To all dedicated soccer fans out there, the World Cup is most likely considered a tradition. Every four years, the same schedule, breaks, and halftimes occur regularly. However, the World Cup this year is quite different as officials decided to go with an American football style game final. During halftime, famous singers, dancers, and entertainers will perform for the audience. Despite sounding fun, the idea of having a halftime show is fiercely debated.
Normally in the World Cup, entertainment is limited to the opening and closing ceremonies. In between the middle of games, there are water breaks and halftime. The water breaks take three minutes and halftime takes fifteen minutes. However, this year they added a halftime show to both rack up ticket prices and entertain the audience. Because of this, halftime was extended to thirty minutes. Though a normal performance only lasts 11 minutes, crews need time to clean the field for player use. Currently, t The new halftime show can be considered a success as a wider range of people come to watch the World Cup.
However, do not let the current success of the halftime show fool you, as the idea has attracted a lot of mixed thoughts. Some fans think that the new halftime show is breaking a tradition, while also causing prices to rise. Furthermore, many researchers think that the players’ muscles may stiffen during the thirty minute break and may lowering performance and increasing the possibility for injury. Different broadcasters also complained about the new halftime shows because of its unpredictable timing. This will make it hard to include advertisements and make it inconvenient for scheduling in commercial breaks.