The Glass Ceiling: On The Future of Action Sports Events
The Olympic slopestyle brouhaha and the consistent dissing the ASP has been getting in recent weeks, among other things, has got us thinking about the future for competitive freesports here at ACM Towers. Namely, how is that future going to unfold?
Clearly, our sports are massive like never before. But a fundamental problem must be solved if they are ever going to make the leap across the remaining chasm between core and mainstream: how to tweak formats in a way that all camps – athletes, core spectators and mainstream onlookers, who will only ever turn on a couple of times a year – will understand and appreciate?
The cry from the core camp is always the same. ‘Why should I care? It won’t change the way I enjoy skating/snowboarding/surfing’. Very true – and not just for this sport. After all, if video goal line technology is introduced in football to tweak the format of the professional game, it will have very little effect on how things go down at my weekly Wednesday five-a-side. But change happens anyway. And our sports are no different.
One key difference between football and, say, snowboarding, is the difference in how easy both sports are to understand. Point a camera at a football pitch, or show somebody the highlight of a game like the Germany v Italy semi final at the World Cup in 2006, and it’s fair to say that someone who had never seen the sport before could get caught up in the drama and sporting theatre. That’s not quite the case with action sports, the intricacies of which can take years to understand and appreciate. Hell, even seasoned observers get the trick names wrong.
And that’s one of the major obstacles action sports face before they can achieve true mainstream acceptance. Witness the half pipe at the last Winter Olympics. Much of the hype around that event, particularly in the media, centred around personalities, and pundits repeatedly telling the uninitiated how hard and dangerous tricks like double corks are. And it worked, in a way. Even my Mum had an opinion on the double cork by the time Shaun White stepped onto the podium. But as a means of maintaining interest in the sport, is it not particularly sustainable. At some point, punters are going to have to get what is going on if they are ever going to turn on their TVs in large numbers.
So what’s the solution? It’s a debate that is being played out right now across action sports, as event organisers experiment with formats and judging to try and achieve this delicate balance. TV is certainly the main driving force behind this effort. Rumours have been swirling for months that the only reason slopestyle has been fast tracked into Sochi 2014 is at the behest of NBC, the TV company that control the rights to the Winter Olympics. It also explains the success of the X-Games, at an event that has clearly been designed to look good on TV first and foremost. Incidentally, I also heard an interesting anecdote from Ed Leigh recently about how the only snowboarding event the BBC will touch for Ski Sunday is the Air and Style – purely because they feel it’s the only event where the production levels are high enough. Take a look at the footage above to see what you think.
Looked at from this perspective, the IOC’s preference to work with FIS on snowboarding makes a kind of sense. FIS might not have been running snowboarding contests very long, but they have certainly been running large scale, TV-friendly ski comps for a very long time indeed.
So what all that in mind, it’s interesting to speculate how things will turn out. In snowboarding, all eyes will understandably be on the World Snowboarding Championships in Oslo next February. Run by the people behind the TTR, who have been protesting the most loudly against the FIS monopoly on snowboarding at the Olympics, it is surely going to be a competition that reflects their vision of how such events should be run. In surfing, the Quik Pro in New York is surely another effort to take the sport to the masses. After all that town has waves, but it would’t be for first choice to run a contest if waves were the sole priority.
And what about skateboarding? it might not be an Olympic sport yet (or ever, to the relief of most skaters), but events like the Street League and the recent Maloof Money Cup (above) are probably the most innovative examples of yet of an action sport attempting to package their complex offering for both audiences.
In truth, we’ve got no idea how this will turn out. It’s a story that will run as long as these sports exist. One thing is for sure: better this evolution is in the hands of those with the knowledge and expertise to truly do justice to their passions, than those solely attracted by the cash and opportunities suddenly on offer. Need a reason why you should care? There’s one.
