I'm a lifelong Giants, Yankees, and Devils fan. For reasons I can't really understand, all three home stadiums/arenas refuse to show controversial plays. Disputed goals, plays under review in football, or close plays at home plate - the former two are almost never shown IME, and even Yankee Stadium is reticent to show a close play by either side. I don't think it's a problem of getting the proper feed, as I can tell in other stadiums/arenas when disputed plays are shown to the crowd. So is this just a New York area thing? My only guess as to why this is dates back from when New York area crowds might actually be dangerous, and somehow people in charge haven't realized that NY crowds are completely tame.

I suppose I'll narrow this poll down: At your favorite team's arena or stadium, are controversial replays shown always, sometimes, or rarely? (NBA excluded, because of the nature of scoring/replay in the NBA)

I have been to over 100 Jays games in my life and they never show replays of controversial plays.

afaik MLB teams are explicitly forbidden to show controversial plays, or at least ones which go against the home team. I remember one time during a D'Bags game they did show a bang-bang play on the big screen and the TV announcers were aghast at the whole thing because the crowd went nuts and they were talking about how the team was going to get into trouble for it.

Pretty lame but then again I guess with the players and umps exposed and spread out like that and access to them by hooligans (unlike other sports) there is more concern for security. Still lame though.

I work the in house feed at an NBA arena and we generally only show replays of things that portray the home team in a positive light. The opposing team could do something amazing and we aren't going to replay it. Last year we had a Heat game where most of the crowd came to see them, and they put on a tremendous highlight show, but we didn't show the replays.
I get where management is coming from, but I think it is a bad policy, ultimately not my call though.

If a bad call goes in our favor, you probably won't see a replay. If a bad call goes against us, you might.

This does vary greatly between arenas though.

Ah okay tuq, I was thinking that might be the case, because I don't remember hearing roars of the crowd like in football or hockey. So I guess I should edit the OP to only include those two sports.

Michigan Stadium is historicallymegaultrabad at doing this

At Gillete, they typically only show replays when it's in the best interest of the Pats. I actually thought that was the case at all stadiums but I guess not.

The Flyers show most controversial calls, though we can't ever get one for us so that's probably why.

I think it is a little different in football because of the challenge system. So teams can pipe in feeds of bad calls, hoping/knowing it will be challenged. I'd be surprised if they replayed a controversial DPI call.

yea i seem to recall this begin true

The SEC bans home teams from showing replays of a call that is being reviewed.

Yeah I was gonna say I don't think they showed the Maze INT replay.

So no job this year?

I would think you would have mini-riots if you showed plays that are obviously wrong.

I won't comment on the labor situation, but there are other events in the building (college basketball, high school basketball, hockey, concerts, etc) and I'll work some of them.


Basketball has a ton of plays and the refs miss some stuff. Everyone knows and accepts it to a certain degree. A random iffy foul call in the 2nd quarter of an NBA game isn't going to start a riot, just a few seconds of booing.

We won't harp on it and show the replay repeatedly or anything like that. You don't want to try and show up the refs.