On Wednesday, February 27, 2013 9:30:56 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Wednesday, February 27, 2013 2:20:09 AM UTC-5, Scott Alexander wrote:

If racing sailboats or racing bicycles can be a televised sport, then there's no good reason why Soaring can't be too.



How many sailboat races have you watched in the last 5 years?

Some sports get TV support because they are an extension of a sport that the viewer participates, or did participate in, or are a fantasy extension of common activity.

Examples:

Golf- participitory

Tennis- participitory

Sailing- participitory

Cycling- same

Auto racing- fantasy extension

Gliding has the unfortunate position of not falling well into either of these catagories. Also note that the first four are all activities that can be undertaken quite casually and with limited commitment so folks can identify quite easily. Gliding doesn't fall into that catagory.

Skeptical

UH

Good points but I think they will be overcome.

Glider racing will never be completely "real-time" and clever video editing can increase the pace and excitement. Biased though I am, I think glider racing is enormously more exciting than boat racing.

The masses of TV viewers will never adopt gliding but they don't adopt many other sports either although do enjoy watching them. At any one time our infrastructure can only accept a few thousand newcomers. If TV coverage of glider races could provide those few, we'd be in great shape.