The RWC

Must be easy being a guy... all you really have to do to make mates is just .. dress normal, know stuff about sport and not be pretentious.

Anyway that's off the point.

Surfing comps get mention in the news don't they?

As opposed to making friends as girl all you need to do is, dress normal, know stuff about make-up and be pretentious?

It can help if you have a bit of weed to share around too

A very very, small mention. Now and then a surfing show will pop up on air for a few months, then after airing at 10:30 at night, it gets canned.
ESPN occasionally covers the ASP tour, but even thats pay tv now.

Most sports I watch are Pay TV

Yeah, what major NZ sport is left on FTA TV? Netball and motorsport in the form of V8 Supercars, WRC highlights and smaller highlights of some of the bike stuff.

And most small sports struggle to gain funding or coverage. Sucks but what are you gunna do, we've got All Blacks to breed here!

The Aussies have got Union, League, and AFL? (that funny no shouldered shirt strange hand punting thing) and they still churn out the worlds best surfers.
Yanks have got NFL, NBA, NHL and every other acronym your can think of, and they gave us Slater, AI, Bruce Irons etc..

We call it Hand Egg

Seems dumb to call it Football/Footy when so much of the game is about holding the ball and passing with your hands

This is by far my biggest gripe with rugby in NZ...

We were only allowed a league team at my school after the principal blackmailed all the league boys into playing for the first XV

Because to watch entire surfing events week-in, week-out would be bat shit boring? Snippets of surfing are AMAZING when you see people pull off epic things, but as a spectator sport it's balls for the most part. Too samey, and it's too technical for those who haven't done it.



gc.

I'm sorry but there just isn't the interest in minority sports to justify the investment in televising other sports. Surely I don't have to explain the commercial realities of television broadcasting to you guys? If other sports were popular they would attract sponsorship dollars and broadcasting... Simple.

It's not the TV companies conspiring with the NZRU just to keep rugby popular.



gc.

mmmm perhaps. I could very easily say the same thing about ruggers, very samey, lots of balls, and recently, over technical.
I could and do spend hours on end watching surf comps, even local ones - and free surfing too.

Agree I spose on the minority/broadcasting thing, but that was my gripe - why surfing is a minority sport (we live on an island ffs, and have some truly world class breaks).
Disagree on the money thing however. Surfing generates a fuck ton of money, and Id actually be willing to put money on the fact it could be even with rugby, if not more - globally.

Dribbling moron because I'm questioning something that is so ingrained to our culture that I may as well be suggesting that black is white. Yet sport is largely entertainment. What would you say if there was a half hour hollywood gossip section in the news?

Fox ^^

We are not talking about globally though, are we. As I asserted earlier our national ego is tied to the All Blacks, not whoever the best surfer is.

There are a whole bunch of factors that make team sports more inherently attractive to the masses. Even at a quick glance;

- The majority of people participate in various team sports when they are younger
- Humans generally gravitate towards a more social, or team environment
- there are simply MORE of your favourite players to support
- local or national pride
- Arbitrary aligned support just to participate (State of Origin, for example)
- The visual variation from game to game... whilst you claim rugby is 'samey', it's nothing like surfing... which whilst difficult only exploits one skill set


So obvious to me why team sports (and in NZ it's rugby) are so much more popular.



gc.

news/n(y)o?oz/
Noun:
1: Newly received or noteworthy information, esp. about recent or important events.
2: A broadcast or published report of news.


Are you suggesting that sport isn't a recent or important event? It's important because whether you like it or not, it's important to a lot of people.

Sport is far removed from hollywood gossip. (Which the news is also full of if you hadn't noticed)

Thanks kris, I was gonna post something but the argument looks to be a brick wall.

True re: team sports thing. My son just said the very same thing to me.
and, while Im feeling non argumentative, your right about it being local money (which once again takes me back to my main gripe)

Not too sure I agree with the one skill set stuff though.
I could say the same about rugby....see piece of dead cow........chase after piece of dead cow.......grab piece of dead cow......run like fuck, while trying to avoid grim face gorillas who too want the piece of dead cow....place piece of dead cow on the ground after crossing a line.....jump up and down with glee and await eyeliner and undie endorsements.

