2004 Olympics Update

[Spanky McFarland]

Originally posted by edew
They know, as much as everyone knows, where US fencing goes is where international fencing goes, in the long run in terms of television and popularity. It's undeniable. It's unfortunate that a relatively small country like the US can hold such power over other sports.

Eric,

Do you think you could expand on what you mean by the above? Probably the most popular sport in the world (Soccer) is most assuredly not led by the US. In fact, many of the US sports, such as American Football and Baseball, do not have a large take up in Europe (I only say Europe because I don't know about the interest in other parts of the world). I'm not quite sure how America leads the sporting world.

Do you think American audiences are more likely to watch fencing than European audiences? I would have thought the same lack of interest applies in the US as it does over here.

Spanky.

[Jason]

Originally posted by Spanky McFarland
Do you think American audiences are more likely to watch fencing than European audiences? I would have thought the same lack of interest applies in the US as it does over here.

I've noticed that it's much easier to see fencing televised in Europe than in America... though, certainly not easy.
Eurosport at least shows some of the World Championships and Olympic Games.

While this is pretty limited coverage, it's a lot more that what's in the US.

[KShan5[PrFC]]

Spanky, I agree with Edew, next to soccer we do lead the sporting world. You mention Europe doesn't have football or baseball. Well the "Minor League" of the NFL is in Eruope....known as NFL Europe. And Baseball is huge in Asia. Probably the largest sport over there. And their prospects are coming to America to play, so they do follow baseball. Plus, there is baseketball, which is also very big in Europe. And again it is because we have players from Europe come over and play in the NBA. Now I know the similarity is that they come to play in the US. But maybe we could get a pro fencing league going over here....? Then the sport would grow, huh?

Disclaimer: The pr fencing league was a joke, and I just want to state that I am not that naive.

[edew]

Originally posted by Jason
I've noticed that it's much easier to see fencing televised in Europe than in America... though, certainly not easy.
Eurosport at least shows some of the World Championships and Olympic Games.

While this is pretty limited coverage, it's a lot more that what's in the US.

I wouldn't exactly say the coverage is limited. The tapes I got from Peter G (in Sweden, no less) of the 2001 World Championships contained about 2 hours of continuous (no commercial interruption) coverage for each event, individuals and team. I did distill the tapes down by editing out the dead time between fencing and some panning shots.

Still, that's WAY more than anything we get in ANY sport here in the US. No US commercial station would show 2 hours of actual sports without commercial breaks or some stupid sob-story "Up-close-and-personal" Bu11cr@p.