Category Archives: Sports
Karate Kid Tournament Poster
UPDATE: You can purchase a more screen-accurate version here.
A replica of the poster seen in the Karate Kid, hanging in the Kobra Kai dojo. It’s a good thing it was on the wall, otherwise the plot would have been completely different.
Every time they announce injuries in the NHL as “upper/lower body injury”, I think it’s because of this tournament. You don’t want coaches prompting their players to attack injured opponents (“Sweep the leg!”). Though I have a feeling it happens.
This is from the original 1984 film, not that remake from last year, in case you kids are confused. Darn kids.
Here is a massive 2k x 3k version, if you’d like to print it out and throw it on your wall (or use as a wallpaper), click to enlarge:
FYI I cannot paint to save my life (check out this hatchet job I did for that Good Will Hunting painting), so I cheated and used 3D. Fortunately my painting ability is somewhat on par with the air-brush work used in the actual poster.
I then built the All Valley logo with vector art. All the fonts used were some variation of Futura - a very versatile font I am finding.
This poster was made because it doesn’t exist online, which is sort of shocking. There are Kobra Kai and All Valley logos in spades, but no trace of this poster. Plus I wanted to print one for my wall. Looks sharp, if I may say so.
Add More Seats To An Arena Part 2
Over a year ago I suggested that additional seats could be added to an NHL arena by installing a system that would hydraulically lift a section of seats, allowing the Zamboni to pass through.
This time I won’t suggest anything as drastic:
1. Taper off the stairs as they reach the bottom (or top of the nosebleeds) of the section, because let’s face it - not everyone is sitting in the front (or back) row. Not only would this allow for more premium seats, but provides a staggered seating arrangement, meaning you won’t be sitting directly behind the person in front of you. Dwindling down the staircase width from 2/3 persons wide down to one person wide at the bottom is optimal.
2. Install little balconies on the upper deck of seats that are directly above the stairs. This will only impede the vision of those standing in the concourse or at the top of the steps, and only if they are trying to take a gander at the scoreboard.
Other ideas not pictured:
3. Adaptable seating: If a luxury suite is not being used, close up access to the suite, and open up a few rows of seats for the public. These seats would be merged with the general seating bowl, so fans would get to the seats via the stairs in the bowl. This could also be done for the press area.
4. Okay this one is pretty out there - a “sky bar” built into the main scoreboard. It would feature a glass floor and outer glass perimeter to watch the game. This would essentially be like watching a game from the moon in The Truman Show! The scoreboard would have to be bigger, and need to be somewhat soundproof as all the arena speakers are located adjacently. I don’t see this being a seating area, but a bar or pub venue.
If you think all of these ideas are a little crazy (I wouldn’t blame you one bit), here is something to check out: They are installing a sky bridge at Madison Square Garden. Really.
Game Of Thrones Hockey Jersey: The Starks
Note: All hockey jersey offers are now at www.davesgeekyhockey.com.
Lately I’ve been held hostage by all things Game of Thrones. I took a moment to step back and realize all these different Kingdoms could be represented by sports teams. They each fly a banner bearing a sigil, usually depicting a fierce animal - much like a typical sports franchise would.
The above example shown is the Direwolf, which is emblematic of the House Stark. The Starks reign in the north, and their (foreboding) motto is “Winter is Coming”. To me it all screams hockey.
You could probably design several hockey leagues based on the huge number of banners in the Game of Thrones books, though only a few are prominent. The aforementioned Starks are the main protagonists. The evil Lannisters (I may be editorializing a bit) have the sigil of the Lion. The Targareyans fly the banner of the Dragon. Like Milwaukee, the Baratheons are represented by the Buck.
Sale mockup.
I know I frequently design hockey jerseys here, and you might think it’s because I’m Canadian and thus have a one-track mind. The real truth is hockey jerseys are a brilliant canvas on which to showcase a team’s identity. That logo on the chest is like a Superhero insignia. No other sport has a jersey or uniform where the team logo can be so prominent. EDIT: A friend tells me these would look better on a “football kit”. Well I say good day to you sir. GOOD DAY.
