Lets Make July Not-So-Terrible

For almost all intents and purposes, July is a pretty great month, full of warm weather, no school, pool parties, and the only actual summer holiday. However, for the sports fan, July truly represents the dog days of summer, housing the bleakest slate of sports imaginable. Gone are the high-stakes tension of the NBA playoffs, the star-studded NBA draft is past, and the NFL seems much too far away. The only salvation for the sports fan (not counting soccer) is Major League Baseball, which unfortunately is entering its driest period, smack-dab in the middle of the season. Fans of terrible teams are beginning to lose interest and patrons of the more successful franchises are growing tired of less-consequential midsummer games, pining for the tense moments playoff contention brings.

There’s absolutely no reason that July should be so barren, so I’ve taken it upon myself to explore possible solutions to this predicament, ranging from the plausible and realistic to the outlandish and radical.

Baseball

As the only major sport (sorry again, soccer) in action over the summer, baseball shoots itself in thee foot by scheduling its calendar so poorly. At the beginning of its season, when optimism, attendance, and fan interest peak, the mainstream sports public is engrossed with the NBA playoffs. Late in the baseball season, during the stretch run and playoffs, football is starting to pick up momentum and only the loyal baseball demographic pays attention in earnest.

Clearly, there is a huge void in the television market that baseball would do well to try and fill, but in its current state, July baseball is simply not driving traffic. Perhaps the best fix would be one that turns July baseball into something meaningful, so it would seem that a change in the baseball scheduling needs to take place. Shortening the lengthy 162-game season, even just to the previous slate of 154 games would eliminate late October playoff contests and allow for the completion of the regular season in mid-September, before the NFL takes off, rather than early October by which point football has taken center stage.

However, this change is extremely unlikely, for a number of reasons that expose a number of faults within the sport’s governing body itself. Most obviously, there is no reason, if the past is to be any indication, to believe that the majority owners of baseball would ever approve a move that would cut their revenue without receiving anything tangible upfront in return. Baseball has long been a sport unwelcoming to change, a trait one can mostly attribute to its older and “stiffer” audience.

With change unlikely to come and content-hungry fans unwilling to sit through a dull July game in its current state, it’s clear that baseball is shooting itself in the foot in a major way by not better catering their product to the mass markets. For those of us looking for better action, baseball represents nothing more than a last-resort measure. Let’s move on.

Settle For Summer League

Following the usually electric NBA finals, most die-hard NBA fans lapse into a depression due to a lack of game-like action. However, fans can watch their team’s newest young prospects play just weeks after being drafted at the various incantations of NBA Summer League, which runs through Orlando, Utah,  and Las Vegas during the month of July.

To someone who has never seen one of these games, the assumption may be that they are chock-full of missed shots, poor teamwork, low crowd support, and a prevailing air of immaturity, and to a degree, that perception is exactly right.

But for the fan who is able to look past the growing pains, summer league can be home to some truly great moments. This year, the Lakers and 76ers faced off in what can only be described as an instant classic, featuring two monster dunks, down to the wire action, and a buzzer-beater (with subsequent interview fiasco) from D’Angelo Russell.

                                    

In every single summer league game, there is the potential that you are watching a future star, and who wouldn’t want the bragging rights of having seen LeBron, Steph, or KD play in an NBA game before the mass public?

In terms of appeal,  the Las Vegas Summer League reigns supreme over its brethren, as it hosts more teams and takes place in an actual arena, rather than the Magic or Jazz’s practice courts.

The NBA also boosted their Summer League appeal by streaming the games free on WatchEspn, rather than selling the games as a package as in previous years.

Crossover Sport Extravaganza

With athletes from our most popular sports on vacation during the summer months, this time seems ripe for a proposal I’ve been pushing for years now. We often marvel at the peak displays of athleticism stars like LeBron James and Cam Newton showcase during games, and this wonderment often comes with speculation. From forecasting Lebron James’ potential NFL career to seeing former basketball players such as Jimmy Graham and Antonio Gates go from playing college basketball to starring in the NFL, we love to think about the outcome should our stars transcend the boundaries of their sport.  

I can’t remember any event of this type during my lifetime, but my research brought up a television show called “Superstars” which, beginning in the 1970’s, hosted a series of inter-sport competitions between athletes of all sports, eventually declaring a winner.

While sore egos and “brand protection” were likely to blame for the show’s cancellation, our best athletes going head to head during their offseason would be electric programming - at the very least, an upgrade over the current state of July Athletics. Who wouldn’t want to see Von Miller squaring up Cam Newton on the basketball court, or LeBron and Dwyane Wade facing Carmelo and Chris Paul on a game of ping pong?

Admittedly, this will never happen, but the concept is an interesting one to consider and implement in part to our own consumption of sport.

We Might Have To Watch Soccer

If baseball refuses to change and other options either aren’t realistic or appealing enough, rest assured America has a back up plan, a veritable “break glass in case of extreme boredom” event. Major League Soccer’s regular season, much like baseball’s, runs from March to October, so there are games not only in July, but through the whole summer.

In addition to the America’s take on the beautiful game, football, is played across the world in international tournaments that in other countries, constitute the marquee sporting event of the summer. This year, both the European championships and Copa America took place, with the Olympics and more soccer on the way in August. For its niche supporters in America, soccer may already be a constant of content during the summer, but it clearly may not be for everyone.

There Are Two Esports Championships in July

*sigh*

Coming into this proposal, I felt sure that there was some way to procure some classic sports entertainment in the dry month of July, but after reviewing the possible options and proposals, the outlook is disheartening.

The only realistic options available to sports fans seem to be matters of compromise, a notion that seems ludicrous in an age of ever-increasing customizability, and outside-the-box proposals are far-fetched at best.

As this July comes to a close, the collective sports community has 11 months to workshop a solution, and from the way things look, it may take someone smarter than me to do it.