(One in an occasional series provided during the run-up to the ’08 Summer Games in Beijing, China. Archived posts in this series can be accessed by entering “Olympics” in the blog search box above).
Softball is such an unpopular sport worldwide, the sport merely sold out out the 300,000 tickets for the 9-day tournament at the Beijing Games.
Currently, softball is scheduled to be dropped from the roster of events in the Olympic games; it will not be played in 2012. The fact that Team USA has won all 3 gold medals and is favored to win it again in August led us to opine there was some anti-American sentiment in the decision to axe softball. But selling-out the event is evidence that, similar to the rise in popularity of basketball worldwide in the wake of the Dream Teams’ dominant performance in the ’92 games, American excellence in softball is actually a boon to the sport.
Would they have sold-out the event even if the Americans weren’t that good? Possibly, but having America as top dog with photogenic athletes like Jennie Finch and Caitlin Lowe known to softball fans around the world, will never hurt the sport.
Fortunately, the IOC has an opportunity to put aside politics and grasp the reality of the situation and reinstate the sport for the 2016 Games with a vote coming up on the matter in October of 2009.
P.S. Absent from the Olympics, the International Softball Federation would be wise to sponsor a “World Championship”-style tourney immediately prior to the Games in 2012 should the IOC not see past their myopia when voting next October.
Softball is such an unpopular sport worldwide, the sport merely sold out out the 300,000 tickets for the 9-day tournament at the Beijing Games.
Currently, softball is scheduled to be dropped from the roster of events in the Olympic games; it will not be played in 2012. The fact that Team USA has won all 3 gold medals and is favored to win it again in August led us to opine there was some anti-American sentiment in the decision to axe softball. But selling-out the event is evidence that, similar to the rise in popularity of basketball worldwide in the wake of the Dream Teams’ dominant performance in the ’92 games, American excellence in softball is actually a boon to the sport.
Would they have sold-out the event even if the Americans weren’t that good? Possibly, but having America as top dog with photogenic athletes like Jennie Finch and Caitlin Lowe known to softball fans around the world, will never hurt the sport.
Fortunately, the IOC has an opportunity to put aside politics and grasp the reality of the situation and reinstate the sport for the 2016 Games with a vote coming up on the matter in October of 2009.
P.S. Absent from the Olympics, the International Softball Federation would be wise to sponsor a “World Championship”-style tourney immediately prior to the Games in 2012 should the IOC not see past their myopia when voting next October.
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3 comments:
Worry not.
"Competitive Yoga" is making a pitch to be added to the olympic roster in 2020.
Normally, I'd laugh. But if you've ever seen the hotties on "Namaste" yoga while channel surfing, you would set your TiVo ahead for 12 years hence.
- Mongo the Willing to Compromise
And what a "Boon" it has been. Just look at the groundswell of support for a Women's professional softball league, and the literally dozens of fans at any college softball game (most wearing flannel and disturbingly "Pat-esque".
Did you seriously just write an article on softball?!?!
Even we find that hard to contemplate
WNBA, You can't equate individual college team attendance figures with the crowds Team USA has pulled with their tour of the country the past few months for obvious reasons.
By your logic, they may as well scrap swimming and gymnastics, as well.
I don't pay any attention to either of those two sports until the Olympics.
Athletes performing and competing at the highest level on an international stage is the draw, not necessarily the sport, itself.
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