Richard J. Cunningham
Is it really possible to create a TV-friendly format for pro-racing? These are the current winds. Ask any corporate representative of mountain biking: What is the most important thing we need to grow the sport? I’ll bet my Zippo, it will be more mountain bike racing on TV. It seems like a simple formula: Action sport plus TV airtime equals national sales boom. I believed that this was true until recently when I received a revelation that could disprove it.
I was taking a break from my MBA typing and was flipping through channels late at night. What would happen if no one had ever seen a tournament of golf? It would be difficult to convince anyone that dribbling a small ball through a park in pink, with white tassled sneakers and Dockers, was a manly, must see event. What if bowling were a fringe sport that was only found in northern France? Can anyone endure hours of pot-bellied bowling every Saturday afternoon? It would be a strange scenario if U.S. football were invented tomorrow. Would it not seem like a lame-off between some fat men who wanted to play rugby but their mothers changed the rules and made them wear padding so that they wouldn’t get hurt? Heeey. How about pro-bass fishing?
I believe that many sports that are able to attract huge TV ratings are entertaining because they are well-integrated into popular culture. All of us know the rules and have played the game at one time or another. We have a basic knowledge of the game and can communicate with players to emphasize the drama, even if it is the most boring amusement. Admit it. Imagine being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. Now imagine that your truck could speed past all of the cars on your way home. This is monster truck racing, old chap!
It’s also true in reverse. No one watches the land luge races at the summer X-Games and runs to Big Five to buy a luge thingy and get squished under a truck. Every X-Games broadcast has featured the same ten men. You would think there would be more than ten men on the international land-luge tour if there was a direct correlation between television sports coverage and sales.
Some sports are so popular that they won’t play well on TV. Imagine a prime-time extreme backpacking show. What about soccer? Soccer is the most watched sport in the United States. It airs at midnight in large U.S. cities on channel 250. Yet, it is also the fastest-growing youth sport in the country. As many popular sports have failed to reach a prime-time audience as are the foolish pastimes that have become overnight hits.
Although this is not the official line, it’s worth considering the possibility that mountain biking will never be a major TV attraction in this country. Perhaps we can refocus our efforts and make mountain biking a popular pastime without reducing it to a series of action videos with a cheese-ball-metal-rap band. It’s been done before. Anybody who throws a leg over mountain bikes returns with an ear to ear grin. These are the ratings that will sell.