Quote: bewareshadows "I'm trying to think of a sport that I enjoy watching but have never had any interest or exeperience in playing.
I'm all for expansion, but my point is that do people just watch sport because they enjoy it or is it born out of some experience with the game.
The best example is London. It was in the top flight for many years, yes it moved about but we are talking London one of the biggest and richest cities in the world and it could not get a regular 5000 people turning up to watch.
I know the saying is build it and they will come, but I doubt that the sheer enthusiasm of a backer can spur 10,000 to turn up to watch a game they have no experience of.'"
There are plenty of examples of sport being popular, without large numbers taking part.
American Football (they can fill Wembley stadium and the game isn't really played in this country)
Tour de France (Yorkshire) Huge numbers watching a sport that has never previously had mass appeal
Horse Racing. Not too many people have taken part in this but, plenty turn up to watch
The Boat Race (the biggest load of tosh ever but, viewing and spectator numbers are huge)
Even Figure Skating was popular a few years ago.
It's all about publicity and hype, plus clever marketing
If we paid some celebrities and put an advert together along the lines of "I'll be going, will you" and gave it sufficient air time, people would turn up.
The media can generate interest in absolutely anything. For our sport, it has proved too difficult to get them on board.
As to why they are so reluctant to show any interest is not known but, with the right marketing, anything can be "sold" to the general public.
