El Clásico in 3D: Football Viewing Enters the Third Dimension

By: Daryl | October 23rd, 2009

3D-glasses-404_675044c Remember how everyone was all excited because Ukraine vs England was being broadcast on the internet? It was as if suddenly no one had ever heard of internet streaming sites who’ve been doing the same thing for years, for free, just not quite as legally? The more interesting story to me at the time was that the game was also being shown in movie theaters. Because where would you rather watch a football match? On your little computer screen on your own? Or on the big screen with other people? No contest

Mexico is taking the whole football in movie theaters thing to the next level this weekend. Or, more accurately, to the next dimension. It’s El Clásico between Club América and C.D. Guadalajara this Sunday at the Azteca, and the game will be shown live in movie theaters, which is cool enough. But it will also be shown in 3D. Yep, 3D, just like “Up” and “Coraline”, though hopefully not as tear-jerking or terrifying.

I have no idea exactly what this will look like. The press release from the RealD company is obviously talking it up:

“This live 3D broadcast will bring the excitement and pageantry of this extraordinary event to theatres in fully immersive RealD 3D for an experience only matched by being in the stadium,” said Joe Peixoto, RealD president of worldwide cinema. “RealD LIVE is the next step in 3D entertainment, offering our worldwide network of exhibition partners the ability to show spectacular live events while bringing fans so close to the action they’ll feel like they’re on the field.”

I’ve seen the above mentioned movies in 3D recently, and it’s all a lot less hokey than previously. For one thing you get almost cool-looking dark plastic glasses instead of the old-fashioned silly white cardboard ones. And the whole thing is a lot smoother and less headachey. So I’m thinking this could really be something.

The press release says Sunday’s game will be screened in in Monterrey and Guadalajara in Cinepolis theaters, with a private screening at AMC Burbank Town Center 6, in Los Angeles. The Reuters news feed also mentions a screening in Mexico City. If you get a chance to go to any of those screenings (or better yet, the actual game at the Azteca) I say go for it.

Will watching 3D football really feel like being “on the field”? Probably not, it’s probably just Joe Pexoto’s job to say things like that. But watching football in 3D sounds a lot more like the future than watching football on my laptop. Maybe one day I’ll be able to do both. Now that would be the future.

update: Chris has just pointed out that this isn’t the first time a game has been shown in 3D. It’s also not the first time that photo has been used.