Good read, surprised that boarder-x didn’t get a mention ….. when I talk to folks about snowboarding at the olympics they tend to say the halfpipe was impressive for the 1st couple of runs, but then got kinda boring and it all just blends into tricks that kinda look the same, but the boarder-x is the one they make a point to tune into watch, I think it fits into the point made above about football …. it’s a race, people understand the concept of the start and the finish line and the fact people push and shove in the process of getting to the finish line just makes it much more exciting …
Great article Matt but I always end up coming back to the same question, do action sports need mainstream recognition? I personally don’t think they do, we as a sport and an industry have become obsessed with the FIS, TTR who rules snowboarding debate and have lost focus of the real joy of snowboarding and telling that story to people to encourage growth. Who benefits from snowboarding’s place in the Olympics, the only person I see benefiting is Shaun White. I don’t think you can say that snowboarding has become mainstream and our market has turned into one the size of football due to it’s place in the Olympics, in fact I think it’s the complete opposite, the sport as a whole seems to have forgotten what it was that made us all want to do it in the first place. I think we have to accept that FIS are going to run snowboarding, we can all cry into our tea for the next 20 years but there is no way that they are going to shift their view and give up control, If I was running FIS I wouldn’t. We all have to get back to realising that the mainstream brings nothing to our sport, has anyone ever aspired to mainstream I don’t think they have. The only way we can grow our sport and take it back from the FIS is to go back to basics and tell the story of how amazing snowboarding is.
Fair point on boarder cross Nik, totally forgot about that. You’re right of course.
Thanks for that Jeremy – I would agree we’re nowhere near the size of football, but something like the Olympics is how sports do become massive and snowboarding is definitely on that path.
I’d have to disagree on the the idea that the industry is obsessed with this TTR/FIS issue though. If anything I’ve been surprised by the almost total silence on the subject in the snowboarding media. I’d also argue that almost 99% of snowboarding marketing – whether videos, magazines or even brochures – is exactly about telling the story of how amazing snowboarding is. Personally, there’s got to be some space for this type of debate. Especially because everyone is clearly so passionate about it.
Anyway, cheers for chipping in fellas.
Interesting article and comments. Appreciate this is a ‘global’ article but what about the UK? Can action sports ever really be considered mainstream in the UK? By action sports I mean skateboarding, surfing, wakeboarding, snowboarding, BMX, MTB slopestyle, downhill etc (not inline skating, mountainboarding or snowblading, the less said about them the better).
So, skateboarding is probably the most accessible action sport, £50 and you have a complete set-up and off you go. But skating and to a certain extent BMX are anti-establishment. They don’t seem to want mainstream exposure and the only place where you see anything remotely mainstream involving these sports is the US. All that sunshine in LA (and a $100k first prize) must mellow the Maloof competitors to such an extent that they are up for competing. The same event, held at a foggy Crawley skatepark with some free kit up for grabs, probably won’t draw the likes of Tinie Tempah, let along Snoop Dog.
We don’t really have the waves for surfing, a point well made by Matt Barr on Twitter this very morning, surfing Brighton on a Monday morning in September, well, not quite Cloud Break was it. Would anyone from any other country come here for that? And Wakeboarding, don’t get me started. I had a great time wakeboarding while on my honeymoon in Mauritius (get me), but being towed by cable, across a lake in the pissing rain at Thorpe Park – no thanks.
We don’t have much in the way of mountains either, with the possible exception of a few large hills in Scotland, but if there’s grass in the shot, well it just doesn’t work does it? Granted we have dryslope and fridges but they don’t translate the sheer joy of razzing through the trees on the Pleney in Morzine, nose buttering your way around the piste all day.
As for BMX and dirt jumping contests, they’re just a bit boring if you’re not really into it. The general public don’t ‘get it’ and so you have people wander up, have a look for 10 to 15 minutes and then wander off again (the Nissan comp at the South Bank a few years ago was a good example of this. Best riders in the world but the crowd had no idea; it was just some yoof doing tricks on bikes).
But maybe it’s not only the weather; maybe action sports and business are uneasy bedfellows too. We’ve just had the MTB Worlds in Switzerland and it was, by all accounts epic. The men’s DH finals were won by our very own Danny Hart and if you’ve not seen the run yet then check the link below to get an idea of the passion and excitement. While the Worlds were on, the governing body, the UCI, announced that they had done a deal for future media rights with a website very few people had heard of. This means we lose the excellent Freecaster team and the truly memorable commentating skills of Rob Warner too (one of the guy’s on the vid below). Turns out the UCI make no money from almost all MTB events, which might sound familiar to anyone who has a passing interest in the GB ski and snowboard set up. These sports need funding to become mainstream but who pays?
For me, it’s a generational thing too. I skated when I was a kid, rode BMX, surfed (badly) and as I approach 40 I have no intention of stopping snowboarding, or riding downhill MTB. My son rode a skateboard on his own for the first time at the weekend and he’s 3 (no pressure). Both my kids have been to the excellent Brits snowboarding event and I’m pretty sure they will grow up wanting to try most action sports (be hell to pay if they don’t – er, just kidding).
