It lost it for me when I went to a couple of UM games in recent years and the game was like a sideshow to all the unrelated media they were blasting at you for 4 hours - I used to like going to a football game to watch a football game, but at the game it has become almost an afterthought, any drama or momentum you might expect is a sporting event is deftly drained away but the commercial time-out official who is ultimate arbiter when anything can happen regardless of the game flow. It's been pretty much downhill from there.
The truth is that big money ruins the value of most thing for most people. When you are under constant pressure to separate yourself from every dollar you possess, it's hard to have a good time and that's what big time sports has become across the board. But the operators have no choice, the system they've created is one where they don't survive if they don't keep taking every opportunity they can invent to separate an additional dime from a fan. </rant>