The award for the most ridiculous, self-absorbed, overzealous all sports entertainment network in the world goes to...
ESPN, for the 10th year running.
They have once again proven that outside the 4 major sports, Tiger Woods, and the Williams sisters, you're really not much of an athlete. Unless you count token consideration of Cael Sanderson and -ahem- Sarah Hughes (don't even get me started on figure skating).
No offense to college athlete of the year Sue Bird (UConn BB) but a certain swimmer from Cal who set at least 6 AR and 1 WR over the short course season would have had my vote.
Anyone else? Natalie Coughlin, female college athlete of the year as awarded by the USMS discussion crew?
-RM
Putting aside the interesting debate of "sport vs. game" and which has the better athletes in this discussion, one relevant and overlooked point in these sports success is entertainment value.
Truth be told, anyone other than a somehwat knowledgable swimmer attending a swim meet (with the exception of NCAAs, Olympics, etc.) is going to be bored to death! If we ever want more mainstream attention and fan interest we need to look at how we can make meets more fun and exciting for everyone (often times including the swimmers).
Personally I'd love to have music played, large screen graphics with trivia/athlete profiles (Indy did that a coupe years ago), great announcers always make a big difference, beer and pizza even (I draw the line at cheerleaders, although I nominate Matt S to research that further)?
I've had a couple of discussions with folks from USMS about marketing our sport and although there seems to be some interest a lot of people also seem to like the "status quo". In the old forum I was even beat up a little for suggesting the need to send press releases to local media for USMS nationals! My concern is that age group swimming in particular is at risk unless something is done to get more people interested and invloved.
Putting aside the interesting debate of "sport vs. game" and which has the better athletes in this discussion, one relevant and overlooked point in these sports success is entertainment value.
Truth be told, anyone other than a somehwat knowledgable swimmer attending a swim meet (with the exception of NCAAs, Olympics, etc.) is going to be bored to death! If we ever want more mainstream attention and fan interest we need to look at how we can make meets more fun and exciting for everyone (often times including the swimmers).
Personally I'd love to have music played, large screen graphics with trivia/athlete profiles (Indy did that a coupe years ago), great announcers always make a big difference, beer and pizza even (I draw the line at cheerleaders, although I nominate Matt S to research that further)?
I've had a couple of discussions with folks from USMS about marketing our sport and although there seems to be some interest a lot of people also seem to like the "status quo". In the old forum I was even beat up a little for suggesting the need to send press releases to local media for USMS nationals! My concern is that age group swimming in particular is at risk unless something is done to get more people interested and invloved.
