Comments on: Catering for television can cost a sport dearly

By: James

James — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:17:06 +0000

As I saw one commentator say who would risk going all the way to see one of these events if there is a risk it will be rained out. TV ratings may increase but spectators at the already struggling events will decrease.

By: matta

matta — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:42:14 +0000

yeah its more the time of year really thats the issue – monsoon season…

There is a saying over here thats goes something like “daily weather forecast for the next 3 months is ’28-33, humid, sunny morning, cloud around 3pm and likely heavy rain at about 4 or 5pm’”

Why anyone would run a motor sport event over here at this time of year is beyond me.

By: Dish

Dish — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:38:24 +0000

Motorsport, in the upper echelons at least, is purely business today. Collateral damage in the form of spectators getting a raw deal seems to be par for the course now. As long as the bigger dollars come in via TV deals then all is fine and dandy in their eyes.

Shame that it means that the average punter gets to watch – at best – a conga line of racecars following the yellow strobe lights of the safety car for half the “race” as they did for some of the time in Malaysia.

By: Benjamin Conkey

Benjamin Conkey — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:28:23 +0000

Good points Adrian. The other sport which is dominated by TV is rugby league. Night matches are just appaling. The boys on the Sunday Roast talked about it last weekend. The problem as they see it is the Steeden ball, which is almost impossible to handle in dewy conditions. Phil Gould raised the point that State of Origin would be 10 times better if it was played on a Sunday afternoon. I agree with him, but the NRL will never change because of TV commitments. The only hope is to change the ball.

By: Spinner

Spinner — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:47:58 +0000

If there is a 40% bigger TV audience by pushing the race back and say only a 20% extra (compared to a more normal timeslot) of the event being rained out, it is a pretty easy decision for the sport’s administrators to make from a financial perspective.

Of course this fails to take into account the potential damage that they are doing to their sport, but beancounters have never been great at that kind of stuff.

By: matta

matta — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:46:50 +0000

Agree, I live in the region and there is a 50% chance for late afternoon rain at this time of the year – Madness.