Because Steph has been appointed Chair of the Wall of Positive noise. Her job is to smile and say how great everything is.
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Graham Smith candid WSL comments and will they be around next year??
- Thread starter casa_mugrienta
- Start date
Wait.
I thought it didn't matter who draws the most viewers (customers).
Equal pay n all.
Still confused.
Does the WSL aim to convert non or near non-surfers into paying customers or other?
Like - many baseball / basketball / football fans played the sport as youths and now follow the sport at an exciting professional level.
Surfing on the other hand (certainly can offer the same thing to a smaller group of people) - though the 'thing' of it all is most exciting for current participants ( guessing when i say most - but am also guessing that i'm correct)
Content + advertising revenue must be the model - still curious about the customer base - it's disparate and almost needs to be marketed to in a handful of ways - which will be an ongoing challenge. The brands paying for the ads will continue to face a similar challenge as they need to expand their customer base again and again beyond 'core surfers'.
Seems like a money pit to me as you cannot own a venue, distribution channel, rights to viewing top shredders.
My guess is: WSL will continue to market for 1-2 years, attempting to highlight 1,2 marquee tour events to boost ad sales - while at the same time shop for a private equity buyer who's hungry to milk round (what round will this be?).
Anyway - current investors will either make a small profit or write down the loss for tax purposes and win in a way that they can.
Also - this will probably be dependent on the sales / projected revenue of businesses who advertise.
And - as for the money - it's in the hands of the surfers - those with profitable shredding + distribution channels will win. Hence Ben Gravy Most likely making more than a bunch of tour guys
Does the WSL aim to convert non or near non-surfers into paying customers or other?
Like - many baseball / basketball / football fans played the sport as youths and now follow the sport at an exciting professional level.
Surfing on the other hand (certainly can offer the same thing to a smaller group of people) - though the 'thing' of it all is most exciting for current participants ( guessing when i say most - but am also guessing that i'm correct)
Content + advertising revenue must be the model - still curious about the customer base - it's disparate and almost needs to be marketed to in a handful of ways - which will be an ongoing challenge. The brands paying for the ads will continue to face a similar challenge as they need to expand their customer base again and again beyond 'core surfers'.
Seems like a money pit to me as you cannot own a venue, distribution channel, rights to viewing top shredders.
My guess is: WSL will continue to market for 1-2 years, attempting to highlight 1,2 marquee tour events to boost ad sales - while at the same time shop for a private equity buyer who's hungry to milk round (what round will this be?).
Anyway - current investors will either make a small profit or write down the loss for tax purposes and win in a way that they can.
Also - this will probably be dependent on the sales / projected revenue of businesses who advertise.
And - as for the money - it's in the hands of the surfers - those with profitable shredding + distribution channels will win. Hence Ben Gravy Most likely making more than a bunch of tour guys
Thats the orthodoxy thinking which they have pursued without success for 50 years.
I wonder what would happen if they shrunk it, and ran a Tour as a niche sport for the core surfer fan base.
It wouldn't be hard to do.
I'm LMAO at the armchair business experts in this thread certain that wokeness or some other such BS is what's holding pro surfing back from being a gold mine.
For years the ASP/WSL was propped up by surf brands. How many of you spend money on surf brand sh!t aside from wetsuits/trunks? Yeah, kids don't either. Fkn guys with stickers on their boards don't even want to be seen in that sh!t.
So the surf brands are hurting and can't foot the bill anymore. What's next? WSL goes after money from big $$$ corpos. How many people care about pro surfing in the world? Compared to even the NHL it's a microscopic sliver of the population. Not worth the headache/sponsorship cost to reach that group. Besides, those brands can reach the surf kids/women (demos who actually spend money on sh!t) way cheaper partnering with "lifestyle" pros on Instagram.
Only recourse is to become a media brand, focusing on producing that Instagram-style content you guys all hate. And that's how we got where we are today.
For years the ASP/WSL was propped up by surf brands. How many of you spend money on surf brand sh!t aside from wetsuits/trunks? Yeah, kids don't either. Fkn guys with stickers on their boards don't even want to be seen in that sh!t.
So the surf brands are hurting and can't foot the bill anymore. What's next? WSL goes after money from big $$$ corpos. How many people care about pro surfing in the world? Compared to even the NHL it's a microscopic sliver of the population. Not worth the headache/sponsorship cost to reach that group. Besides, those brands can reach the surf kids/women (demos who actually spend money on sh!t) way cheaper partnering with "lifestyle" pros on Instagram.
Only recourse is to become a media brand, focusing on producing that Instagram-style content you guys all hate. And that's how we got where we are today.
yeah true. it is laughable.
I mean give up chasing the middle American market.
An Indo leg for eg.
Finals Day at Cloudbreak.
where's it's close to guaranteed to see good waves.
cut down tour.
There might be a media deal in that, even a small PPV revenue stream if it was compelling enough.
I mean give up chasing the middle American market.
An Indo leg for eg.
Finals Day at Cloudbreak.
where's it's close to guaranteed to see good waves.
cut down tour.
There might be a media deal in that, even a small PPV revenue stream if it was compelling enough.
This kind of worked during the Gotcha era when everyone from middle America was moving to California. Now, they're moving out.
I realize this is your thing and it's probably different on the East coast. Out here, a lot of these NSSA surfers have had zero parental discipline and think they're the next big thing and act like it in the water. This pipeline needs to be killed.
not enough waves for that.
thats always been the problem and why the QS is unwatchable.
unless you bring in something extra like violence which would up the consequences.
This is a great idea. How do we get the guy in this chair to watch?
It completely worked around the CJ/Occy_v2.0/Andy era imho. It had nothing to do with the tour, and everything to do with high-margin apparel flying off the shelves in PacSun and Zumiez thanks far more to Blink-182 and Tony Hawk Pro Skater/Jackass than Kelly Slater's hairline or Occy's underbite.
Personally I think that's why there was a dream tour. All the "influencers" of the day sported event sponsor's sh!t, and a truckload of middle Americans bought it.
Exactly
Trim the size.
Hold surf contests at good waves.
PPV or subscription style thing.
Nobody is saying it's a gold mine.
I've explicitly said here many times that it's not. Which is precisely why I'd advocate for the freeride76 model.
RE: wokenss, what's being said is the WSL is in the hole yet a chunk of effort is going to other areas than surfing i.e. political and expansive environmental issues.
That pretty much indicates the people at the wheel haven't got a clue what they're doing.
RE: the niche tour can't be done people
I say bullshit.
It's already been done, look at the tour in the early 90s when surfing wasn't cool, there was no webcast, and the events got a few pages coverage in the magazine. And a lot of times the waves were shittier.
So turn it back to that level, focus on cooking waves, add a webcast or streaming option, charge some sort of fee, and be done with it.
The key here is you need good surf. It's out there, at least for a tour that's surfing focused.
All of this is doable, nobody is going to be getting rich, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
I say bullshit.
It's already been done, look at the tour in the early 90s when surfing wasn't cool, there was no webcast, and the events got a few pages coverage in the magazine. And a lot of times the waves were shittier.
So turn it back to that level, focus on cooking waves, add a webcast or streaming option, charge some sort of fee, and be done with it.
The key here is you need good surf. It's out there, at least for a tour that's surfing focused.
All of this is doable, nobody is going to be getting rich, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
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