Now I am joking as far as my very very stupid breakdown of the game goes, but Im sure you can see where Im going here.
Surfing requires many different skill sets, especially at world comp level. It's not just standing on a board and picking your lines.

The number of people who can do like you and watch hours of surf videos is very slim though. And arguably, lots of surf fans would much rather get out and actually GO for a surf rather than watch it.

Sure, surfing will generate a pile of money - but the bulk of that is arguably in clothing retail, I suspect surf brands do better out of clothing than any of them do out of actual surf equipment. Unlike team sports in regular competition (NRL or S15 are good examples) where you have multiple games each weekend for 15-24 weeks with viewership in the millions across multiple countries. With that kind of reach, you attract the BIG broadcasting rights dollars, and the big corporate sponsor dollars to go with it.

Yeah I don't know why I'm biting to be honest.

Money example: http://www.news.com.au/business/afl-announces-1bn-tv-rights-deal/story-e6frfm1i-1226046325694

AFL 5 year TV rights signed this year, A$1.25 BILLION.

Edit: for a sport primarily followed in Australia ONLY.

This is the major fail in surfing. When there's no swell.....whatdaya do.

Hell they claim to be National but its heavily slanted to the state of Victoria really.. which is, well Melbourne.

Well yeah, that's the other thing too. At least NRL actually gets pretty good penetration in global league markets thanks to the popularity and quality of the competition. (Still pretty small numbers though)

NRL bosses are rubbing their hands together in glee after posting better tv ratings this year than AFL. Next year is the final year of the current tv deal so their position looks pretty good for a massive pay out...

/tangent

Yeah read a few thing son that, be very interesting to see how things land. Hopefully a good deal for the clubs!

Need to increase the salary cap

Yeah, that's coz they invented the game (VFL) and it's only been a national league (AFL) since 1990 so naturally it's taken time for other states to get on board and get thier teams up to speed

Still bigger nationally then either league or rugby I'd say

Paige Hareb has gotten pretty decent coverage in NZ media for a surfer, and a 'girl' at that! When Maz Quinn was on the tour, there was decent coverage of the ASP tour.

If the Teahoopu comp got live tv coverage here, with a bit of promotion, it could do alright - but the internet coverage was pretty damned good.

On that note, if bodyboarding got a bit more coverage people might actually have some more respect for what those guys can do re aerials and the llike.

THIS:

I feel sorry for people who aren't sports fans tbh... they are missing out on so much.

Like the agony of loosing and being unable to do anything about it
Or the problem of having better things to do with your time

Yeah they don't care though dude. It's a hobby/interest like anything else.

Like being able to share with about 1 million other people the feeling of complete joy as your team wins against a tough opponent.

Like going round to a mates place having a bbq and watching the game.

Being in a foreign country and your home team wins the league world cup ^_^

The emotional connection you can feel with a sports team is truly something unique I believe.

heh people think rugby fans in nz are crazy...they're nothing compared to some team sports supporters in other countries.

I don't agree, it's a shared empathy over a common enthusiasm/group activity. Sports is possibly the most popular means of attaining that connection but not the only one.

People find those kinds of feelings in all sorts of ways

I agree that the connection one feels to a sports team is probably unique, but I don't think that's saying much. Who cares if it's unique Eating a steamy dog turd would be a unique experience.

Being a dance scene site, I'm sure we're all familiar with the group enthusiam and emotion that results from the DJ dropping a HUGE track, or everyone's pills kicking in at the same time.



I agree with resist's sentiment, but yeah sports isn't the only way to achieve it.

lol, cause everyones' pills kicking in is a similar connection to that between a sports team and its fan?

lol kris... yeah I guess that's quite similar.

I was watching a video recently of some nutters singing and dancing in a church - embarrasingly similar to a dance party

Theres also like that whole being a christian thing.

I mean hey, invite your mates around for a BBQ and a good prey. Go team Jesus!

ah shit you beat me to it OH

It's all piffle compared to the pleasure of a good poem

I agree. And also the NRL need to fund a proper reserve grade to go with the current first grade and u/20's competitions. KIds graduate from the u/20's team and basically go into the wilderness as there isn't really a proper reserve grade to accommodate them.

The agony and the ecstasy.... It's a beautiful thing.....

