Creating an audience

[Levin]

Can people suggest some reading on the professionalisation of sport?

I've mentioned before that I'm tangentially attached to a top level (in the UK) but amateur handball team. I've traditionally thought that the sport in the UK was never going to be able to move to even semi pro level without people coming to watch it. With no in person audience then sponsors wouldn't want to spend money as they'd be advertising to no-one, media wouldn't cover it if there is no-one to watch it. An additional hurdle is that top level handball is available on the internet. There are professional leagues and competitions that have a much higher skill level than the UK is capable of providing.

But, I had a thought while reading Inner Ring this morning. Cycling as a sport was created by newspapers, they created the demand for information, is that something that can happen today in a sport saturated environment?

(This is all apart from the fact I'm not even certain that I'd welcome professionalisation, would my club and its rivals survive the change in a form that I'd recognise?)

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

British basketball was, very briefly, big in the UK in the mid-80s, because Channel 4 televised it, and people got behind the Solent Stars or the Kingston Kings or whoever. Man United even jumped on the bandwagon and co-opted a team. So there are precedents. County cricket, possibly the only UK sport whose attendances have not been affected by lockdown, keeps coming up with new ways to roll along and get Sky coverage.

[Hot Pepsi]

Can people suggest some reading on the professionalisation of sport?

I've mentioned before that I'm tangentially attached to a top level (in the UK) but amateur handball team. I've traditionally thought that the sport in the UK was never going to be able to move to even semi pro level without people coming to watch it. With no in person audience then sponsors wouldn't want to spend money as they'd be advertising to no-one, media wouldn't cover it if there is no-one to watch it. An additional hurdle is that top level handball is available on the internet. There are professional leagues and competitions that have a much higher skill level than the UK is capable of providing.

But, I had a thought while reading Inner Ring this morning. Cycling as a sport was created by newspapers, they created the demand for information, is that something that can happen today in a sport saturated environment?

(This is all apart from the fact I'm not even certain that I'd welcome professionalisation, would my club and its rivals survive the change in a form that I'd recognise?)

Do you mean track cycling or road cycling? Surely, track cycling - which I believe was once big in the US too - had a big gambling element, didn’t it?

Reading well-written accounts of a road race is more interesting than watching it zip past. On TV, packaged highlights are more interesting than the live coverage, even with Phil Leget and that other guy. The action is just so spread out and so much of what is “going on” is happening in the minds and hearts - literally - of the competitors, that it’s hard to understand what is happening in real time.

[Hot Pepsi]

British basketball was, very briefly, big in the UK in the mid-80s, because Channel 4 televised it, and people got behind the Solent Stars or the Kingston Kings or whoever. Man United even jumped on the bandwagon and co-opted a team. So there are precedents. County cricket, possibly the only UK sport whose attendances have not been affected by lockdown, keeps coming up with new ways to roll along and get Sky coverage.

The UK seems to be one of the few places where basketball hasn’t really taken off, but maybe it’s a bit like MLS in that it struggles to compete with TV coverage of better leagues abroad, especially the NBA.

[ursus arctos]

As with several other indoor sports, track cycling was largely created by promoters looking for "content" to fill arenas that had been built for boxing.

Media companies have created a host of new "combat sports", ESPN created (and controls) the X Games and television has also been key to each of the attempts to establish a professional rival to the NFL.

[Diable Rouge]

As I've said here before, in the Nineties Irish rugby was dominated by clubs, such as Shannon, Cork Con, Lansdowne and Clontarf, and interprovincials were literally being played in front of three men and a dog - it was the creation of the European Cup that led to the development of the provincial brands, and in turn begat the Welsh and Scottish regional franchises.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

The UK seems to be one of the few places where basketball hasn’t really taken off, but maybe it’s a bit like MLS in that it struggles to compete with TV coverage of better leagues abroad, especially the NBA.

As Rogin said it had a brief surge in popularity in the 80s on the back of well presented terrestrial TV coverage, but even then the teams weren't playing in big arenas - simply because big indoor arenas weren't a thing in the UK at the time. When the arenas did come, some owners were keen to get basketball (and ice hockey) teams in for "content", which produced some big crowds for certain teams, but then the arenas dropped them when they weren't bringing in enough revenue in comparison to other events.

It carries on in its own niche - me and son when to the BBL Trophy final in Glasgow a few years ago and it was a slick event played in front of a large crowd (it helped that Glasgow had got to the final) and everyone enjoyed themselves but I don't know how many people go week in week out (before the obvious happened I mean). The tickets were quite cheap as well, particularly given the amount of "content" involved (there was a curtain raiser game and other diversions).

The teams in London and Glasgow can accommodate 6,000 but the rest play in arenas half that size or less. Newcastle got their own purpose built arena a couple of years ago (after being kicked out of the local big arena, and then playing at a university for a long time) which we've often driven past and always say we should go sometime (but then the obvious happened).

It's probably been covered several times over the years but growing up in the 80s it did seem like there was a lot more room for different sports to flourish in the UK, or at least get their occasional time in the spotlight, and now everything seems crushed by Big Football. Getting back to the original question I wouldn't like to plot out how something like Handball could establish itself as a professional spectator sport these days, when longer established sports were already hanging on by their fingertips even before Covid.

[Hot Pepsi]

It’s hard to overstate how much damn basketball is on TV in the US.