Southern Ocean is Crowded

I was so excited for this winter to come. Not because I got to break out my new spraytop, but because my favorite race is going on. The Vendee Globe. Ever since I read about the solo circumnavigation I've loved this race. All the way back to when it was called the Golden Globe. But even with 30 skippers on the starting line, only one American has entered. One. This is the pinnacle of Ocean Sailing! The New York Times has an interesting article about the races popularity in France. Of course with only one racer it's hard to spread the races popularity in the states but come on. I was simply shocked to learn that only one American is participating.

A little further south, the Volvo Ocean Race is still going strong. I haven't looked a whole lot at their website and what they have going, but I have listening to their podcast for the past year or so. That should tell you how good they are with connecting to the public. Very nice. They even had some money left over to race in the Extreme 40 series! Also good stuff.

Ocean racing just goes along with what kind of brand I think will sell. Extreme. High Definition. Drama. It's all there. And as you can see, it's flourishing in the foreign markets. So how do we get the race to flourish here? How about adding more American skippers for one thing. What if someone started a race just like the Vendee Globe but that set off from the US? Only United States sailors could enter. Put the start live on TV out of New York or San Francisco and have a weekly recap show with maybe some live interviews. Races like the Vendee globe and VOR already have the equipment to broadcast this information, just not the medium in the US to do it. What company or what person is going to force ESPN or a network to broadcast this stuff? No one. Why? Because they will laugh you out of their office.

No one would watch the Vendee Globe. No one wants to watch the French sail around the world just like they don't want to watch the Russians have another spacewalk. But show little Jimmy from Houston out there in space and then you've got something. Returning national pride and interest to sailing is something that would jumpstart the AC's US interests and other programs. The problem is, these organizations don't care that they are losing out on the US because they can do so well in Europe. But I think they are missing a HUGE market.

The cable sports program was born here. Reality TV was born here. Fantasy football was born here. If there is ever a sports hungry market, it's the US.

Someone...one day will make it happen.