A spiritual thing? A body thing?
A soul thing?

A sooooooouuuuul thang....

brick wall as in very solid and hard to tear down? yeah thanks...

I'm not saying sport isn't newsworthy. And it's not about some attitude towards sport that everyone seems to want me to have so they can beat up on someone.
Sure, we get the odd bit of Hollywood news in the news. When it's a story of interest. What we don't have is a "now over to rod with tonight Hollywood round up" half hour dedicated section even when there is no actual news to be had about the subject. To that end, sport in the news is ridiculous. To say otherwise simply demonstrates your complete inability to look past your own weird cultural values.

God you're a wet blanket sometimes Smiley :p

All Blacks signify national pride to people. It's something we're good at and well known for. That's something to celebrate. I'm sorry you dislike rugby as you see it as a bit boofhead but I think that says more about you than it does about rugby. Of course there are dickhead rugby fans, but there are dickhead everything fans. There are also bloody good cunts that are rugby fans. Instead of hating on everything you should just hate on dickheads like the rest of us

sports are a microcosm of life. you win some. you lose some. you learn through experience.

WE WON THE WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also sports results are 'actual news'.

Umm, so you're claiming that there's a half-hour section dedicated to sport even when there's no news at all about the topic? I don't get what you're even saying... There's *always* news about sports. Every sport basically plays every week (in season), and people want to know who won, who lost, what injuries happened, what games are coming up, player transfers.... Shit that people are interested in. So what's your point again?

seriously people, it's not even worth engaging with smiley

Solid

Well first up, I was asked a facetious question about myself so I answered. I was just opening up about my non-interest in rugby, not really accusing anyone of anything. Unfortunately I've noticed that some quarters of biggie is so fucking adversarial that you can't just do that. It's really getting a bit painful. Not you btw.
I do just hate the dickheads and I appreciate that lots of normal people like the game in one way or another. Hell, I tuned in the last 35 minutes because the status updates on facebook made it suddenly interesting to me. Not so fussed on the idea that because I'm a NZer I should be all rugby though. I resent that a little. The win was cool but then it got back to it's usual tragic stereotype bollocks with people going on about the emotion, the rugby clichés and goddamn dragon/dave dobyn/exponents.... Self parody. Any thoughts that town might be kinda fun last night lasted about 10 minutes tbh.

Stop following me around to make non constructive jabs?

Why does sport have this special place? Why not fashion, or hollywood? Might this be different if this wasn't a masculine society? I'm not even down on sport, I'm just pointing this out. Hell, some newspapers even refer to their own sports section as the toy department.

I'm not following you around your weirdo... Don't post stuff on the internets if you don't want people to respond.

are you being deliberately obtuse?

for better or for worse, sport provides a sense of community in a way that fashioon and hollywood doesn't. That's one reason why sport is special.

Probably because sport has been part of human culture for about 4000 years.

Because it's a very broad topic and lots of people care about it? I really don't understand the distinction you're trying to draw heh. Sports has just as much legitimacy in the news as any other topic like politics, human interest, local events, weather... Why is it different? You're drawing a parallel to tabloid hollywood nonsense but (as neil notes) there are obvious reasons why that is different.

Oh and to respond directly to your comparison to fashion, I think that's the same too. But, fashion news wouldn't interest enough people so they don't put it on primetime news; but it's certainly still in the newspapers and online, along with all the other topics that people don't care as much about as sport

Put simply sport is happening 24/7 somewhere in the world so there's always something that's news worthy.

Sports doesn't just cover masculine sports; tennis, netball, golf, squash, cricket, track and field, even lawn bowls gets mentions in the news if something is news worthy..

I don't think I have ever heard anything quite like that. After we won, stood out on the balcony of the place I was at, and you could hear the entire city cheering !

YAY...today I can go back to not giving a shit about rugby again!

Did you actually bet on it in the end?

Prediction Chicken got it right for the TAB!



and an awesome video made about the final, kinda why I think sports are so great and important for our society.

Damn wish I did.

Damn wish I did.

that is an awesome video resist... reminds me of xmas in the park

I was going to put $25 on Woodcock at 30-1.....then I found a $10 note outside the Takapuna Pools...so I made it $35


SHIP IT

Another good RWC tribute video...