Do other countries show as much Curling as the US?

ahnslaught · Post by **ahnslaught** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:14 pm

Just a quick question, since I've noticed a lot of you guys are from Asia and Europe -

During this Winter Olympics, are your respective TV stations showing as much curling as the US? I've noticed that practically every afternoon coverage of the Olympics in the US is filled with curling goodness for like 3-4 hours each day.

I was kinda looking forward because my school schedule would have let me watch some Olympics in the afternoon, but this sport, I don't get at all. And, the announcers never even try to explain how it works (I spent one pointless afternoon trying to understand, but to no avail). Eventual consultation with old friend internet kinda got the point across to me, but still...

Is this sport so huge that I'm missing something or what?

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:23 pm

They used to show a lot of curling in Scotland, however I haven't seen it much lately.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:30 pm

I don't think I've ever seen curling on any US channel other than during the Olympics. We do get CBC Vancouver (Canadian TV) on our cable here though, and they show curling on occasion (usually on Saturday afternoons.)

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:34 pm

just a wild guess: some famous "curlers" are from the USA? It´s what TV stations usually do, they favour the sports in which the target audience can identify with successful participants. For example, here in Germany Formula 1 gets extensive coverage, while Rally is only mentioned briefly. Afaik, it´s the opposite in the UK.
Oh, and btw. I think that sucks deeply, because Formula 1 is a very boring kind of racing sport to watch compared to Rally.

Post by **Ghegs** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:40 pm

Raiden may have a point there, since we've been getting a lot of curling and get a lot of Formula 1 during the season.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:53 pm

What's the deal w/ curling anyway? It's like shuffleboard on ice...

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:41 pm

Isn't curling really popular in Canada?

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:51 pm

raiden wrote:just a wild guess: some famous "curlers" are from the USA? It´s what TV stations usually do, they favour the sports in which the target audience can identify with successful participants. For example, here in Germany Formula 1 gets extensive coverage, while Rally is only mentioned briefly. Afaik, it´s the opposite in the UK.
Oh, and btw. I think that sucks deeply, because Formula 1 is a very boring kind of racing sport to watch compared to Rally.

I come from a household of big F1 fans (my parents have dogs named Imola and Minardi, and formerly had one named Monza,) and there really isn't a whole lot of F1 coverage to be found. CBS has the rights to cover a few races this year, but they do a lousy job of it, and only show on tape delay. The rest of the races are on Speed Channel, and they do a better job, but F1 is not particularly popular in the US.

Currently, as far as I know there's no television coverage of WRC in the US (Speed Channel had it for several years, but seems to have dropped it in favor of more NASCAR coverage.)

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:01 am

FRO wrote:What's the deal w/ curling anyway? It's like shuffleboard on ice...

IIRC, the main "trick" to the game is what the guys with the brooms do: the more they sweep, the smoother the ice gets and the faster the stone-thingy (to use the technical term) goes. Thus, the guy who actually slides the thing towards the scoring area not only has to aim it, but also call out to the broom guys whether to sweep harder or let up, depending on how fast he wants it to go, to get it where he wants it.

At least I think that's how I remember hearing it goes.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:57 am

I was going to ask what the heck "Curling" is, but Bulletmagnet explanation made me identify the sport....

This event was in Hyper Sports 3 on MSX , and I always asked myself WHAT THE HECK was that sport. Now I know!

Here in Brazil there's nearly zero coverage of the Winter Olympics. Some people don't even know this exists. Maybe it has something to do with the fact we have no snow here

. You usually hear on news "And today the winter olympics begun", and that's all, you never hear about it for the next 4 years.

But we have a BIG coverage on football, some channels devote a LOT of air time to that, to the point of showing live matches of leagues from other countries. Sunday night is filled with programs with "football experts" commenting about the games of the week, and stuff like that.

We also have a reasonable F1 coverage here, as we always had some great pilots.

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:58 am

This game is fucking killer: http://www.playstation.jp/products/title/slpm86237.html

I'm not even kidding.

Pa

ahnslaught · Post by **ahnslaught** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:25 am

raiden wrote:just a wild guess: some famous "curlers" are from the USA? It´s what TV stations usually do, they favour the sports in which the target audience can identify with successful participants. For example, here in Germany Formula 1 gets extensive coverage, while Rally is only mentioned briefly. Afaik, it´s the opposite in the UK.
Oh, and btw. I think that sucks deeply, because Formula 1 is a very boring kind of racing sport to watch compared to Rally.

I don't know if this is the case - maybe i've been living under a rock, but I can't see how there would be a famous curler in the US, let alone anywhere in the world, but wouldn't it be great? Imagine the sponsorship opportunities! Umm...maybe?

Man, I can't believe you find F1 boring! Rally is great as well (it is still on Speed, at least it was as of last season, though NASCAR relegated it to late night coverage on Sundays), but I just love F1! Maybe it's more of the commentary team on Speed, though, because I really love listening to those guys - their enthusiasm and willingness to explain technical details and such just makes the whole show awesome.

As for the PS2 curling game, I can only say "bring on the DS port."

