fastalarms said:
The fundemental key reason a sport reaches popularity in the USA is down to a few ground rules that unfortunately cycling doesn't cover.
1. Easy access to a seat and a cola and corn dog stand
Wether it's Basketball , Ice Hockey , Baseball , American Football or even NASCAR the ability for fans to sit down and gorge themselves is an absolute prerequisite. Watching a sport purely on TV or travelling abroad to see a quick glimpse just doesn't cut the mustard. It has to be a sit down and eat experience just like going to the movies.
2. It has to be played out in the USA
All the top rated American sports are played right there in America.
How many American fans would attend or be interested in the Superbowl if it was played out in a Stadium in Venice or Barcelona?
3. The best competitors have to be Americans
Ok having Lance is great but Contador-Schleck-Basso etc are complete unknowns outside the USA to all but a few. A few more Yanks scrapping for the top places would definately help
4.The competitors have to have a relevance to the fans.
NASCAR racers have to be at least partly rednecks and top Basketball and Football players have to be Black. As a Texan Lance may have drawn huge support if he had been a Rodeo star but a cyclist doesn't build up a base of home fans to start the ball rolling.
These are but just a few of the reasons why cycling will struggle to lift off in the USA. Even in Europe cycling is not a huge sport in comparison to Football and it is barely on the radar at all in England.
Cycling is more a sport for those who have taken an interest because as leisure or racing cyclists themselves they can appreciate the effort.
Good thoughts.
but according to your number 1 reason would mean that Velodrome racing would be watched a lot since you have a captive audience and you could sell the junk food. But how does golf attract a lot of people to the majors to watch? You have to walk the entire green to keep watching your favorite golfer; and where's the nearest junk food stand?
Number 2, then why not just create a bicycle sports league, like football etc, and compete here in the states along with rideoffs (playoffs) complete with finals to see who's the best in America.
3, yes we need more yanks, would a American bicycle league (ABL) do that?
4, Quite true, but one wonders if there was an ABL would interest get generated? When basketball, baseball, and football first started there wasn't a whole lot of interest in either, and the players weren't payed squat. Fortunantely in todays world even if the ABL couldn't pay a lot initially, endorsements very well could make a few very rich.
When I had comcast cable tv they wouldn't even show the highlights of the tour, Verizon at least shows a condensed version of the tour, newspaper is void of any tour reports, and I haven't been able to hear anything on radio news either. There's very little publicity here, you have to follow it the internet. And you can't find nothing concerning races in America except the internet. Again publicity needs to be generated.
Personally I think, though
I could be wrong, that even if you had the all 4 of your objections eliminated the sport still would not go anywhere here. We would rather watch golf...snore!