There is something deeply personal about action sports. I’m not sure it translates so well through the medium of TV and maybe it will only reach a wider audience as those already ‘into it’ show it to others and let them experience the joy for themselves. I for one will continue to do that whatever the politics, business and media say.
Now go watch this and don’t tell me the hairs on the back of your head aren’t up on end – http://www.pinkbike.com/video/216007/ .
I personally find that to a larger and larger degree I really don’t care. I’ve snowboarded for 13 years and I plan to snowboard for 26 more. Regardless of what happens to the competition part of it. I realize the importance of monetary interest in snowboarding as it will drive tech development and give me cooler gear over time. Anyone who’s ridden a late 80s board (I’ve been lucky enough to try one though I never owned one) and compare it to what they have in their quiver can appreciate this fact.
I’ve always held snowboard movies much closer to my heart than TV broadcasted sport events, and I think nothing the IOC/FIS mafia can do will ruin that part of snowboarding. So how they decide to run it in the Olympics is really not something that concerns me a lot. I would surely appreciate it if FIS would stay the fuck away from snowboarding, since I wish the best upon the riders I see in fresh movies every autumn the best but I don’t think it will affect me or the pleasure I get from riding a lot. I might be selfish.
I could care less if my fat neighbour gets a kick out of watching snowboarding on the telly though. If he can’t understand it and prefer footie then yeah. Whatever. The soul of snowboarding will still be there, even if the competition part of it gets turned into some freak circus. At the end of the day, a very small percentage of us will ever experience a FIS run event first hand.
Hello all,
great article Matt and good to see some healthy debate on this topic.
Reading between the lines of the above you can see that the main motivator for action sports courting the mainstream is money. And the conduit for this treasure trove of cash that at present only the Olympics have managed to unlock is TV.
Jeremy, you’re right we don’t need to be concerned about this if pure snowboarding is all we care about, but because both Matt and I are involved with the media, both core and mainstream it is very difficult to ignore the constant marginalisation of real snowboarders who are trying to shape our future in this realm.
I have a fair bit of experience in this field and have over the last five years with Ski Sunday identified the root cause of snowboardings problems in projecting itself to the main stream.
There is an endemic problem within snowboard event TV products and while Air and Style X Games and the US Open provide very high quality coverage the general standard is still very low. This is for me, the biggest obstacle the TTR faces going toe to toe with the FIS or away from that battle, just gaining the confidence of high quality mainstream broadcasters.
Throughout the winter I have to attend FIS alpine ski events for Ski Sunday, I know exactly how slick their product is and how quickly it is delivered and with a minimum of stress. Their budgets allow them huge infrastructure that is capable of live global broadcast and they have the experience that has gained them the trust of the rights holders.
In comparison nearly eighty percent of the TTR events I have recommended for coverage with the BBC have failed to deliver a product that is up to the standard that big broadcasters require. I know this is entirely budget driven but it has created a situation where the BBC will only allow one or two snowboard events per season. This is compared to five years ago when I was allowed six or seven.
At so many snowboarding events I have found myself sat in hotel rooms at 4am waiting for format conversions, compressions, editors and sponsors cuts etc while an expensive ISDN is kept open to collect footage that was promised eight hours earlier. In comparison at the FIS events your producer goes to the OB van four hours after the event and picks up his drive with everything he will need from the media manager. You have to admit as a client that’s an easy sell….
Mainstream broadcasters will not take snowboard content in the UK until there is a uniform bench mark of quality and reliability from the entire tour. I can’t speak for continental Europe but the same will surely apply when events are battling for airtime with FIS skiing events that already provide this.
I am a staunch supporter of the TTR and refuse to cover FIS snowboarding (except Boarder X) on the BBC, which for better or worse means that we cover less snowboarding as a result.
I believe that essentially snowboarding is trapped in a chicken and egg situation. Until crowds or viewing figures improve there is no way to convince sponsors to invest or organisers to sacrifice profit in the interests of improving the TV product. But until that TV product is of a high enough standard to draw in non core viewers on regular basis we will always lose out to more professionally produced sports.
