Gymnastics is more exciting than the Super Bowl. At least
that’s what the UCLA Athletic Department and the 1,108 fans
in attendance at Pauley Pavilion would have you believe.
Yes, while every other sports organization in the country tried
to schedule around the Super Bowl, and wouldn’t dare schedule
against it, UCLA scheduled a gymnastics meet for 2 p.m. Sunday.
And no, as the Daily Bruin sports editor, I’m not bitter
at all that instead of going to a Super Bowl party, I have to wait
for a story about a meaningless triangular meet against Arizona
State and Cal State Fullerton. Not at all.
So to release my anger, I decided to show up at Pauley Pavilion
to take out my frustration on the meet and the people in
attendance. Enjoy.
Upon entering Pauley, I realized why UCLA scheduled a gymnastics
meet on Super Bowl Sunday ““ people were actually there. Not
just one or two. But 1,108.
Granted, they didn’t exactly fit the stereotypical profile
of most sports fans.
Most were women and little children ““ not the rowdy, drunk
guys you see at Super Bowl parties and major sporting events.
By the way, the guys who had their wives or girlfriends go to
Pauley, thereby leaving them alone during the Super Bowl, are
brilliant.
I decided to talk to as many guys as I could in attendance to
figure out why they were watching gymnastics instead of the Super
Bowl.
I approached a couple guys sitting alone in prime viewing area
for the balance beam.
“Most gay guys would rather watch gymnastics than the
Super Bowl,” gymnastics fan Andrew Strausser said.
“We’re big gymnastics fans.”
The next fan I approached was an older, unkempt man.
His response to my question:
“The Raiders aren’t in it.”
Later he said: “I’m not that big of a gymnastics
fan, but it’s family tradition to watch
gymnastics.”
He was not related to any of the gymnasts on the floor, but
showed up anyway.
This must be some weird family tradition, since he’s not a
fan.
The other seven guys I talked to all had a lot of things in
common. They were either former gymnasts, grew up in a gymnastics
family or have been life-long gymnastics fans.
“I grew up watching Kristen Maloney and Jamie Dantzscher
on TV,” gymnastics fan Robert Blasi said. “To see them
in person is phenomenal. It’s no different than seeing your
favorite band play.”
I watched the rest of the meet trying to figure out why everyone
thought gymnastics was more exciting than the Super Bowl.
The way the meet is presented is not viewer friendly.
Even for a gymnastics fan, it must be tough to follow four
things at once ““Â Arizona State, Fullerton, UCLA and the
UCLA B-team all competed at the same time on four separate
events.
Not nearly as exciting as football, where everything occurs on
one field and all 22 players are working toward a common goal.
It was a very lively crowd though. Gymnastics fans at Pauley
consistently get more animated than any of the other
non-men’s basketball sports played there.
But why was this scheduled during the Super Bowl?
True, women’s basketball and men’s volleyball were
also scheduled to play there this weekend, but this happened last
year also.
A women’s basketball Sunday game was changed from 2 p.m.
to noon, early enough for fans to catch both the women’s
basketball game and the Super Bowl.
A lot of the gymnastics fans did leave after the third rotation,
at about 3:15 p.m., 10 minutes before the Super Bowl was supposed
to start. I was one of them.
E-mail Gilbert at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.