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Comment by ythl | Hacker News Reader

Money. If the organization that governs your sport doesn't lobby the right people, your sport will stop getting coverage. Without coverage you generate no money. Read: wrestling and the olympics.

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The money usually flows the other way - from broadcasters to the leagues/associations/federations for the broadcasting rights. And broadcasters will bid only if there's a reasonable assumption of unbundling that bid and reselling it to advertisers in 30-second increments with some margin. XFL is a good example of big money going into a new league with little to show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFL#End_of_season_and_failure

I think wrestling is back on? But the broadcasts definitely should be improved. First they should hire someone like Joe Rogan for over-the-top commentary. If the problem is too many competitors, then start merging weight classes. There are definitely potential fans around for entertaining combat sports.

I agree that money plays a part, but in terms of wrestling, it'll still do fine without the Olympics because of MMA. And as MMA becomes more mainstream, it will be more influential than a sporting event that's broadcasted once every four years.

Also, high school wrestling enrollment has been holding steady.

http://www.nwcaonline.com/nwcawebsite/savingwrestlinghome/fa... (click on the male participation pdf)

>> If the organization that governs your sport doesn't lobby the right people, your sport will stop getting coverage. Without coverage you generate no money.

Likewise if both of these things happen (getting money and coverage) there is still a huge chance nobody watches and you still lose

Read:

- US Soccer (NASL and the MLS)

- The NHL

- The X-Games

MLS has been doing rather well. Attendance has been increasing steadily for the past decade[1].

The NHL, while certainly not as popular as the NFL or MLB, is pretty consistent as far as attendance numbers go, comparable to the NBA [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Soccer_attendance...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Soccer_attendance...

Soccer and hockey have strong, motivated fan bases. They lack a great business model for TV.

Football is fucked long term. Liability is going to shut down the recruitment funnel, and the implosion of TV revenues will wipe out the big money.

Soccer lacks a great business model for TV? Someone'd better tell Sky Sports!

Spooky was presumably referring to American Football, which is wildly popular but faces some significant questions about the long-term safety of the sport to players.

I should have clarified for American TV. They haven't figured about a way to pause a soccer game long enough to run 25 minutes of commercials per hour.

Baseball is particularly good example of how they do this. Go to a major league game and things randomly stop... A lot. Go to a minor league game, and they are in continuous motion. The games are usually much shorter.

American football is a tv show that involves a ball. As TV goes, so does football.

Wrestlers have been monetizing their skillset within MMA for years. They can literally walk into a cage and win matches early in their career because they have tons for formal training

Lobby all you want, but if people don't like to watch the game or participate in it, lobbying won't help it stay alive.

In that sense, money is just a proxy for interest.

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