[mongol]

This is probably the most disruptive change that has been introduced to the sport. Every world cup has introduced something new, such as yellow / red cards, 3 points for victory, goal line technology, VAR, and so on. This year there is a time limit until you must perform a throw-in, among other things. But also these "hydration breaks". I think they have crossed a line. It is so obviously not for the benefit of the game itself.

[H4cks0r1337]

It's clear that "hydration breaks" are only for the ads, because up until now players had no problem drinking during one of the match interruptions like corner kick, free kick etc

[canyp]

I have always joked the Super Bowl was a long commercial with football breaks in between.

Guess they're going for soccer this time too.

[GCUMstlyHarmls]

Wow, I have no idea how accurate it is, NFL is not in my country, but google says there is about 11-16 minutes of actual play??

    Commercials, 45 – 60 mins
    "Standing Around" & Stoppages, 65 – 75 mins
    The Halftime Show, 25 – 30 mins
    Replays & Commentary, 15 – 20 mins
    Actual Football Action - The ball is live and in play, 11 – 16 mins

versus what it says about AFL,

    Actual Football Action - The ball is live and in play, 80 mins
    "Time-Off" Stoppages, 30 – 40 mins
    Commercials, ~15 mins
    Scheduled Breaks, 32 mins

Wonder how that effects the social dynamic of watching games, I imagine you have more time to "shoot the breeze" during an NFL game. It's also not apples to apples comparison as my understanding of NFL is that it's probably shorter but more packed intervals, setup -> crunch, setup -> crunch. AFL can have a bit of back and forth to it maybe.

Also this says nothing of on-ground and around-ground ads which I always found depressing, which I guess must exist in all sports.

[lubujackson]

A game is 60 minutes, broken into 15 minute quarters. The play starts, the clock starts. The televised game is almost 3x that, but at least most of that is actually part of the game flow. Each play is basically a 15 second sprint.

[happymellon]

Oh boy, I was taken to see an NFL American Football game live.

The amount of "dead time" was so vast it must have taken over 3/4s of the game.

[bigstrat2003]

The stat you read is flat out inaccurate. There are 60 minutes where the clock is running, and the vast majority of that is with the ball live and in play. I would say something like 45+ minutes out of the 60. Also, in fairness I've been to a couple of NFL games, and the commercial breaks tend to happen when the game clock is paused by the flow of the game anyway (team calls timeout, referees are reviewing a play, and so on). It's uncommon for the game at the stadium to be stopped waiting for the broadcasters to show their commercials.

[BoiledCabbage]

> The stat you read is flat out inaccurate. There are 60 minutes where the clock is running, and the vast majority of that is with the ball live and in play.

You are completely wrong. I know that's what your intuition feels like from watching games, but if you actually get a stopwatch out and clock it, you'll see it's much closer to op than what you posted. Very close in fact.

If you don't believe it, find a actual game and time it. I did this on a game.

For example from the 8min mark to the 2min warning (6 mins of clock time) there were only 2m15s of action. Only 37.5% of the clock time was action. And that was an extremely conservative time. It was the 4th quarter, had multiple scoring plays, and multiple timeouts - essentially everything possible to do to stop the clock and still it maxed out at < 38% of the clock was actual game time. If you instead do this for a full game (not the end of the 4th quarter), and especially games that aren't close and you'll see it's way less. Definitely not what you're expecting.

Football is a tiny amount of "action time" as compared to "clock time".

[lern_too_spel]

Imagine the in-person experience. While the long stoppages for the benefit of TV advertisers are taking place, absolutely nothing is happening in the stadium. Untelevised sports offer a far superior in person experience in the US, but most people don't even think about this entertainment option.

[canyp]

The math alone doesn't do it justice anyway because the context switch is terrible. Why can't I just think about the play that just unfolded and discuss with others? Basketball has the same clock mechanics too and it is nowhere near as tainted with ads.

For reference, soccer matches have traditionally been 45 min half, 15 min commercials, 45 min second half.

[richstokes]

American football is unwatchable to me for that reason. It’s so stop-start. 30 seconds of play followed by 3 mins of ads. It’s just insane. Feels like the entire game was designed around maximizing commercial sales heh