Sunday, August 10, 2008

Nationwide Sailing Part III

The Spectating

The way the fans view the sport is what is strangling sailing. The thing is, it's a shame. Where baseball might flourish in a radio market, sailing would suffer. It is a visually appreciated and understand sport. This is what is so confusing. Nowadays with HD TVs and the gorgeous landscapes of sailing, you would figure it would be an easy sell in this market.

Unfortunately, sailing is not easy to video. You can't just set a camera on the bleachers and capture most of the action. A helicopter is almost a necessity. Besides that you need in boat cameras and multiple on the water applications. It's a very expensive project.

The other problem is that sailing is impossible to view adequately from shore. Unless the races are held within 50 yards or so of a high platform, you might as well be asleep. This in my opinion is the biggest problem facing the marketability of our sport. As great as it would look on TV, you have to draw in the locals. Of course, many have tried with carnivals, games, and even free booze but the truth is they never come for the sailing.

I only see one way to fix that problem. Check out my first post about an indoor sailing arena with artificial wind and grandstands of spectators. Of course, I don't plan to ever see this in my lifetime but in my opinion that is still the perfect situation.

As I've said before, the best regattas I've watched in person have been ones where the sailing came within 20 yards of me or so. This happened once at a collegiate regatta and it was incredible. The gybe mark was 20 yards from the 2 story dock-house and everyone could see/hear/feel the action! Of course this is almost impossible in most venues for many reasons. First of all, you set the course in the middle of the lake for a reason, no effects on the wind. A giant spectator dock would have disastrous effects on the wind if not in the perfect location. Second, not all areas have a perfectly situated viewing platform. In fact probably close to none.

So, how can you attract local viewers to gain support? I have a couple of ideas. :)

1) Spectator Platforms. I'm going to go way past the elite yacht owners who park their second homes next to the racecourse to bask in the light of our glorious sport! Let's anchor some big platforms out near the marks and start for some close up action! A "ferry" boat could travel back and forth to transport the fans

2) Other events. I stated before that it isn't a great idea but it does work. Incorporate the racing into an already popular location (as the American Sailing league did) or host a popular event during or after the racing. Family carnivals and such are great events and usually draw a lot of hungry fans.

3) Commentators/Televisions. If possible, have a designated "race-viewing" area with information on the boats/races/sport and have a commentator explaining what's going on and everything sailing related. If possible, some sort of live television shots would be incredible. I already discussed how difficult this is and the thought of broadcasting them live and wirelessly back to the shore hurts my brain and wallet. Nevertheless, perhaps a zoom camera on a hill or high spot with a great vantage point could be used. Perhaps a shot from the committee boat, maybe some in boat cameras? Something to give a good view.

4) Sell more than sailing. As I discussed in the "The Sailors" section, sports fans are interested in more than just the sport. Try and let everyone know who's favored to win and who's the underdog. Imagine going to a horse race without knowing any of the stat lines or backstorys. It would be very boring. If there's advertising, in addition to the basic ads (YEAH, SAILING!) try and include an interesting story about one of the boats/sailors. Perhaps a very young crew or a very good crew, this is what the sport desperately needs.

Perhaps one day a major network will have a weekly sailboat race broadcast with gorgeous shots of spinnakers flying and great drama but it's not going to start out that way. The local interest, the media interest will come. Can you imagine if you got a couple of thousand sports fans to show up to a regatta? You don't think ESPN would cover that?

Unfortunately no one has found out a way to have thousands of people show up to a regatta without giving away free cars and then, is it really a regatta?