Sometimes good ideas with great upside potential don’t happen. A combination of things from being ahead of (or behind) the technology (when is the last time you saw a fax machine) to simply being too big an idea for investors to grasp keep lots of good ideas from becoming reality.
Twenty-five years ago, Alex Miceli and I were responsible for one of the first live-via-the-internet television broadcasts. For three days, we “broadcast” live from the PGA’s Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida. It was part of golf.com and the logical stepup from our Golf Radio Network which was also on the internet.
It was unprecedented at the time and golf celebrities, inventors, and corporate execs lined up to be interviewed. Callaway Golf owner Ely Callaway flew from his offices in Arizona to Orlando just to be interviewed. He didn’t even visit his own show booth. He breezed in, sat for an unprecedented 30 minutes of conversation, and then flew home.
Today, being live on the internet takes a cellphone and…not much else. Including talent or a real message.
Then there was our Outdoor Wire Starlight 3-Gun shooting competitions. We decided our experience at producing everything from professional boxing to network news would enable us to create and stage truly “next level” shooting competitions.
We secured sponsors, booked venues and promised — and delivered — a truly unique shooting event. Staged in the dark, it featured food, fireworks, live music and pro-level facilities. It also offered the largest cash prizes in the shooting sports.
Two years and (way) more than a quarter million dollars later, we pulled the plug on it. Despite a few spectators traveling hundreds of miles to see what they called “an unbelievably fun shooting event,” it still wasn’t enough to draw a crowd. Even when the event offered spectators chances to play games and win prizes.
We spent hours dissecting what went wrong. Short answer: it wasn’t the event, the promotions, or even the execution. It was the locations. Ranges capable of hosting 3-gun competitions aren’t conveniently located, they feature awful spectator capabilities, have lousy parking, and even worse sanitary facilities.
Bringing professional entertainment and world-class shooters wasn’t enough to encourage people to attend. Parking was still awful and no one wanted to stand for hours watching other people having fun at the range, even with significant cash on the line. That’s the shooting sports.
At the same time, thousands of people regularly fill arenas for every Bassmaster Classic, and just not to watch fishing. They attend the expos and weigh-in festivities, too. Classics are essentially people being entertained while watching other people weigh bags of fish. Attend a “blast off” where the fishing actually starts and you’ll see considerably smaller crowds. Think dozens, not thousands.
There’s a major reason shooting sports will never reach the levels of spectator interest of virtually any other kind of competition. What shooting lacks is why shooting competitions still appeal to me. With the exception of the Olympics (and some side games in shotgunning), there’s no gambling.
Major League Fishing and B.A.S.S. both have gambling, either via their fantasy leagues or, more directly, through MLF’s partnership with BallyBet. Compared to every other sport, shooting has tiny audiences, minimal payouts and a complex scoring system
Any one of those shortfalls turns off gaming organizations. I know because we looked at establishing gaming for the shooting sports. One (short) meeting with a senior officer at Draft Kings was enough to convince both parties that gambling isn’t viable for shooting sports.
Today, I’m relieved that we didn’t push harder to include shooting competitions with monster trucks and motocross. The technology to make shooting competitions work safely inside sports venues now exists, but the shooting sports are “disfavored” in most stadiums and arenas. Absent exuberant crowds, shooting sports will never rival any other sport or lure non-endemic sponsors.
With the FBI’s current investigation into gambling in the NBA (shocking) and the alleged involvement of New York crime bosses (gasp!), I have to wonder if all sports groups aren’t reconsidering their gaming ties, especially those that are dependent on individual performances.
During my time in Miami an acquaintance was the Florida official charged with making sure jai alai frontons were on the up-and-up. His was a tough job, created after a “Miami syndicate” was caught fixing matches in the late 1970s. He used a computer-based program to track every player in every Florida fronton. Too many match losses were flagged, then cross referenced with the match outcome, payouts and, most importantly, the betting payouts for those matches.
Jai alai was very popular with certain high rollers. Every player in any sport occasionally and inexplicably misses routine shots or has a minor injury that can take them out of the lineup. Jai Alai faced the same scrutiny the NBA is facing today, It still exists as a dying sport in Florida because casino-type gambling (slots) can only exist in pari-mutual venues (dog and horse racing are also pari-mutuals) venues. It’s a money loser that keeps the slots running.
