Why America Will Never Nationally Televise Your Second-Tier Sporting Event

So this week was the start of the NCAA Division 1 Swimming Championships.  It's streamed online only with delayed TV coverage, and this has prompted a TON of tweets about how swimming should be televised and not the NCAA basketball that is going on right now as well.  I really hate to say this, but those people are pretty delusional if they think that's actually going to happen.  Sports television coverage in the US is designed around events that the average American sports fan would watch, and unfortunately for many fans, a ton of sporting events don't fall anywhere close to this category, and as much as I love swimming, it isn't in that category

The "average American sports fan"

First, let's look at the levels of sports in the US.  I would define first-tier sports as sports that the average American sports fan would probably watch and have knowledge about.  These sports include football, baseball, and basketball.  An argument could be made that tennis is also a first-tier sport, and hockey in some regions, but since they aren't as widely televised on a collegiate level, I won't include them.  Any other sport that you would find in the Olympics or in college athletics, I would define as a second-tier sport (I could split second-tier sports up further, but for the sake of this blog I'll just leave it at first and second so the distinction is clear).  These are sports that the average American might know a little about, or know what they are, or be able to recognize one or two major athlete names, but they aren't going to make a huge effort to watch them.  The people who are most likely to watch these sports are former or current athletes in these sports, or people who have in some way taken up an interest in these sports from a friend's influence, etc.

First-tier sports get so much air time because they are the sports that people watch.  The average sports fan is going to tune into these events because they're the ones that people will be talking about at work the next day, the ones that Sportscenter and other similar shows will be talking about the next day.  People who are massive fans of a sport are going to tune in no matter what - the average fans are the ones who bring in the ratings boosts.  Take NCAA basketball, for example.  People who may not have watched a single basketball game all year will fill out March Madness brackets and tune in to see if the teams they picked advance or if their bracket is ruined.  These are the average sports fans; these are the ratings boosts that give March Madness all of the air time it gets.

For fans of second-tier sports, this can make life tough.  You may have to resort to buying an extra cable package to get a handful of bonus sports channels to suit your needs (for example, Comcast's Sports Entertainment Package includes the Tennis Channel, Fox Soccer Channel, and several college sports channels that broadcast a variety of NCAA events).  You may have to wait for something to air on tape delay.  You may have to deal with possibly crappy, possibly illegal online streams of events you are dying to watch.  You may just have to settle for Twitter updates.  You are just as dedicated as the basketball fan who gets to sit in front of their TV every night and watch their team in HD, but the fact of the matter is that for every one of you, there are one hundred basketball fans.  Bigger numbers means bigger ratings, and that's just a fact.

Here's an example to put this in some perspective.  As a Real Madrid fan who doesn't have the Sports Entertainment Package, I never get to see La Liga games and I only get to see Champions League games on delay in the middle of the night.  And this is for one of the biggest, most well-known soccer teams in the world.  The average sports fan knows who Real Madrid is, but the average sports fan won't tune in to a Real Madrid game.

The Olympics are probably the biggest sporting event in the entire world, but most Olympic sports aren't generally televised (with basketball being the key exception).  You may think that because so many people tuned in to your second-tier sport during the Olympics, they would definitely tune in to a regular event broadcast of your sport.  Unfortunately, you're probably wrong.  The Olympics may bring over some new fans to a sport, but the average sports fan only watches the Olympics because they are the Olympics.  They aren't going to tune into a random gymnastics meet or a random track meet or a random field hockey game.

So yes, being a fan of a second-tier sport sucks.  If you're lucky enough you might have a whole channel dedicated to it in a sports package.  Unfortunately, this is never going to be a reality for most sports because the funding and general interest just aren't there.  Dealing with crappy streams and Twitter updates is a sad reality, but it can also be a bonding experience for fans.  Commiserating over terrible streams or getting excited over a Youtube highlights video brings fans together and makes the fan community stronger.  And the stronger your community is, the louder your voice will be when you inevitably complain about top-tier sports getting more coverage than your sport.  Maybe one day, someone will finally hear you.


(Quick edit because holy crap 30 people have looked at this already:  I do realize this is super Debbie Downer.  And yes, I do realize that sometimes second-tier sports get air time.  ESPN is currently showing the Winter X Games and tonight will be showing a US Soccer World Cup Qualifier.  There are always exceptions, this is just an overall look at the situation that second-tier sports fans find themselves in and why it is the way it is.)

(Edit 2: Since SwimSwam retweeted this, Ders if you read this I love your work/face and if you want ideas for getting swimmers on Workaholics I have plenty of them.)

Edit 3, 7/28: I'm reposting this four months later in light of people complaining about Worlds broadcasting, and I thought about taking out that comment about Ders, but nope. It still stands as valid.