Monday 2 June 2014

Fun Online Polls: UKIP MEPs & the FIFA World Cup

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

How many of UKIP's 24 MEP will leave the party by 2019?

None - 12 votes
1 to 3 - 20
4 to 6 - 9
7 to 9 - 8
10 to 12 - 6
13 or more - 11


The weighted average of those votes is about six MEPs (out of currently 24), which is pretty much par for UKIP's course since 1999.

We'll see.
-----------------------------
And lo, to the football world cup.

It strikes me that unlike other forms of entertainment, sports such as football are a huge negative sum game.

Most people who go to see a film, a concert or a play etc come away having enjoyed themselves, but with a football match, at least half the fans will be disappointed at the result; and the more teams are in a competition, the more fans will be disappointed.

It's manufactured misery AFAIAC. This is less so with tennis or golf, where spectators are less partisan and appreciate the skills of the players.

So that's this week's Fun Online Poll.

"Of the 32 national teams at the FIFA World Cup, how many will end up disappointing their fans?"

Vote here or use the widget in the side bar.

9 comments:

Frank said...

One team will delight its fans by lifting the cup. Some teams will disappoint their fans by not lifting the cup.
But other teams will delight their fans by reaching the latter stages against all expectation, or even by winning just one game against supposedly superior opposition.

Tim Almond said...

There's really two levels of clubs: there's the contenders for the cup, the likes of Brazil, Italy, France, Germany and then there's all the little teams. The little teams probably please their fans quite a lot. If you're Japan and you get past the first round, the fans go home happy. They know that they're not going to win it and have realistic expectations about what they should do.

The problem for English fans is 1966. It set an expectation that we were a world-beating country, when in reality, we won because of home advantage.

Tim Almond said...

I'd also add cricket to your list, although cricket is really a way of dignifying sitting in the sun and drinking beer with your mates.

Mark Wadsworth said...

TS, well hooray for sitting in the sun drinking beer with your mates, but how moments of absolute brilliance would you catch in an average day's cricket? One or two? It's not up there with gymnastics, is it?

Bayard said...

Mark,

If you are sitting in the sun drinking beer with your mates, who needs moments of absolute brilliance? The occasional frisson of excitement is enough.

Tim Almond said...

Mark,

Well, you get at least a dozen wickets, some boundaries. Run outs are often quite exciting. Maybe not your thing, but I like it. Plus, even if you support one team, it's not tribal. You still respect and applaud a skilled run-out.

Worst sport live: F1. To even get a "good" view, it's £200+ for a seat at Copse or Stowe. And you might see none of the crucial overtaking happening. On top of that, it takes hours to get in and out.

I'm not into gymnastics, but I did enjoy the women's ice skating in the Winter Olypics.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B & TS, cricket is very short bursts of easily-missed excitement in between minutes or hours of pretty much nothing.

Ice skating seems a bit artificial to me and gymnastics a bit brutal; F1 is better on telly.

If you want a real "drinking beer in the sunshine with your mates" sport I think that women's beach volleyball hits the spot. Or Monster Truck Racing, sheep dog trials or caber tossing.

Bayard said...

"B & TS, cricket is very short bursts of easily-missed excitement in between minutes or hours of pretty much nothing."

Minutes rather than hours, but that's the whole point of watching cricket, there's plenty of time to chat/doze/drink.

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