The x games? come on

I can't stand the thought of whoring the sport out to Kurt Sptizner's dream. This was his idea from 7 or so years ago, whenI was still a fresh fish in Rally. When I hear the "x column" in the rally community, the hair on the back of my neck stands up!

I hear the argument that it will grow the fan base.... Sorry as a recent college grad, I can say my generation has the attention span of a flea. and the extreme sport crowd can't understand the helmet worn inside a rally car concept, works.

I can only guess that hood surfing and car tapping will be on the horizon for US Rally. Thanks xgames.

"Build a spectacle that even a fool can understand and only a fool will want to watch it."

boo-hoo.

Ya know, If I wanted a dog and pony show I'd go to nascar. Sure it may be the future, but I can bitch about it. I guess everybody must be operating under the "any publicity is good publicity." Yeah I may be whining for a purity in the sport that is long dead, BUT I don't need the glamour.

There has never been a solid effort to develop a talent pool to compete in the WRC. And we are fools to believe that the xgames will be our savior. Nor is Pastrana, he's good, but he Blok and others won't be able to put Leob in a box, without Satge events. He may look impressive in an arena, but he's a performer and lives off the crowd.

I commend RA for thier ability to get this deal, but until the coverage shows more than just a SSS with a few show stages, I'm not that impressed. There needs to be an American Nicky Grist to help the US audience comprehend what goes on in the sport.

The other problem that must be addressed is that there tends to be a dumbing down the sport so that it's blatantly obvious what we do. What's wrong with slowly sucking in an audience, building them into an enthusiastic base that will travel cross country to watch events. This begins with events working on getting more information into the hands of the audience. Time and resources are limited to do this, but we have experinced road marshals that know what's going on. This may be a resource to tap on the PR side.

OFIT
(Old Fart in Training)

Duffster Wrote:
> And we are fools to believe that the xgames will be our savior.

I just had an interesting thought:

"The Little League doesn't depend on MLB for recruitment."

Some parts of the analogy work, I think. The continued success of Little League baseball all across the country doesn't really have much to do with how much air time the sport gets. Kids play because it's fun. I wonder if one could find even a small amount of correlation in participation between those two leagues. Didn't MLB have a big strike a couple of years back?

Huh. Anyway, no idea if that's valid, just came to me.

Cheers,
Anders

---

Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

I'm a bit conflicted about the x-games "phenomenon" as well -- I'm not quite at the "this spectacle is denigrating our fine sport and detrimental to the future of rally in North America" stage, but I'm definitely not a fan.

I see it (the x-games popularity) as a weird faddish pop-culture offshoot of American society -- kinda like the male version of Paris Hilton.

I'd be concerned about the x-gamers soaking up sponsorship money (an x-games rally ride is apparently worth upwards of $200k if you market yourself well) but, realistically, the money is coming from a different pot and very few "clubman" competitors are significantly effected by sponsorship dollars.

As an offshoot to Anders Little League analogy I suppose we could work up some of those SAT word association puzzles...

X-games is to rally is as:

a)weekend circle track racing is to nascar

b)mixed martial arts is to boxing

c)tastes great is to less filling

d)Subaru Forrester is to lesbian couple


Cheers, Ted

---

Pure mathematics is the enemy of every truly creative man -- Sir Alec

> As an offshoot to Anders Little League analogy I
> suppose we could work up some of those SAT word
> association puzzles...
>
> X-games is to rally is as:
>
> a)weekend circle track racing is to nascar
>
> b)mixed martial arts is to boxing
>
> c)tastes great is to less filling
>
> d)Subaru Forrester is to lesbian couple


b)mixed martial arts is to boxing

defiantely b.

i am excited to see the X Games show. should be a fun spectacle. i dont see it as tarnishing the image of rally at all.

the X Games stuff could do a lot of good for the sport. key word there is COULD. i hope it does. i had discussions about rally a lot last summer after the X games with people that never expressed interest in Rally before.

there is no magic bullet to "save" rally.

Greg Donovan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> defiantely b.
>
> i am excited to see the X Games show. should be a
> fun spectacle. i dont see it as tarnishing the
> image of rally at all.
>
> the X Games stuff could do a lot of good for the
> sport. key word there is COULD. i hope it does.
> i had discussions about rally a lot last summer
> after the X games with people that never expressed
> interest in Rally before.
>
> there is no magic bullet to "save" rally.

If there's any benefit to anybody, logically it seems it will benefit those that get seen.
Those that get seen are already affluent.

Seems logical that they will get more help.

I fail to see how "rally" or organisers or anybody I know will be better off if Travis Pastrana, or Ken Block, or Matt Iorio, et al get more money than they currently have or more freebies than they currently have.

Duffy, it's the ol "spectacle" versus "identification" dichotomy.

If a sport is "pitched" in the hopes that people watch will "identify" with what they're watching, then maybe there can be some eventual benefit to the sport, especially maybe new blood.

It its just a one off spectacle, then it's forgotten as soon as the next hypped up, over produced 5 minute show made into 2 hours of pablum is served up.

