The marketing of sport is a slippery slope for coaches, athletes and even regulatory bodies of the sport itself. While it has led to the hyper-success of many sports it can lead to some problematic associations and even questionable business practices.
Many will argue that some professional sports never truly blossomed until regulatory bodies allowed gambling, while others will contend that other sports are seemingly made for television while others get lost on the screen. Those issues aside many sports are gaining in popularity via television coverage but sometimes the marketing of the sports are far off-base.
In my opinion, this is the case of Beach Volleyball. An incredible sport that combines tremendous athletic demands with tactical knowledge within an extremely fast paced environment. The sport evolved naturally from the classic indoor model and while it once was the sole domain of beach communities it has grown tremendously in popularity with adult courts and leagues springing-up throughout the world. Demanding, fun and engaging, Beach Volleyball is great sport to take part-in or watch.
I’ve spent a great deal of my life around the Beach volleyball scene, whether in its mecca of Manhattan Beach California or courts in the south of France and Australia, training and training alongside what I consider some of the most dedicated athletes in all of sport. Whether thrilled by the play of a young Sinjin Smith, remarkably now thirty years ago or the present day leaders of the sport, the sport has deservedly seen its growth continue.
While I don’t want this long introduction to get any longer, one of the great selling points of the sport to fans is the speed of play and tactics. Points are earned quickly and tactics are key to a teams success. In the set-up of tactical play, the player nearest the net will single with their fingers behind their back "the play" much like a baseball catcher does to a pitcher.
Now with that introductory section of this blog entry complete, the meat of this matter gets to the "marketing of the sport" because long ago, the powers-that-be figured out to really sell this sport, "coverage" was going to be important. Not simply "media coverage" but the lack of "coverage" for female competitors in their training gear and the rather obvious different set of rules that male competitors have in that area. There hasn’t been a great of commentary in the media of these because few actually want to stand-up to the powers-that-be and actually tell them to promote and respect (female) athletes.
All this makes NBC’s online coverage of Beach Volleyball quite pathetic as it streams a selection of close-up shots of female athletes giving signals. I’m not going to go very much into the description of this because it really isn’t worthy of my quote but also I doubt that NBC’s parent company General Electric, is aware of this enormous error in judgment in web-site content that is not only sophomoric but continues to demean some of the most dedicated athletes in the world. I personally don’t think I’m reacting too harshly and think its time that women’s athletics are accorded the same respect as men. This is part of the "Olympic Spirit" and if NBC isn’t prepared to maintain that, they shouldn’t be broadcasting it and should "chime out."
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