A dear friend of mine made the comment recently that he considers soccer (that’s football to you non-Americans) to be boring. I disagreed with him, of course, and I told him that 90% of the people on this planet would certainly side with me. I have heard this complaint many times, and it is usually focused on the lack of scoring in soccer, compared to, well almost any other sport. If scoring is your sole criterion for excitement, then it’s not hard to understand why you would find soccer boring. But the ball is in play and there is constant action in soccer that doesn’t occur in any other sport (except maybe hockey, more later).
So it occurred to me that there is a mathematical method to calculate the interest level of any sporting event. That would be simply to calculate the fraction of the time spent watching when there is actual playing action. I hereinafter refer to this as the action fraction, the fraction of time when the ball is in play. In other words, it’s the time that one would need to pay attention and not be sound asleep without missing some of the action.
So, being an engineer, I put a spreadsheet together to estimate the action fraction for various sports.
Consider soccer to start. A typical match consumes about 2 hours of running time. Of that time, the event is live and the ball is moving for 90 plus minutes. When there is stoppage, the referree adds time back in at the end of each period. Subtracting for substitutions, injuries, fouls, throw-ins, goalkeeper stalls, etc., I estimate that the ball is in play for about 75 minutes of every match. That gives an action fraction of 75/120, or 62.5%.
Now let’s consider baseball, the great American pastime. Even baseball lovers admit that there is a languorousness, a listlessness to a baseball game that gives it much of its charm. Let’s calculate the action fraction for a baseball game – how much time the ball is actually in play. I estimate the total number of pitches by both teams to be about 250, each taking a maximum of 2 seconds from windup through delivery. There are about 40 outs involving hit balls (strikeouts take zero additional time), taking an average of about 8 seconds (generously). We assume 16 hits in a game total, each taking 10 seconds. Perhaps 30 more plays (errors, walks, HBPs, stolen bases, throws to first, etc.), each taking 5-10 seconds. So the total playing time at a baseball game comes to about 20.3 minutes. Given that an average baseball game takes about 3 hours, that gives an action fraction of about 11.3%. In other words, one could sleep through 88.7% of a baseball game and not miss one second of action.
Americans love (American) football. But is it exciting? A typical football game takes about 3.5 hours from kickoff to final whistle. How much of that time is action? There are about 130 plays from scrimmage in a football game, each taking about 6 seconds from snap to whistle. Adding in 14 punts and 10 kickoffs at 8 seconds each brings the total playing time to 16.2 minutes, and the action fraction clocks in at a whopping 7.7%. So in fact a football game provides an even greater sleep fraction than a languorous baseball game, more than 92%.
What about basketball – now there’s a high scoring game - pure excitement, right. A professional basketball game consists of four 12-minute quarters. Since the clock stops whenever the ball is out of play, we will consider all 48 minutes to be non-stop action. In addition, foul shots are taken with the clock stopped. If we assume 60 foul shots in a game, each taking 4 seconds (again generous), that brings the total action time to 52 minutes. A basketball game takes about 2.5 hours to play, so the action fraction is a respectable 34.7%.
And I mentioned hockey, what about hockey? A professional hockey game consists of three 20-minute periods of non-stop action. Given that a hockey game takes about 3 hours, that gives an action fraction of 33.3%.
So I submit that my excitement index, the action fraction, is a clear, precise, and irrefutable indicator of the spectator interest and involvement generated at a sporting event. The complement would be the sleep fraction – the percentage of a game through which a spectator can sleep without missing any action.
In summary, the chart shows the sports discussed above ranked by their action fraction. It’s pretty clear that soccer is the most exciting and engaging sport listed. And BTW, I love all the sports discussed here, and many more besides. I intend no disrespect. I am simply pointing out that most sporting events provide more than 60%, and sometimes more than 90%, of the available time for sleeping. Hardly exciting.