It's saturday, I'm at work, and I'm really freakin' bored. So here's my Golf theory:
No, not the VW Golf, I'm talking about the sport where you chase a little white ball around on the lawn. It's a great sport that I never bothered learning to play, but nonetheless enjoy. Anywayz, a couple weeks ago I was out of money and so I couldn't work on the car. Instead I began watching the end of Golf tourny on TV. As I was watching some 22 year old from Australia putt for $900k, I had an epiphany. GOLF IS PROOF POSITIVE THAT PEOPLE WILL WATCH A SPORT LIKE RALLY!
Think about it. Golf and rally are really similar. In golf you have seperate holes and the oject is to complete the hole in the fewest number of strokes. In rally you have seperate stages and the object is the lowest time. Both are rewarding how efficiently you can traverse a course broken into segments. Golfers play one at time against each other on multiple holes simultaneously. Rally racers race one at a time against each other on multiple stages simultaneously. At any given time the guy leading a golf tourney or rally race may very well be playing/driving behind his competition. It is not possible to see an entire golf tourney, so fans pick a tee, green, or fairway and camp out and watch. It isn't possible to see an entire rally race, so fans pick a spot and watch. I can go on and on here, but I think you get the idea. Rally is really just golf without clubs but with a kickass golf cart.
On the TV/promotion side of Golf, they do a great job of keeping the action moving by switching to different holes, following different battles and stories, all well keeping abreast of the leaders. The same can be done (as is to varying degrees of success) in rallying. But here's the kicker, PEOPLE WATCH THIS STUFF! And companies pay big bucks to sponsor it. The Nascar/NFL "all at once" format is not the only accepted format in sports. Golf proves that a rally type format is appealing to the masses. Granted, those masses may be a bit aged, but guys like Tiger Woods are really bringing the average age of the golf fan down.
Ok here's my point. Too all the naysayers who claim that rally will never work over here, that it's too slow, or that people only wanna see side by side racing, or that it's too hard to follow, or that sponsors will never be interested, or whatever... I say look at golf. The format works, we just need to learn to work the format.
Ok, nuff said. Just wanted to throw that out before I forgot. I better get back to work....
Dennis Martin
[email protected]
920-432-4845
No, not the VW Golf, I'm talking about the sport where you chase a little white ball around on the lawn. It's a great sport that I never bothered learning to play, but nonetheless enjoy. Anywayz, a couple weeks ago I was out of money and so I couldn't work on the car. Instead I began watching the end of Golf tourny on TV. As I was watching some 22 year old from Australia putt for $900k, I had an epiphany. GOLF IS PROOF POSITIVE THAT PEOPLE WILL WATCH A SPORT LIKE RALLY!
Think about it. Golf and rally are really similar. In golf you have seperate holes and the oject is to complete the hole in the fewest number of strokes. In rally you have seperate stages and the object is the lowest time. Both are rewarding how efficiently you can traverse a course broken into segments. Golfers play one at time against each other on multiple holes simultaneously. Rally racers race one at a time against each other on multiple stages simultaneously. At any given time the guy leading a golf tourney or rally race may very well be playing/driving behind his competition. It is not possible to see an entire golf tourney, so fans pick a tee, green, or fairway and camp out and watch. It isn't possible to see an entire rally race, so fans pick a spot and watch. I can go on and on here, but I think you get the idea. Rally is really just golf without clubs but with a kickass golf cart.
On the TV/promotion side of Golf, they do a great job of keeping the action moving by switching to different holes, following different battles and stories, all well keeping abreast of the leaders. The same can be done (as is to varying degrees of success) in rallying. But here's the kicker, PEOPLE WATCH THIS STUFF! And companies pay big bucks to sponsor it. The Nascar/NFL "all at once" format is not the only accepted format in sports. Golf proves that a rally type format is appealing to the masses. Granted, those masses may be a bit aged, but guys like Tiger Woods are really bringing the average age of the golf fan down.
Ok here's my point. Too all the naysayers who claim that rally will never work over here, that it's too slow, or that people only wanna see side by side racing, or that it's too hard to follow, or that sponsors will never be interested, or whatever... I say look at golf. The format works, we just need to learn to work the format.
Ok, nuff said. Just wanted to throw that out before I forgot. I better get back to work....
Dennis Martin
[email protected]
920-432-4845
