Soaring and Critical Mass of Participation.
In another thread it was noted that Television
drives (apparently) many sports. The sad fact
is that unless there is an extreme element to it,
most of those "sports" have reached critical
mass as far as participation levels are concerned.
The exceptions, indoor motocross freestyle jumping,
street luge and such all seem to have a few common
threads. You can get seriously messed up doing it, there is
a way to know,attach yourself to the participant and
get a rush vicariously thru the actions of others.
Soaring needs TV time. To get it it is goint to
have to compete with stuff like I mentioned until
it gets to a critical mass of participation.
I can think of no better example then PROFESSIONAL
DART TOSSING, live from Ceasars Palace....
Why on earth does this work? Because of the HUGE
installed base of 25cent a game dart boards in almost
any bar/pool hall I've seen. There are a BUNCH
of people doing it.
Soaring doesn't have this installed base of viewers, so it needs
to get extreme or edgy. REVIVE the Smirnov derby. Cross country
racing gliders is really no different than cross country racing antique
cars.
There is the equipment story, the pilot story, the where an I going to land
story all of which can be twisted into TV drama. THATS what needs to
happen to get the exposure. Give an advertiser a vehicle to hook a
viewer to sell his stuff.
Sorry to be so long winded.
Scott.
|