[email protected] (Bill Laudien) wrote in
news:[email protected]:
> Sportsbook.com would not have a team were it not for the added publicity generated by Lance
> Armstrong and the trickle down effect that has generated additional press coverage and the
> existance of races such as NYC and San Fran.
Bingo! And the additional coverage is exactly what makes it attractive to sponsors, therefore
contradicting the author's argument.
> That being said, I can see the difficulty for a company such as Navigators or Prime Allience when
> they have solid, big budget teams animating a race such as Philadelphia, with riders in the break,
> and the coverage cuts away from the race itself to do a 5 minute piece on Lance and Hincappe,
> neither of whom are in the race. And in both New York and San Francisco last year, most of the
> interviews and post race attention didn't go to Saturn or 7-UP, but went to US Postal and Lance
> who were also rans in those events.
These are good points, and support the article's measure of advertising value to Postal. I suppose
the folks at Navigators et al probably have numbers that show viewership for the events over the
past few years; if those numbers show increased interest in the sport, then they probably don't mind
OLN cutting away for 5 minutes to worship the man responsible for it if their advertising value has
gone up too.
> When the first couple of questions fired at Charles Dionne after winning America's biggest race
> are, "what did you think about how Lance rode ?" and " how does it feel to beat Lance ?", I can
> understand the ideas presented in the article.
Really? Because I think this example contradicts it. You've already made the point that the race
probably wouldn't exist without the Lance effect and he amplifies the media attention as well.
Would Dionne prefer all that attention with questions about beating Lance, or would he rather
answer racing questions from just the local media and a stringer from rbr? Beating Lance Armstrong
makes this the biggest day in Charles Dionne's career so far, and it's something he'll tell his
grandkids about.
To me, this premise that Lance is bad for the sport is like finding $100, and then being upset
because you'll have to figure out how to spend it.
NS
