Pro Events / Pro Ski Coach Water Ski Forum

owenjas · #1 Sun, Jan 25, 2009 10:14 PM

Hi everyone, after reading their will only be 3 mastercraft pro tour stops this year I was wondering what possibilities could boost the profile of waterskiing and in particular add to the amount of money that can be earnt from the sport in the future, presumably mainly from sponsorship. As far as i can see/work out, the moomba masters in melbourne must be the largest event (with regards to the number of people watching and sponsorship money), being in the middle of a large city and all...

Most other pro events tend to be on private lakes, meaning the majority of people that go/know about it are skiiers themselves or live in the local area (from my experience of going to pro am/night jump in the UK).

So I was wondering is their any reason why their are not more pro events on rivers in city centres (i know their might be issues with choppy water, but is their no solution to this?). There will be 1000's of people watching, meaning major sponsorship money, more prize money, waterskiing gains a greater profile, will become a huge event for the city in question every year etc. London? New York? Tokyo? Paris? - pretty much every city is built round one...

Any thoughts? Other limitations i havent mentioned? I'm sure their are plenty...

WadeWilliams · #2 Sun, Jan 25, 2009 10:20 PM

It's just a logistics question.

More public, central locations are essential and there is behind the scenes work going into that effort.

But usually with the more high profile sites there is more red tape to go through with whomever controls the specific site. There are a few downtown locations that I know of that would be great hosts for events... but it's a matter of getting the municipality on our side.

The lack of sponsorship money is a chicken-and-egg problem. Without the high profile events, no one wants to sponsor, and we need sponsors to be able to put together high profile events.

Hopefully the economy will turn around within a year (?) and the MC tour will be back even stronger in 2010. I know the MC guys were disappointed with this year's events - they originally planned 8+ but without a title sponsor, it's just not possible.

Unfortunately most pro event organizers are loosing money on the events so that obviously makes it hard to bring the events to the next level.

ColinBuchanan · #3 Sun, Jan 25, 2009 10:26 PM

It would be awesome to have a type of "world tour" for skiing where the major events are in different city's all over the world. Having said that the sport is unfotunately not very widely known because it takes a lot of things to be a skier i.e. lake, boat, gas, ski etc. The current pro's are doing a great job of bringing skiing to more people around the world but I think it will have to catch on a lot harder before we see any major tour events with big sponsors.

Colin Buchanan

owenjas · #4 Sun, Jan 25, 2009 11:12 PM

I don't think peoples knowledge/participation in the sport is necessary, I think the spectacle of a pro event in the mddle a city would be draw massive crowds, mainly of non-skiers (who may even go on to try the sport as a consequence). With regards to sponsors, the beauty of a massive event in a city is that they don't have to be waterski related, therefore allowng the kind of sponsorship revenue that there would be no chance of achieving from waterski brands alone (there are of course unrelated sponsors at current events, but the point is the larger and more prestigous the event, the more they will pay).

staks21 · #5 Mon, Jan 26, 2009 12:35 AM

I went to my first pro event last year in Fenton, Michigan and here is my overall impression.

First of all as a long time skier it was awesome to see the guys and girls who do it the best in action up close. Having said that I don't think the pros did a good job of interacting with the crowd to help to grow the sport. Here are two examples of this....
1. Chris Parrish fell during a pass and instead of swimming to the shore where the crowd was he swam to the other side away from the crowd.
2. Jamie B. who I was excited to see ski didn't ski his last pass because he was already in the next round the final day so he decided to take the rest of the afternoon off.

These are two examples of missed opportunities for the pro skiers to interact with the crowd and make that extra impression on the fans. For a sport that is struggling to get recognized things like this should be no brainers.

The second point is understanding the sport. I simple flyer of rules of the tournament would of went a long way for the fans who maybe don't ski in the course or who don't understand the rules of a tournament. I had people next to me who kept asking me questions, some of which I didn't even know.

Now of course I do agree that bigger cities or bigger lakes would go a long way in promoting a great sport. I do hope they have more events next year

Just my 2 cents.

TVanO · #6 Mon, Jan 26, 2009 11:38 PM

staks21 wrote:
I went to my first pro event last year in Fenton, Michigan

isn't that just about the best site for a world class event?
that pond is just about perfect for spectators, you can all but reach out and touch the big kids.
i get so excited watching the big kids at that site i can hardly stay to watch; gotta go rip n grip. what a treat.
i need to go scowl at our (public) pond, again, to see if it will speed up the big thaw.

Last edited by TVanO (Mon, Jan 26, 2009 11:39 PM)