Less filling, more pap.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

the ESPN2 event coverage is pretty good.

the last show had a great segment with the drivers talking about the codrivers. it was really cool.

however, my favorite moment was the cheers that the announcer gave salty for fixing thumper's car in 20 minutes.

i want more of that stuff. and more footage of cars going sideways.

andrew havas got onthe show three times. twice in the honda and again in the rx-7. the rx-7 footage was awesome.

i didnt like the announcers refering to the x games ans the indy 500 of rally. it is more like the all star game for football and basketball. the 500 actually means something with respect to the season. the x games dont. they are bragging rights and more money for some.

as i said before i am loking forward to the spectacle. i expect to see Boris literally drive the wheels off the car. and i expect to see colin do something spectacular. and i expect to see travis act like a giant puppydog again.

should be fun.

right now i am passing out posters in fargo for Ojibwe Forest Rally. i am telling people about the x games and the espn2 shows and then telling them that all the "stars" from the show will be in bemidji MN at the end of the month.

I will have to correct myself on one detail, I recently discovered non-broadcast television, that the current ESPN2 coverage of rally is quite good. Natalie did a very good job of explaining certain aspects of rally (she couldn't give a seminar), but the presntation of 3 events compacted was disappointing; but tolerable.

I also have to admit that I am a huge pessimist (if you couldn't guess). But I see this xgames adventure like the forays into the WRC (Olympus, POR, and That canadian event i can never remember), not creating a lasting impact on the sport. We are a side show to the x that requires more effort for them to prepare for. So financially will this pay off for the organisers, I doubt it. plus the liability of have 2000#+ vehicles going like mad in a satdium, makes the underwriters pretty nervous.

I would also add my unfounded fear is that communities (read forest personel who already dislike some events) will not want new events, because they mistakenly believe that the x is reperentitive of the whole of rally. again I have no proof, or solid ground to conjecture. But I can't help but wonder if this is "The Pearl" (there's an obscure litterary refernce for ya) for Rally.

We'll wait and see.

Duffy B

Duffster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But I see this xgames
> adventure like the forays into the WRC (Olympus,
> POR, and That canadian event i can never
> remember), not creating a lasting impact on the
> sport.

Interesting. You're right, I'm sure all of those WRC or want-to-become-WRC events believed that their existence would "get exposure" which would then lead to more competitors. Dunno if that happened.

If _someone else_ wants to organize a big not-rally-but-with-rally-cars event, and _someone else_ wants to dump lots of money into it, and _I_ don't have to do anything or pay anything, fine, go for it. So far it appears that the only benefits to 80-90% of the rallying competitors is that they get to say "Hey, I know that guy on TV".

I suppose one could also measure the impact by lost opportunity: if RA wasn't putting all their time, money, and press releases into hyping the x-games, could they have found a big national series sponsor by now? Hard to say.

As JVL says, I'm sure the guys that go to the x-games work some nice deals. I don't know what good that does for all the other organizers or competitors. This would be an interesting twist: Operating under the assumption that x-games competitors do get deals, if you went to the X-games, your entry fee is four times normal. So for a rally that had seven of those guys attending, it would be like an extra 21 cars at the event from a financial perspective. Then the organizers _could_ lower prices, which I think is the only real way to increase participation.

Cheers,
Anders

---

Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

Anders Green Wrote:
>
> As JVL says, I'm sure the guys that go to the
> x-games work some nice deals. I don't know what
> good that does for all the other organizers or
> competitors. >


Ken Block's foray into rally has provided me with a different driving shoe option than was previously available. Granted it costs more than sparco, puma, addidas, etc. But if I buy it I'm supporting a rally company.

---

Matt Smith

Racing in glorious black and red

My daily life is a Saab story (sold!)

mothra Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ken Block's foray into rally has provided me with
> a different driving shoe option than was
> previously available. Granted it costs more than
> sparco, puma, addidas, etc.

Baaahahahhaa! Fantastic.

> But if I buy it I'm supporting a rally company.

Even better!!! The trickle-up philosophy!!!

Anders

---

Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

Duffster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
But I
> can't help but wonder if this is "The Pearl"
> (there's an obscure litterary refernce for ya) for
> Rally...

Cool, maybe next year we can get Tom Cruise as the featured competitor


Whoops, sorry wrong cult, I meant Mitt Romney...

---

Pure mathematics is the enemy of every truly creative man -- Sir Alec



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2007 09:48AM by Ted Andkilde.

Anders Green Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mothra Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Ken Block's foray into rally has provided me
> with
> > a different driving shoe option than was
> > previously available. Granted it costs more
> than
> > sparco, puma, addidas, etc.
>
> Baaahahahhaa! Fantastic.
>
> > But if I buy it I'm supporting a rally
> company.
>
> Even better!!! The trickle-up philosophy!!!
>
> Anders

Anders.
More beer For you!
>
>
>
>
> Raleigh, NC
> Impreza H6 3.0

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Ah, Mittens.

Now, why not schedule a presidential debate in the middle of Ken Block's next Jump. Make politics more fun. We could have candidates driving and Hardboiled's Chris matthews in the right seat asking the hard(ly) questions.

I can truly see the value of xgames now!!