Sports Bloggers in the Press Box

Ok I think this topic will see no end.

1. I agree with people that are here to protect the blogging community because I was mistaken before and the entertainment industry in general including perezhilton.com, gawker.com and a handful of sites dedicated to i.e. video games that cover news about the industry like joystick and another one that is owned and operated by the gawker media group does get access to events like the Oscars, Cannes and hollywood premires and sneak previews. In the video game industry sites mentioned above get access to shows like E3(The video game version of the World Series, Super Bowl and NBA Finals all in one).

So if the above industries can accept the blogging community as a legitimate media... Why can't the sports business do so as well??? If patsnation.com (Fictional) a sports blog with a staff of lets say 10 and provides all New England Patriots fans with daily news, game updates and even a few interviews get access to a patriots game? If they have provided legitimate coverage of the team for a season or so and would like to provide the readers with alittle more, I see no harm in letting this member of patsnation.com cover a game and get 5min with Tom Brady and or Randy Moss.

If they have the love and skills to do it. Why not give them a chance and maybe give them credentials on a game by game program and see what happens. Don't screw it up for everyone because one blogger fucked up. i.e. a member posted a link to sbnation.com a blogging network that pays its writers or bloggers 50 percent of all revenue taken in though a specific blog. Like if I wrote about the Jets and my blog got a million hits and the site got $5000 in revenue, I would get $2500 thats not a paid little paycheck for doing what I love and I would be doing it anyways. So if I got a million or so visitors a month and I checked with Jets media department about getting credentials for a game, I would hope they would say yes.

Maybe its a bad idea to give them full access right away. But if they let you cover the game from the press room and then gave you access to a player for a few minutes to see what you would do. I don't see a problem with that and remember internet journalism has come along way since blogspot.com launched and made everyone a journalist.

 

The Isles have set up a separate press box for bloggers: http://www.newyorkislanders.com/pressbox/archive.asp?id=1665

 

I'll add my eight cents worth. Sportsbloggers do things that regular sport writers may not do (gain a little more access to the team, inside scoops, what nots). With that said, do sportsbloggers should have creds to be in the pressbox? No and yes. No, if they're writing just their opinions and talking. Yes (which is stretching it) to those who have learned how to follow the same principles when it comes to reporting on their blogs as other media personnel. I admit that the majority of them are looser fan boys, but for those who don't venture to fan boy-ism and do their job right, they do get knocked because of the wannabe Dan Patricks and Screamin A's on the blogosphere.

I am a blogger online for weekly magazine website for the DSM Register which is focused towards the 23-40 crowd. I had to make myself understand that before I consented to blog for them that I am not a employee of the Register and not on the staff. Therefore, I'm a non-staff writer. What is interesting that for the past year that I've been doing this, most of the bloggers put down a few musings about what party they went to, or why they didn't put pepper on their eggs.

I've always felt that my place, as a non-staff blogger is to keep my ass out of pressbox or in the middle of something newsworthy. It's insane for someone like me to try to go into a pressbox and expect to get creds, just because I'm going to blog about a game. I pay a ticket, go in, sit and watch the game (w/o a laptop). After the game, I head home and I write what I saw. That's all I can do.

This culture of sports blogging with the Rivals website, fan-based sites, and those run by newspapers or television has its positives and negatives. The ones who should be given creds are the ones whose sportsblogs are legit and informative enough to be considered as factual; have at least 1-2 professionals writers on staff who can give advice on how to cover events; make the effort to go to every game and cover it consistently, and be fair and balance without showing prejudice toward being a fan boy.

I don't know, that's just what I think as a newbie blogger.

 

I love loser fanboys. They let me know that I am acutally better than somebody.

 

I thought there would be interest here in the following from the Arena Football League.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ArenaBowl XXI NEW ORLEANS – June 29, 2007


BLOGGERS WELCOME



NEW YORK – The Arena Football League will allocate up to five seats in its ArenaBowl XXI New Orleans press box to the winners of its inaugural ArenaBowl “Blog of a Lifetime” opportunity.



Winners will receive an official ArenaBowl XXI press credential, a seat in the press box and postgame access to players and coaches.



In order to win, bloggers must:



Ø Visit the blogger registration page located at www.arenabowl.com.

Ø Complete an application.

Ø Write an active blog for one Wild Card playoff game this weekend (June 29-July 2).



Following the Wild Card round, a group of bloggers will be selected to move forward and will repeat the blogging process through the Divisional and Conference Championship rounds.



The bloggers who are invited to attend ArenaBowl XXI will demonstrate consistent AFL playoff coverage, creativity and professionalism.



The winners will be announced on Monday, July 16.



--AFL--

 

So , the attention-desperate (and grammar-challenged) AFL will judge a bunch of amateurs on their professionalism? I guess night is now day as well.

 

As for the argument that newspaper people know how to cover games, is it even relevant any more? You could give a chimp with a typewriter the basic format, have him stick in a few cliche quotes and type in the final score.

The fact is, game stories are fucking boring and hardly nobody reads them because people who care already watch/follow the game on a gamecast. There's no need for them any more, and I think the strength of a lot of blogs is that they realize this. If a paper were to do more opinion/analysis, then I think people would finally be getting something they couldn't somewhere else.

 

If "game stories are fucking boring and hardly nobody reads them" is the kind of uninformed blanket opinion we can expect in your analysis-based newspaper coverage, count me out.

I read gamers of games I watch on television from sources outside the Associated Press story that runs on every Web site. As a Mets fan, I'm reading the NY dailies because I know those guys (for the most part) are going to haul ass to try and create an angle that isn't going to be in the competition. If a beat reporter isn't giving you anything beyond what you read in a gamecast, that reporter should be typing box scores.

 

If gamers are boring the writer isn't doing his or job. Take angle, spruce it up, make more than a gamer. Just don't forget the score. That's a gamer in this day and age.

And, if your gamers contain phrases like "hardly nobody," then yes, they suck.

 

Be nice! The guy has dibabetes. It's a very cruel disease.

 

that is soooooooo funny. good work.

 

I completely agree with you on this point, but I would argue the majority of gamers is nothing more than a few sentences of this attached to play by play.

And Huckleberry, I appreciate your sentiments ;D Thanks to Liberty Medical, though, I no longer have to live my life in fear!