That is of course excepting the supposed pinnacle of our sport, The Olympics where it has been proved for the last three olympic cycles that the lights are on and burning brightly for the masses when it comes to snowboarding. NBC recorded their third highest viewing figures of the first half of 2010 with the Olympic Halfpipe final, which only proves that there is an appetite for snowboarding with mainstream audiences. The challenge now lies with us in replicating that format on an annual basis.
And this is why I believe we should care. Sooner or later someone will do that and when they do, if it is the FIS or a privateer as opposed to a company or organisation with snowboardings best interests at heart they will have a huge amount of power. Right now the FIS are easy to ignore because they only garner power every four years, but that will change and then there won’t be a choice as to who we deal with.
Feel free to take a head in the sand approach, but if you do you for go the right to complain or ever become cynical about how the sport you love has been poisoned and how great it used to be in the good old days because essentially by taking that stance you are complicit in its demise.
Firstly, if a little apathetically, I think it’s wonderful that so many of us share a common interest in the progression of the sport and subsequent industry we all take part in for very different reasons and gainful interest. It’s strikes me as particularly impressive that a sport such as this, skateboarding, surfing and the like, can have such a deep connection with so many: changing lifestyles of many through the very well orchestrated marketing that maintains our regular custom to shops such as Jeremy’s every year.
Whether it is a career, a passion, an idle hobby or the life blood that keeps you in the sport: it is the sharing of time with friends, lift chats and powder runs that is just as important as the impressive athletic progression at competition level that inspires us, maintains newcomers to the sport and generally increases the opportunities for all of us to go abroad more through cheap flights, cheaper kit (higher production) and discounted lift tickets. Arguably this means more people on the mountain, more annoying ‘punters’ around, or whatever excuse we can make for the fact we are all benefiting from the industries monetary progress in some ways.
The question of professionalism and credible content within snowboarding, as Ed has mentioned, is a problem that I feel is owed to the out-and-out capitalist ambassadors of the industry that seek to make quick bucks instead of investing in maintaining the credibility of the sport. I am not naming any individual but more an unfortunate and predictable trait of not only this industry but the model of capitalism as a whole. Maybe if the right and proper investment was made into maintaining the essence of our sports through decent production, broadcasting the emotional connection that so many of us have with snowboarding, then broadcasters would jump on board with us. Rather than seek to go it alone and retrofit us into common sporting formats. If we want to maintain the essence of the sport we need to get good at communicating it.
Like many industries and economies we are the product of our own demise in many ways, to maintain our addiction of the very sport we love we have spent time marketing, promoting and selling more to put a turn down more and more frequently. This isn’t any one’s fault, it is just the model of capitalism, love it or hate it, we all chose it. How about we marvel at the dynamic nature of this sport, from personal passion, micro-trends across the globe, the independence and confidence that the board brings to so many kids who likewise wouldn’t have had the opportunity if they hadn’t seen Ed Leigh on the BBC (poet; didn’t know it). And finally, for my monies worth, let’s use our creativity and inspiration to communicate why this sport means so much to all of us, whatever we do.
Violin down. Go shred.
All very interesting points.
One thing I’d say about the core v mainstream debate is that a lot of the riders or surfers I speak to want their talent to be seen by as many people as possible. UK riders like Aimee Fuller are stoked that slopestyle is in the Olympics as they want the wider recognition for their sport.
I interviewed Steph Gilmore (4 times ASP World Surf Champ) for our current issue and she went as far as to say she can imagine a future where some ASP events take place in wave pools and how she’s jealous of tennis players who have schedules for their events and can “just show up and have all these people in a stadium watching them”. I hate the thought of a surf contest in a wave pool but I can kind of see her point, she wants her talent to be seen by heaps of people, something the Street League and to a obviously much greater extent the Olympics achieve.
Ok you can be cynical and say they don’t so much want to share the stoke as to promote their sponsors as they have a lot to gain financially from that, but then I don’t begrudge them from wanting to make a decent living out of the sports they love anyway. It doesn’t affect my time on the hill if snowboarding is in the Olympics and pictured on Cornflakes packets, though I guess if I my local break was Malibu I would probably hate the fact surfing was so popular.
That said I fully believe all these sports should be shaped by those that love them, just like football and FIFA, doh…
Very interesting conversation indeed.
