It's Time To Retire The Sports Ticker

I can remember when sports were on TV without a ticker.  When the only overlay was the scoreboard for the game being watched.  I can also remember when the sports ticker was introduced and how it was a big addition to the sports viewing experience.  You could now watch a game and be informed and kept up to date about other games at the same time.  What a great feature.  However, with advances in technology and additional "news" being added to the "bottom line," the ticker has outgrown its usefulness.  It is time to retire the sports ticker.

In this day of wi-fi and portable devices that can readily access the internet, any score we want to know can be viewed at anytime.  That alone is enough to declare the ticker useless.  Additionally, often times the other games can actually be watched on these devices (or on PIP [side note, do people still use PIP?] or on another TV) simultaneously.  The ticker is full of spoilers that just can't be avoided.  I had a friend who actually used to place duct tape across the bottom of his TV to cover the ticker.  I appreciate an alert if there is another game going on simultaneously that is close, but an alert is all I want.

Adding insult to injury, channels are using the ticker to display ridiculous items.  For instance, the other day ESPN was showing the results of the NBA mock draft.  The mock draft isn't even a real thing! And yet there it was, right on the ticker.  Of course, ESPN is pretty annoying in many other ways but that's a different topic altogether.  They also display such insightful items as twitter messages, coach comments, and starting lineups for baseball games in June.

I think there is some end in sight.  Major sporting events, usually on network channels, are more and more omitting the sports ticker.  I am hoping that it becomes a think of a past.  Displaying it during SportsCenter is fine, but remove it from live events.  It's a tool that has outlived its usefulness.