one can check you. Here are a few for me:

1, (NFL) Eliminate or greatly reduce Thursday night games. I think it's dangerous for players, the quality of play suffers and as much as I love football, I don't need it all the time. Leave me wanting more, not getting tired of too much. Keep Thanksgiving obviously, and maybe one or two more. Make it to where the teams who are playing in the Thursday game, had a bye the week before to ensure rest and recovery.
2, (NFL) Change pass interference to where it's not so punitive to defense. Max of 15 or 20 yards, not unlimited yardage like it is today. Along those lines, allow for some touching and back-n-forth that doesn't significantly interfere with the receiver's ability to catch the ball. And throw the flag on the offense just as you would on the defense.
3, (NFL and College) Ease up on taunting penalties. If a guy REALLY gets in someone's face, carries it way over the line, etc, okay, hit them with a flag and/or toss them depending on the severity. A little bit of smack talk? C'mon, the game is supposed to be fun, let them have fun.
4, (NBA) Make home court advantage more of an advantage. Seven game series, the higher seed gets FIVE home games to the lower seed's two. If home court is a significant advantage, maybe teams will try harder for it in regular season by not sitting guys so much, "load management" etc.
5, (NFL) Don't reward terrible teams with number one pick. Use a lottery or something like the NBA does, but do something to discourage teams from tanking. How about among all non-playoff teams, the first pick goes to the team among them with the BEST record, not the worst?

I've got others too!

What say ye, Sports Czars??

Simply standardize the word"football" worldwide... Then stock up on popcorn.

 

[Skydog1010]

Change the shape of the ball.

 

[Skydog1010]

Baseball would be played with a basketball.

Football would be played with a baseball

Basketball would be played with a football.

Hockey would be ....oh who cares about hockey!

Replace puck with hand grenade

 

[shobotan]

Soccer, I want to see injury divers red carded for time wasting and bad acting.

 

[Skyhook]

Simply standardize the word"football" worldwide... Then stock up on popcorn.

 

[Boomhauer]

Take an American football field and add another one going crossways across the main field! So it's shaped like a plus sign! +

PLAY TWO GAMES AT THE SAME TIME FOR MAXIMUM CHAOS!

 

[tubedude]

Apologies if it's already been covered, but I would adjust the salaries down to a reasonable level. Something in line with what other Americans of their education and experience level make. No reason for them to be mega rich just because they are good at a kid's game. There are plenty of people wanting their jobs, not like we would have any trouble filling them.

Also reduce the owners increased profits by reducing ticket and concession prices so a normal family can afford the occasional night at the stadium to see a game.

 

[stratoman1]

NFL
stop being so picky about what is or isn't a catch. Are both feet in and did the ball come out ? If feet are in and ball is in hand it's a freaking catch. Play the Super Bowl on Saturday or if it absolutely has to be Sunday kickoff at one PM, three at the latest

MLB

No designated hitter
One wild card game. Make division and league playoffs 2 out of 3 and World Series 3 out of 5

NASCAR

Stop the segments and get rid of The Chase format

 

[billy logan]

USA sports fans like big numbers, such as Cowboys 54, Colts 19. And they don't like ties.

So. In soccer, make a goal worth 14 points, a corner kick conceded by the opponent, 5 points. Opponent kicks it out of bounds over the sideline for a throw-in, 1 point for your team. This suggestion would increase continuity of play.

btw I read an out-of-the-box thought on the internet somewhere:

Tie-breaking penalty kicks BEFORE the game.
In case the game ends tied, consult the pre-match result! hmmm ... hmmm ... hmmm. I guess the pre-match PK winner might play rope-a-dope.

topic #2) College coaches' salaries are ululating symptoms. As are athletes'. Check out Ronaldo's offers in the news.
ar-AA14VbKh msn.com Huge, huge contract. Hope Ronaldo will do like Dolly Parton did, and contribute bigtime to health research.

#3) Only because at Qatar '22 WC there's an above-the-field camera, looking straight down, do I mention this:
The penalty spot is a false-positive for the soccer ball.

Remedies: penalty stripe. penalty square. penalty hollow circle.

btw idk whether the straight-down-cam is on one of those two-cable systems, or is it in a drone? Or on a ceiling?

 

[lil scotty]

Offside rule in soccer is determined solely where a players feet are. I do not care if a player’s shoulder is offside. It confuses what should be a simple determination.

 

[Chester P Squier]

Major League Baseball:

In future ballparks, decrease the minimum lengths of the foul lines, but require center field to be an equal or greater distance over the minimum distance. Presently, the minimum foul line distance is 325 and center field is 400. For every foot under 325 foot down the foul line, the distance to center field must be 1.25 times that distance.

If one of the foul lines is 301 feet, that's 24 feet under the minimum. 1.25 times 24 = 30, so centerfield must be 430 feet away. You could go down to 270 feet and 469 feet.

Or go less that 400 to centerfield, with a minimum of 375 feet, with 356 down the lines.

Until 1958, the minimum foul line distance was 250 feet, but when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (temporarily), MLB management must have been infuriated. To fit baseball in a football stadium the LF line was 251 feet. Unfortunately, the new rule caused all the new ballparks to look the same, whereas one of the charms of the old parks was the difference from park to park.

 

[tlsmack]

Stop giving top draft picks to the worst teams. Imagine you are a top college QB, and your reward is bring drafted by the Jets.

 

[billy logan]

1/2 mile baseball. Outfield fence is over 2,000 feet from home plate. If you're a big slugger, and they don't defend you shrewdly, they might still be chasing the ball while you are ROUNDING HOME PLATE and heading for a 6-bagger.

More employees on the natural grass grounds crew. Only for cities with plenty of rainfall.