If you talk about budget and the quality and professionalism of TV production at your average snowboarding competition, don’t forget that it is not just about the budget for TV production assigned to the specific event. But to a larger extend it is also about the media budget of the FIS skiing sponsors (Audi, Bauhaus, Viessmann, etc. and LG for FIS snowboarding) and what these companies are spending for commercials with broadcasters globally on an annual basis. This is another reason why FIS skiing (and even FIS snowboarding) is getting so much airtime and live coverage with their events globally with prime broadcasters…their lobby and their sponsors’ lobby outweighs what any TTR sponsor or TTR event sponsor out of the snowboarding/boardsports industry will ever be able to afford.
Fighting for airtime with these guys is a battle the snowboarding industry won’t be able to win. According to adweek.com and Nielsen Monitor-Plus Audi had a media spend of $90 million in 2008 in the US alone…!
That’s a lot of snowboards, bindings, boots, outerwear jackets and pants!
The complexity of what is being discussed here is no doubt the reason that most snowboarders turn off when the subject of the Olympics, the FIS, TTR and so on come up. People just don’t understand what’s going on behind the scenes. Many say they don’t care, but as Ed points out, the ramifications of not caring is that snowboarding will be led by people who don’t snowboard.
And that is a real shame.
Nothing will ever happen to stop this slow-motion train crash until the brands who claim to have snowboarding at their heart team up and make their riders follow one tour, make that tour ‘for TV’ and put penalties in place for those who don’t tow the line. Is that every going to happen? It doesn’t seem likely. Is there anyone who could steer such an ambitious project? Terje has the kudos but probably not the political skill to pull it off. Jake Burton Carpenter might have the skills but his company have too much of a vested interest in their own global tour to make that likely. Who else could do it? Drew Stevenson? Ed Leigh? Man it’s a big, thankless task with a million kickings along the way and probably a heart attack waiting at the end.
But still, it does seem like the only way anything is ever gonna change.
Very thoughtful article. It’s all about trying to package up a niche sport for mainstream consumption. This perhaps is a self-defeating exercise as the more one indulges the mainstream audience, the more it alienates the ‘core’, and visa versa.
The growth of snowboarding will always be limited due to the pre-conditions for people to take part – get equipment, travel to mountains, etc (ie. you need some cash!). To try and make it into something that’s as universal as football seems to be a foolhardy venture.
As a member of the current TTR team and as a fellow Brit i’d just like to comment a little on this great thread and hopefully clear a few things up from our perspective.
I think that the main problem snowboarders have when they consider the mainstream angle is the “how do I benefit – what do i care” mentality. As with playing five-a-side football on a weekend, the decisions fifa et al make little difference to you when kicking the ball about. The problem is that mainstream, for us, and most other sports organisations, is about inclusion and education. At TTR we see it as our role to educate and inspire future generations of young athletes, sharing this great gift that has given all of us so much pleasure over the years as far and as wide as possible.
Now this may not be as cool as being exclusive, i mean, who wants to go to the club that lets any old drunk in. But, its what we feel is our duty and its what drives us in everything we do – including TV production. Now Ed does have a point, our production does not match the Skiing in certain areas. But, i can say we are aware of this and have made moves over the past 6 months to really compete on both quality and on budget. So fingers crossed we will soon have closed up the 15 year head start FIS began with.
As for the Olympic issue. TTR is obviously disappointed – not because of any monetary issue – but for of our athletes and our event organisers. Our athletes already face an uphill battle to keep sponsors happy across 3 circuits whilst trying to stave of fatigue and injury, which an extra circuit will likely only exacerbate. Also the event organisers. They supported snowboarding when it wasn’t worth what it is today. They helped create stages which drove the progression we see today. And yes, ill say it, with out these events, without their progression maybe the snowboard movies wouldn’t be quite so spectacular. Im thinking David Benedek Double Cork at Air & Style, Torstein Horgmo’s 120ft kicker at Stylewars in 2007 etc etc. Our doors are still always open to FIS and we will continue trying to work with them to ensure the best possible outcome we can.
Either way, regardless of how it all turns out I just want to reassure you that the TTR, as a non-profit, will always have snowboarders best interests at heart – never the money. And Ed – keep on at the BBC, hopefully after this season they’ll come around.
Jack
Great article, Matt. This is a very interesting debate; I’ve enjoyed reading all of the comments. I agree with Nik about Boarder X – when I talk to people (both snowboarders and non-snowboarders) about snowboard events, Boarder X seems to be the event that most people tune in too.
It will be interesting to see where all this leads.