Prof. Norman O’Reilly, School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management, spoke to The Deseret News about all the stops pulled out by sports teams to lure fans to attend live games.

From team dancers and timeout music, to mascots, T-shirt cannons and one-shot competitions, professional sports teams now rely on the downtime in any game as a business opportunity.

O’Reilly explained it was the NBA that seized on the opportunities of timeouts first. Now, constant entertainment is expected at major sports events, with even the purists more accepting. As long as the entertainment is actually entertaining, “the complaints seem to go away,” he said.

O’Reilly is the assistant dean of executive programs in U of G’s Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics and is considered a leading scholar in the business of sport. He studies marketing, sponsorship, sport finance, social marketing and tourism management.