EDIT: Got an email from Mark, who says the Stark sigil is a full-bodied silver Direwolf on a white background (white = ice/snow), and that the Baratheon sigil is the Stag, not a Buck. My bad. I won’t make a full-bodied Direwolf, but I’ll fix up the logo a bit:
Bonus art! Using the Tampa Bay Lightning royal blue alternate jersey:
I will design jerseys for the other Game of Thrones Houses eventually, stay tuned!
Now you can order one! Go HERE for more details, or email me with the subject line SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY, and I will send you some information.
Beer Subscriptions For Greener, Happier Sports Fans
I love this new beer dispenser! It fills up drinks from the bottom of the cup. How it works: there is a metal disc at the bottom of the cup that doubles as the plug and the opening for the beer valve. Genius. As you can see, the attendant can churn these drinks out at a rapid fire pace.
These beer dispensers have been popping up at arenas and stadiums over the past few years, much to the delight of venue owners. The quick pours cut down on lineups and wait times for the fans. More volume can then be sold.
Another program that has caught my eye is a new initiative the Tampa Bay Lightning are trying out for next season. They are giving season ticket holders a team jersey that is fitted with a built-in microchip that will enable it’s wearer to receive discounts from within the arena. Very cool idea. But what happens when it comes time to wash the jersey?
I think it would be awesome to combine these two programs into one, allowing fans to buy a beer subscription they can redeem at their own leisure.
Here is how I envision it working: fans would buy a glass mug (pint size) that is fitted with the metal disc system. The mug would have a bar code or a microchip. The fan can then load up a beer subscription with $100 or whatever amount, that would entitle them to X number of beers. The fan would then fill up their own beer by scanning the mug and then dispensing their booze of choice. The fan is notified in a display how many refills they have left.
This way there would be much less waste - no plastic cups to throw out. Because it is self serve, there would be less manpower needed to pour drinks - though someone would be needed to supervise these drink stations. Also the savings in plastic cups and labor would be passed on to the fan in addition to a discount for buying the subscription. And there would be a lot fewer money transactions to deal with. It’s a win-win for everybody.
There would be some rules naturally. Patrons cannot leave with beer in their mugs and would be limited to 2 or 3 drinks per event, likely at some kind of hourly interval. And of course, no underage brats trying to get beer!
Because the mugs are being reused, you’d need some kind of device that would quickly clean and sterilize the bottom of the mug, as it’s been sitting in a cup holder or on the floor or god-knows-where. These mugs should be emblazoned with the team logo and come with a snap-on cap for carrying about to and from the game.
More Basketball Ideas
At the risk of repeating myself, I do not like basketball as much as I once did. When I tune into a game, I usually see the final minutes are bogged down in timeouts and foul line shots - so boring and anticlimactic. So I offer up a few more ideas to change the makeup of the game:
A. Multiple 3-point lines. When a team is penalized, it surrenders a closer 3-point shot for the other team. This would be made possible by having the lines illuminated under the floor boards. This penalty could be in effect for a few minutes in the game, could be awarded for a foul call.
B. Multiple Free-throw lines too. A closer line could be granted after x number of team fouls, This would make a foul shot easier to hit. This would be incentive for a more discipline game (as would the above 3-point line idea as well).
C. Shorter shot clocks for penalty-ridden teams. As you can see, I like changes that arise from penalties. It changes the make-up of the game, and that’s probably why I like hockey so much.
D. A basket that changes in height and position. It could be raised and pushed farther back to penalize a team, or lowered and closer as a reward. Not only would it be an entertaining variable, but it would demand much more athleticism and precision than a fixed basket.
Other suggestions: Award 2 points for a single free-throw shot, rather than having to shoot two separate shots at 1-point apiece. Give the player the option to shoot from the 3-point line for a foul shot. Fewer timeouts. Automatically award points for flagrant fouls AND give the ball back to the team that had possession.
How The Death Of NBA Elite 2011 Will Help Sports Video Games
When EA decided to bench their NBA Elite 11 game a few months ago when it was deemed the game’s quality was sub-par and could potentially sink the franchise in the long run, there was a lot of media coverage, some schadenfreude, and a whole lot of gossip.
In the fallout, EA decided to extend the life of the previous year’s release - NBA Live 10 - with continued roster updates and online supprt. They also made the reboot NBA Jam a full-fledged console release for the 360 and PS3, as sort of a consolation prize (it was originally slated to be a download bonus that came with Elite 11).