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 6:42 am

Man, I can't believe you find F1 boring! Rally is great as well (it is still on Speed, at least it was as of last season, though NASCAR relegated it to late night coverage on Sundays), but I just love F1! Maybe it's more of the commentary team on Speed, though, because I really love listening to those guys - their enthusiasm and willingness to explain technical details and such just makes the whole show awesome.

well, I used to watch F1 a lot some years ago. I think the cars are beautiful, and I like to admire the way drivers find an ideal path along the track, especially with cockpit cameras showing what I would also see when playing a racing game.
The boring part, I think is there´s almost NO overtaking, and races take far too long. I remember many a sunday watching the first 10 laps, taking a nap only to find finishing order after 78 laps was exactly as it was after 10. Of course, it´s because the cars are so fragile any ruthless behaviour would cause a catastrophe, but I still think it makes the thing boring to watch. Rally, on the other hand, is truly spectacular. These guys don´t know ANY fear. They squeeze between rocks and trees, ride with one wheel hanging over a cliff at full speed like they just don´t care.

ahnslaught · Post by **ahnslaught** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:11 pm

I totally agree on every point about rally racing...it's the only form of racing that people like my sister , who has no interest whatsoever in racing, will watch. I have no clue why this isn't bigger in the states like the rest of the world - well, except for the fact that I bet if they even tried to hold a race in the states, some idiot will actually try to get hit and sue the pants off of the WRC and anyone else they can think of.

As for F1 being too long, I actually think it's pretty quick - over and done with in about an hour and a half. This one, I think I can chalk up to the effect of NASCAR, whose races take well over 3 hours or something. They race some ridiculous amount - 500 miles (I think they even have one 600 mile race). I would basically take your approach to F1 for NASCAR - just watch the beginning, fall asleep, then watch the last 5 laps or so (Completely thrilling ending). Somehow, it would always work, too...weird.

Plus, I'm sure you've heard of this many a times, but I would watch one F1 overtaking move over 200 NASCAR passes any day of the week, though i would agree that there is too little in general in F1.

Now moving completely off topic (But i love talking racing as much as anything), thoughts on MotoGP? I think this is, at least for the last couple of seasons, the greatest of all series. I don't even care that one guy wins all the time - each race is amazing, with great passes and a pretty short duration. Kinda like shooters - all the fun is concentrated into one short, sweet package.

Post by **system11** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:24 pm

ahnslaught wrote: Plus, I'm sure you've heard of this many a times, but I would watch one F1 overtaking move over 200 NASCAR passes any day of the week, though i would agree that there is too little in general in F1.

I thought they improved things recently with the ruling that tyres have to last the whole race (weather and failure permitting). It adds another angle to the proceedings - hammering the car early on could mean pain near the end. Last I saw a race though, was a few races into the season where that rule was introduced. Are they still doing it?

Post by **Shatterhand** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:47 pm

No, they removed this rule for this year. The qualifying sessions is also different.

Hey, we should have a permanent thread about the F1 season here

Post by **system11** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:57 pm

Shatterhand wrote:No, they removed this rule for this year. The qualifying sessions is also different.

That SUCKS. Probably the teams bitching about it, despite the fact that it make the ends of races more interesting for viewers, instead of the pedestrian playout they usually are.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 9:57 pm

Curling...that's the ice mopping contest, right?

ahnslaught · Post by **ahnslaught** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:28 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:Curling...that's the ice mopping contest, right?

Probably the greatest description since shuffleboard on ice

Regarding the tires, they are also going to go to a single spec tire in one or two seasons, I believe, since Michelin is getting out of it.

I would love to have a permanent F1/other racing topic! It gives me someone else to talk the subject with, since not many where I am like racing other than NASCAR and I know no one who wakes up early enough to see the coverage of F1 anyway...

KBZ · Post by **KBZ** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:07 pm

it's a dumb sport. I used to play it back in the day, even have a couple trophies......the shame!

Myself and many do not consider Curling to be a sport for the reason that it cannot exist on its own without a bar.

In canada, we have hockey rinks everywhere without a bartender in site, but curling is a different story. Every Curling rink is essentialy a bar where people go to get hammered, and play a game of curling (or shuffle board if it's too cold). It's kind of depressing really. I don't know how things are in the rest of the world, but this is what I've always known.

I was in a curling league for kids years ago, and let me tell you that's it's no fun being 12 years old hanging around in a bar full of heckling idiots.

by the way, the reason it's called curling is because the rock is thrown out with a spin so that it makes a "curling" line of flight on the ice allowing it to curve around other rocks in the house (target area).

Achan · Post by **Achan** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 1:16 pm

Actually: (Taken straight from Wikipedia.)
The word curling first appears in print in 1620 in Perth, Scotland, in the preface and the verses of a poem by Henry Adamson. The game was (and still is, in Scotland) also known as "the roaring game" because of the sound the stones make while travelling over the pebble (droplets of water applied to the playing surface). The word derives from the Scots language verb curr [2] which describes a low rumble (a cognate of the English language verb purr). The word does not take its name from the motion of the stones, which due to their deviation from a straight-line trajectory are said to curl.

I myself have never been interested in the sport but some days ago I was watching the ladies final, Sweden vs. Switzerland, and as I was watching I had some of the rules explained to me. Damn did the game get interesting.

KBZ · Post by **KBZ** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:00 pm

Achan wrote:Actually: (Taken straight from Wikipedia.)
The word curling first appears in print in 1620 in Perth, Scotland, in the preface and the verses of a poem by Henry Adamson. The game was (and still is, in Scotland) also known as "the roaring game" because of the sound the stones make while travelling over the pebble (droplets of water applied to the playing surface). The word derives from the Scots language verb curr [2] which describes a low rumble (a cognate of the English language verb purr). The word does not take its name from the motion of the stones, which due to their deviation from a straight-line trajectory are said to curl.

I myself have never been interested in the sport but some days ago I was watching the ladies final, Sweden vs. Switzerland, and as I was watching I had some of the rules explained to me. Damn did the game get interesting.

well shit. My curling instructors were probably drunk anyway.

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:17 pm

when sweden are doing well and its olympics/world championship then yeah we get alot of curling.. if its off season we get shit all.. just like every other sport besides soccer and ice hockey (theyre on all the bloody time regardless).