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FREEZIN’ FOR A REASON
Wr i g ht s v i l l e Beach
Back the Blue
Beach
Splash
The first 275
participants receive a
Back the Blue Beanie!
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
The pandemic has affected our viewing hab-its
as sports fans, no doubt. In the spring we
learned we could survive without our favorite
pastimes. When the games resumed, not all of
us returned to our TVs.
Ratings for the NBA championships and
the World Series hit rock bottom. NBA view-ership
was off 51 percent from the season
before. Baseball’s championship featured the
major-market L.A. Dodgers, but ratings were 32
percent lower than the previous worst mark.
Even the NFL, long the king of TV sports, has
lost viewers, although just a relatively small 6
percent decline.
Maybe we developed new habits, even if
it was just binge-watching shows on Netflix.
Perhaps we couldn’t get used to the strangeness
of games with artificial crowd noise instead of
fans in the stands. Or it could be a backlash to
the very idea of non-social distanced athletes
competing while the rest of us were under mask
mandates and some sort of lockdown.
Will the trend extend to in-person atten-dance?
Because we can’t go to games right now,
will we develop new habits and realize we can
live without shelling out money to go root for
the home team?
Time will tell, of course. But for now, it’s
safe to say we’d like to put that theory to the
test. All of us, sports fans or not, long for the
day when the pandemic is over and we get to
make that choice.
Saturday, January 30, 2021
Start time 9:00 am
Salisbury Street Ocean Access
At Johnny Mercer’s Pier
Join us as we dash and splash into the
ocean at Wrightsville Beach. Average
temperatures in January are in the 50s.
But if it’s colder, don’t worry, you’ll be
freezin’ for a reason as money raised
supports the Wrightsville Beach Police
Department Benevolent Association.
For more information
and to register go to:
runsignup.com/Race/NC/
WrightsvilleBeach/BacktheBlueBeachSplash