But Jai Alai didn’t face the same level of threat that every sport today is facing. There was no proposition betting involveed. Today you can place a prop bet on anything within any game that doesn’t directly affect the final score. You can bet on individual player stats like points scored, team turnovers, a wide receiver’s number of receptions, or other “unique game occurrences.”
Unfortunately, that opens the door for insider influences. Did an individual’s minutes played, a dropped pass, an interception thrown, influence not the outcome of the game overall, but the outcome of certain prop bets?
It’s an existential problem that lies at the intersection of sports and gambling, whatever the sport. When a player suddenly grabs a hamstring and heads to the bench, is it an injury or a favor to prop bettors? Was the ref who called — or ignored — pass interference, holding, or any other foul influencing the game for profit?
When the money gets big, the temptation gets bigger.
Having worked both “razzle booths” and “flat stores” in carnivals, I know any skill game, no matter how small it appears, can be rigged. I prefer competitions where the variables far outweigh the potential payoff. Shooting competitions exist because the shooters want them, not bettors.
We’ll keep you posted.
That’s a great column, Jim! As someone who has promoted the shooting sports for decades, there are a few points that stand out for me: 1) There isn’t really a mass audience for shooting sports, as you might define a mass audience…the fact that so many millions of people own guns doesn’t mean they’re interested in competition. Boy, did I learn that the hard way! 2) Shooters are basically uncomfortable with with the media “intrusion” other sports take for granted. and that are necessary to really show the sports at their best. 3) There are exactly two “recognizable” professional shooters — Jerry Miculek and Ron Leatham. The balkanization of the shooting sports has led to seemingly hundreds of “champions” and whole matches full of competitors wearing NASCAR-styled sponsor shirts.
Gambling isn’t a sport, it’s a mental health disorder- and it should be treated as such.
Sport is about the sport- and that’s all it should be. Individual competition is about ability. Team sports are about the team. Racing is about the vehicle. Shooting is about the weapon. But this has long since been usurped by MONEY.
Gambling, NI, and such destroys team sports. The team should be the draw in team sports- players will always come and go, but it’s the teams are continue for generation after generation. Same with racing- it’s the manufacturers that matter, the drivers will always come and go. Today, race cars don’t even have the actual manufacturer’s name on them anymore because all of the focus been misplaced to sideshows such as the “celebrity status” of the drivers, and to whomever pays the most to put their name on the side of the car (where now there’s even car manufacturer’s names on race cars that are actually made by a different car company altogether!).
It just makes no sense… unless you’re putting profit above ALL ELSE.
It used to be that fans were aficionados of their chosen sport- but that has gone to the wayside. I see more and more people who know little to nothing about the sports they appear to be interested in, but what I’m really seeing is folks just looking for brainless entertainment and being part of the “in” crowd (and gambling has been a boon for getting non-enthusiasts to pretend that they are actually fans of sports).
Again- follow the money.
I have been an endurance sports car and motorcycle road racing fanatic since the late 70’s, and I can sincerely say that I am PROUD that these sports have remained relatively immune to the “NASCAR effect”. What NASCRAP has done to stock car racing is unforgiveable- but it’s earned them a lot of money, and that has resulted in more traditional sports following suit. NASCRAP hasn’t been actual racing for decades- and, sadly, there’s a lot of “fans” who don’t even have a clue what a farce it truly is.
I would much rather see the shooting sports remain an aficionado’s sport- not some farcical “fan” show. When the end-all, be-all for sports becomes entertainment for the sake of profit- it is no longer an honest competition. And when actual competition is removed, there’s nothing left but scripted melodramatic entertainment for vacuous spectators- which I call the Kardashian effect.
Real sport deserves to remain REAL- it matters not if everyone and their mother LIKES it or not. Take wrestling for example- I wrested from 7th grade all the way through my senior year, and I still enjoy catching an occasional match at my old school during the season. But I’d never be caught DEAD at a “professional” wrestling event because that’s not a real sport at all- “Pro” wrestling, like NASCRAP, has become the poster child for everything that’s WRONG in modern “sports”… there’s lots of drama, vacuous spectators, and zero honest competition.
And judging by the market size of Pro Wrestling and NASCRAP- there’s obviously LOTS of “fans” who prefer being “entertained” over REAL, honest competition.
C’est la vie…