I’ve often said that in the age of Down-Loadable Content (DLC), there was really no reason to keep releasing yearly iterations of Sports games. Ideally, you could release one game in 2011, and support it for 2-3 years with updates and expansion content you could purchase, much like many other genres of games enjoy currently.
What EA inadvertently demonstrated was that the lifespan of a sports game can be extended for 2 years, but they also accidentally ushered in a new business model: Alternating releases of sports games.
This means the full-on simulations like NBA Elite, NHL, Madden, FIFA, Tiger Woods, etc. could alternate a biennial release schedule with an arcade-flavored variant, like NBA Jam.
With Sports sims getting 2 years between major releases, they’d have more production and planning time to take the game to the next step. The same could be said for their arcade counterparts, which would also get two years to improve upon their last release.
And with an extended lifespan for both kinds of games, people would be willing to make that $60 investment if they know they’ll get 2 years out of it. And by alternating the release schedule, you won’t be flooding the market with multiple sports games every year, but focusing on a single high-quality title every year.
I really hope EA adopts this kind of model and soon - the yearly iteration of sports games is starting to wear out it’s welcome in the age of DLC. Plus it’s getting harder and harder to advance the game on a yearly basis. Even if there is a plethora of new features, many gamers just dismiss the game as providing only a roster update. A 2-year absence may help to highlight the advances in a more evident manner.
One thing I’d like to see, is a big departure for the arcade games that clearly separate them from the sims. NBA Jam is a great example of this, being very arcade-y and having a lot of personality.
One such example is using the Lego license. I think releasing a Lego variant of a sports game every other year would be huge. I’m already quite surprised no one has done this yet.
With alternating releases. the Publisher will not be left with a gaping hole in their release schedule. And with DLC content, there is actually more money to be made over the course of a 2-year lifespan.
In the long run, NBA Elite’s death may have started a few new trends that will benefit the sports genre and the consumer as well.
The Future Of Sports Broadcasts Takes A Page From Video Games
I was watching our Canadian junior hockey team lose to Russia on TSN tonight (so many tears in my Molson beers), when I caught something of note. During a replay, the color guy was showing a play using a telestrator. The clip showed a player skating up the ice, with a circular graphic ‘glued’ to his feet.
It looked exactly like a video game. EA’s NHL video game, to be specific.
The graphic appeared under the player, as though it were painted on the ice, and followed him around. It featured an animated star, which looked cool. It did appear a little jittery, because it seemed to be matching the player’s movement exactly.
They used augmented reality for this, and I didn’t think it could work for hockey, because the ice surface is white, and the players wear a great deal of white - so it would be hard to project the graphics. In American Football, the field is green and pretty much acts like a green-screen for graphics to be projected, such as the 1st down marker.
So having seen this, I am convinced all the major sports could do this today. All you need is a broadcast delay of a few seconds, an overhead cam or two, and a couple of people smoothly tracing the player’s movement and toggling the names displayed. Voila presto player graphic overlays.
Not just for replays, but for actual real-time play. I imagine just a few names could be shown - the ball-carrier and the nearest defender. Or an athlete of interest. I don’t think all 10 -22 guys need to be highlighted at the same time. Would be too cluttered.
In the TSN replay I saw, they didn’t have the player’s name attached to the graphic, but that would be easy to affix. And if someone manually traced the movement path of the player (or if the computer streamlined the player’s path), it would appear smooth.
Of course, the play-by-play guys would go berserk over this (they are probably sending hitmen to my house as we speak), as it is their job to tell you who is doing what, and how the play is unfolding. They don’t want the players marked onscreen for you to see in real-time.
Those announcers were already dealt a blow in the early 90′s, when onscreen graphics displaying the score and time clock became a permanent fixture. Before that, this pivotal information was only shown at slow moments of the game or as commercial bookends. The announcers had to frequently announce the score or time remaining.
In the world of HD, these player overlays would not make the announcer irrelevant. They would just serve as some cool eye-candy.
I also see these graphics showcasing the player stats, their time on the ice, and perhaps ‘event’ animations to reflect what the player is doing. I can see the “HE’S ON FIRE!” graphics for an NBA player now. Maybe a celebratory graphic for scoring a goal or touchdown.
I think it would be funny if sports started to emulate video games as much as video games have been mimicking sports these past few decades.
WNBA, this is your future!
