No "Hot Summer Nights" - we get this instead

[MISkier]

There is no justice. Water skiing is no longer broadcast, but we have this:

 

 

It's a fun game to play for sure, but I just don't see the spectator attraction.

 

I'm afraid to search the listings for horseshoes. It would be too disheartening.

[oldjeep]

To spectate a waterski event do you go to a place where there is a ton of parking and it is acceptable to drink your weight in beer and brats? I suspect cornhole tournament is much like a st paul saints game - almost nobody actually watches the game.

[Wish]

 

[slow]

I dont know anyone that doesn’t waterski that wants too watch watersking

[oldjeep]

I like to waterski, but watching it is like watching paint dry - without the satisfaction of a freshly painted room when you are done.

[MISkier]

How did they get 15,000 people at that 1982 Shreveport tournament, then? Were they all skiers? If nobody likes to watch it, what was their incentive?

[Horton]

@MISkier it was a completely different era. It was a completely different world. It was at a time when water skiing was an extreme sport. None of the X Games style sports had grown up yet. There was no internet. Video games were black and white and maybe eight bit . The publishing industry had not splintered yet. Water skiing was much more affordable to middle-class America. Etc etc

 

I guess the simple answer is water skiing was massively more popular then.

[MISkier]

@Horton, that all makes sense. However, I'm just not connecting how cornhole and break dancing have risen to the extreme sport ranking.

[Kimbymon]

Cornhole? Stab me now. What is ESPN8 the Ocho broadcasting? Are Cotton and Pepper doing the play by play?

[liquid d]

The guy that works for espn that came up with the idea of broadcasting cornhole should be shot dead. ...and then shot again.

[RAWSki]

Looks like Cornhole has sponsors. Sponsors outside of the 'corn hole equipment' industry. I remember when there was a major beverage and automaker supporting the waterski tour and taking the sport to locations where the public would congregate. Was there water perfect? Heck no. Were the crowds and atmosphere better?

Only @Edbrazil probably remembers.

 

Of course as @Horton pointed out skiing isn't as popular or consider mainstream...... now people will sit at home and channel surf or watch YouTube vids --- before they will actually attend a live semi-extreme sporting event. These days even NASCAR and Golf are hurting in the attendance departments, of course Golf has huge sponsors. NASCAR is trying to re-invent itself

[Horton]

you guys should also understand that often the promoter sells the advertising and then pays ESPN for the broadcast. So ESPN broadcasts whatever they are paid to broadcast.

[Drago]

@RAWSki lots of us remember: Packed city parks, cheap beer, Hawaiian Tropic girls/hooters girls,Shreveport casino girls, sun, neon, big hair, short shorts, no cell phones, travel agents....

I was making fun of a cornhole tournament with my son, then we watched until the end :)

I don't last more than 2 skiers into a webcast.

[JAS]

It was a time when we all had dreams of buying a new ski boat and being part if the sport. Boat companies wanted all of us. With the cost of new boats I quit dreaming years ago. Like Horton said, a different time.

 

[liquid d]

Leigh , the 80's were not kind to your mind if you watched a cornhole tournament to the end.

[lpskier]

Hey, I just built a corn hole game for our ski lake. Really!

[waterskicorey]

I didn’t even know what “cornhole” was until I Googled it, you have got to be kidding me, people actually watch other people playing this? What has this world come to. But I also do not understand how people like watching people play video games either.

[Drago]

Cornhole has seen part of our tournaments for about 6 yrs now.

You should see these pros: curves, blocks, triples

[E_T]

If you want people to come to a tournament. Do a night jump. There’s nothing more entertaining in our sport.

[swc5150]

Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but weren't all those pro tour stops on public water? I'd think, if you want public attendance, that would be a prerequisite? The Malibu Open here in WI still seems to draw.

[mfjaegersr]

Cornhole: because nothing represents masculinity better than trading in your iron horseshoes for....bean bags. Friggin’ tossers...

 

The ACL championship game? The Super Hole.

[Drago]

The last webcast I tried to watch was a live shot of a jump ramp for about 20 minutes before I gave up

[MISkier]

@Drago, that is a webcast, not a commercial broadcast, which is what I am asking about. A commercial broadcast would have active, multi-camera production controlled by a director and features, such as flashbacks, backstories and other filler, during a lull in the action. Even back in the day, they at least panned through the crowd and did replays. And, it was post-edited, rather than live. We all asked for live webcast. That is one of the drawbacks - nobody is stitching the show together to meet our immediate gratification or compensate for our ADHD.

 

Someone setting up a camera on a fixed point is different than actively producing a broadcast.

 

I thought the Nationals webcast tried to incorporate some of these things and did some things well, but it still can’t quite match the commercial equivalent. And, it’s even harder if you want live coverage.

[Drago]

That's redefining ADHD: Not willing to watch a computer screen with a picture of a ramp and little waves lapping by.

I know what it was back then.Watchable.

