Sony Ericsson wants you to be able to text message Lindsay Davenport during matches
By Peter Rojas 
posted February 2nd 2005 11:16AM
posted February 2nd 2005 11:16AM
Apparently determined to bring heckling into the 21st century, Sony Ericsson, the new sponsors of the WTA (Women's Tennis Association) Tour, say that they want to mount giant digital billboards next to courts so that fans can send text messages to the players during matches. Nah, there can't be anything that could possibly go wrong with this plan.
I've got a friend in Europe who told me of the soccer coach who requested fans text him with suggestions during games. My friend said they won more games but I have no idea how the coach managed the text flow and coached the game at the same time. This was private of course, giving folks a big chunk of scoreboard to say stuff may change the dynamic quite a bit.
one would assume that they would be mediated by an actual human, simply to avoid foul language being broadcast.
Is this anything more than a publicity stunt? There's no real practical use for this. (Oh, I suppose it will increase profits for cell phone companies too.)
human filtering works to a point, but i still got:
"Chris Kirk <3 Tamakeri"
on 5 15ft screens during the headline act at the Playstation Experience in London. :)
Chris, so you like multiple-player soccer games (http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?coll=0530&db=man&fname=/usr/share/catman/u_man/cat6/tamakeri.z), so what? ;-)
There is no doubt that interacting with an audience via SMS is a good idea, but being able to send a message to a tennis player in the middle of her game is just distractive & destructive.
It's nice that a fan could be able to send a message to a player, but the player should recieve the messages after the game. If the player loses, their words of encouragement that they still "love" her (for example) would be uplifting and, if she wins, "congratulations" messages will add to the joy.
Send messages to players on GIANT screens DURING games?
What a dumb idea.
Yeah, that's exactly what players need while they're trying to concentrate real hard on a game - big stupid, distracting messages.
What idiot thought this up?
Ala SNL Celebrity Jeopardy:
I <3 boobs
I can see it now ...
"M4R14 5H4R4P0V4 U R 50 H07, D0 M3"
on giant screens court-side ...
*eyeroll*
Doh, i think that words like KIS MY ASS oe same could dramatically help those girls. Hmmmmm
Or SMSs will be sorted -- shit again...