The Sporting View

[Mike Gange]

by Mike Gange

 

I spend a lot of time in press boxes at sporting events. I broadcast hockey games on the Internet for UNB, a university here on the East Coast of Canada, and a perennial champion. On top of that, my thesis was an ethnographic study of what happens in the press boxes. In other words, I had to visit a lot of press boxes to get answers to these kinds of questions: How do reporters talk to each other? What do they share? What is considered proprietary information?

 

I saw games in Montreal from the old Forum and from the new Bell Centre. I saw games in the old Maple Leaf Gardens and in the new Air Canada Centre. I saw Rangers games in New York and Bruins games in Boston. I saw Blue Jays games in Toronto and Braves games in Atlanta.

 

My research found that in the early 1900s, there were no press boxes. In most papers of the day, there were no sports pages either. And, I learned, in England press boxes are called The Tribune, which explains where various newspapers get their names. Reading Grantland Rice’s famously poetic piece on the Four Horsemen, coverage of the University of Notre Dame versus the Army football game, I decided I had to go there to see a game. At a USC—UND game, there were 500 people in the press box. Two of them were high school girls who gossiped loudly about their schools and their boyfriends. I don’t know if they saw three downs of that game.

 

Some press boxes are pretty strange. At one rink, the press box is right above the Zamboni. Reporters have to leave the press box when the period ends, because the Zamboni thunders right underneath. And from the end zone, you can hardly see who scored the goals in the far end. At one in a small town, you are seated right next to the crowd. The fans can hear every word you say, and they boo or give you a dirty look if you say something about their team.  

 

Just this past weekend, I was in yet another press box. This one is glass, floor to ceiling. It’s perfectly centered in the rink, on the red line, where you can see both coaches on the bench and players in the far corners. It’s a far cry from being seated right among the crowd. This one really is for sports writers and broadcasters. It’s not for editorial writers, however. Nor for curlers, either. Don’t you know; people who work in glass houses should not throw stones.