As Horton said, anything can be on espn today. Merely produce the show and buy the slot. It would be charity, and I don't think it would help "grow the sport" one bit.

[swc5150]

Thinking more on this, Coors was a big sponsor of "hot Tuesday nights) of course. Here in WI, if you can buy beer, park a lawn chair and be even somewhat entertained, the people will come. Maybe that's why water ski shows are still popular here (even though they're primarily BYOB)? Seems as though there's a seed here to grow 3 event again? Skiers would just have to forgo the glass water of their private setting.

[DW]

Well at least in cornhole you have to aim and actually do something to hit a target. Poker broadcast on a sports channel does not strike me as a 'sport'. Then again, maybe one reason ESPN has endured a significant ratings dip.

[Than_Bogan]

I love watching top level poker with a really expert announcer BUT that is clearly not a sport. Brilliantly designed game: Yes. Sport: No.

[liquid d]

I think you can produce a pretty good show from a tournament, and get sponsors, and not lose money. The show will be nowhere close to live, but it would be a start...or restart as it may be. We already broadcast a bunch of tournaments, so the action is already on film. It just takes the fillers, and sponsors to fill in the slack time. It needs to be heavily edited.

If cornhole can actually make money...it makes no sense. I truly don't believe that ANYONE would rather watch cornhole than waterskiing.

[BMG73]

I think TV as we know it- is slowly going away. Everything will be downloaded. My niece (8) stayed with us a while back. We have Directv. She was going crazy with commercials. She said “Why are there so many ads?” They only watch Netflix and amazon.

[DW]

@BMG73: Watch a European sports broadcast sometime (ESPN F1 races in the US are a Euro stream), no commercials during the event. Super refreshing to watch that way, your daughter is spot on, the US television model needs a major change to remain competitive.

Note- the F1 race commercial free broadcast morphed to that because ESPN was too cheap to hire a crew, then basically the entire audience complained about the broadcast and a sponsor stepped in, so not really done voluntarily.

[DangerBoy]

Umm, please excuse my ignorance but what the heck is Cornhole? :# I'm guessing/hoping it's some sort of sport or game but how is it played?

[MISkier]

It’s a bean bag tossing game, much like horseshoes, except the objective is to get the bean bags to land on a flat wooden surface and fall through a hole. There are more nuances to the scoring I’m sure, but that is the basic athletic skill involved.

[DangerBoy]

And they broadcast that on TV? And people watch it?!! :o I guess I shouldn't be so surprised; they get huge television and live audiences for darts in Britain. I think they even have a BT or Sky Sports channel dedicated just for darts if you can believe it. :(

[mfjaegersr]

(I know THIS, due to research...for my comedy bit on Cornhole)

 

The best part of Cornhole is the terminology, many of which terms can be shouted when they occur...

 

Cow pie

Cornholio

Dirty bag

Dirty Rollup

Screaming Eagle

Slippery Granny

Grand bag, double duece, catorce four-bagger

Hooker

Sally or corn patty

Short bag

Shucker

Whitewash

 

When I first read all the terms...I wasn’t sure if it was for real; it sounded more like rev 2.0 of the Love Rolodex...??

 

Seriously. Grownups. Tossing. Bean bags. On TV. ‘Murica. ?‍♂️

 

[liquid d]

We have perfect opportunity with Moomba. We'll have great footage, iconic site, and great skiing from the world's best. Whoever owns the footage, produce a show from it, and I'll advertise.

[Horton]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuuwWV2ghLN/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=mytwyvefc1xk

[JAS]

ESPN tonight. Ax throwing, now that actually looks fun

[Than_Bogan]

I actually saw a few seconds of that, and was disappointed that it's way closer to darts than to Knight Fight. Oddly slow and precise with almost no implied deadliness.

[unksskis]

Fairly likely there's a BAGS set-up at most every water ski tournament. Likely not any waterskiing at the BAGS tournaments, it's more universally understood and participated in.

[Edbrazil]

I worked the oldtime Shreveport tournaments. Lots of billboards throughout town. The attendance was a zoo of people. Just walking a short ways to check on the jump meters took some 15 minutes. They even brought in a company to construct a temporary grandstand. Site was not wide open water, but neither was it a dug private lake. We had World Records there, and not just in jumping.

[Edbrazil]

Moomba: I worked 10 of those events, from 1982--1991 inclusive. Part of a week-long festival, and huge crowds watching waterskiing. At the time, it was on live TV in AUS on channel 7. Different pace down under, with setdown delays between passes. Plenty of beer in the crowd, and plenty of beer cans floating down the Yarra River. Developing ski show there, with plenty of falls. But, later on, the Gilligan's Island themed show was great.

[DaveD]

@Than_Bogan Ax catching would be a lot more interesting to watch.

[JAS]

Easy to forget that tv production is based on company’s perception of their viewing market. Wow how it’s changed over the years! I have still some vhs recordings Iof tournaments I made back then.