At University of Florida sporting events, you can cheer all you want, but don’t even think about tweeting.
This month the Southeastern Conference, an organization of 12 top-ranked collegiate sports programs, notified its members that it was updating its social-media policy, effectively banning fans from taking video, photos, or updating Facebook or Twitter accounts during games.
But as the St. Petersburg Times points out, the conference is not changing the rules to get its fans to pay more attention to the action, instead of their phones. At the end of the day, it’s all about money.
“A conference spokesman said this policy was meant to try to keep as many eyeballs as possible on ESPN and CBS — which are paying the SEC $3-billion for the broadcast rights to the conference’s games over the next 15 years,” the Times says. “And also on the SEC Digital Network — the conference’s own entity that’s scheduled to debut on SECSports.com later this month.”
But after a storm of negative publicity from several media Web sites and blogs, it seems the conference may be shying away from the new bans.
On Tuesday, The Charlotte Observer reported that Charles Bloom, a conference spokesman, admitted that the negative attention is what prompted discussions of a possible change. Several phone calls and messages from The Chronicle were not returned on Tuesday.
“I know what’s being written,” Mr. Bloom told the Observer. “The thought process is to get it loosened up a bit.”
While Mr. Bloom said he thought a revision of the policy would be finished this week, taking cellphone videos or tweeting from the stands is now prohibited.
Update: The Southeastern Conference has updated and reissued its ticket and non-media credentials policy, SEC spokesman Charles Bloom told the Chronicle on Tuesday evening. The new policy permits “personal messages and updates of scores or other brief descriptions of the competition,” but video of game action is prohibited, and photographs will only be permitted for personal use.
9 Responses to Social Media May Be Banned at Southeastern Conference Games
gharbisonne - August 18, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Exactly how is this going to work? They would have to ban cellphones, and that’s not going to happen. I’m not even sure it’s legal for a public university to ban comment on events occurring in a public facility.
asanjume - August 18, 2009 at 4:54 pm
How would you rank in the jail hierarchy based upon this crime?Question: “What are you in for?”Answer: “Tweeting”
uwfuwf2008 - August 18, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Agreed, how are you going to enforce that ban? Stupid.
gharbisonne - August 18, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Word of advice; if you find yourself in jail after being arrested for tweeting, lie and tell the other inmates it was for armed robbery.
_perplexed_ - August 18, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Headline of the Future:”Gators play to empty stadium as fans choose Facebook, Twitter over football”
cronknews - August 18, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Oh, Florida, your creativity and innovative spirit are inspiring. Instead of trying to include social media in your moneymaking schemes, you’d prefer to alienate the people willing to dole out the moolah. Bravo you intellectual rebels!~CronkNews.com Editor
tridaddy - August 19, 2009 at 9:25 am
Hey, this is not Florida doing this, it is the SEC. The first line could have just as easily read, LSU or Alabama or Auburn or Georgia–you get the picture. Pick on the culprit, the SEC not the individual schools.
11272784 - August 19, 2009 at 12:33 pm
The stupidity of this decision is staggering. It’s totally unenforceable and ranks right up there with holding back the tide. I’d LOVE to see a 1st amendment Supreme Court case if they bust some fan for Tweeting from the stands on a privately-owned phone.
floatingspirit - August 20, 2009 at 11:42 pm
What a bunch of tools! That’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.