I still love the Olympics (as millions of others do to, the ratings are still outrageous) and I will watch as much as possible these next two weeks. Some changes are sorely needed, however, to make these events better. Luckily, I have some suggestions (You listening, Jacques Rogge?)
1.) Settle on the lineup
At the heart of the Olympics are the sports, without them we have nothing. So it would make sense that we get the list of events settled before fixing anything else (drug testing being the possible exception). The IOC is responsible for approving the official list of sports. Not surprisingly, there have been many, many changes over the years including the additions and subtractions of well known events. For example, baseball and softball were removed from the Summer games moving forward after 2008 (Sadly, we also have to now live without tug of war being in the games). To make everything as successful as possible, it will require a process of removing some events in addition to switching others between Summer and Winter.
One issue of debate has always been concerning judged "sports". This is not an argument I will be making today. Figure skating, diving, ski jumping, gymnastics and many others are at the heart of the games and to try and wipe all of these out would be crippling. I have more of a problem with sports in which the Olympics are not the highest achievement. Due to this rule, we shall wipe out the following sports from the Olympics:
- BMX (Just added, but not an Olympic sport. Get used to the trend of eliminating X-Games events)
- Tennis (Much rather win a major tournament, ie US/French/Australian/Wimbledon)
- Baseball/Softball (Not on the list anymore and should not be added again. We now have the World Baseball Classic in addition to the World Series as greater achievements. I would have less of a problem letting just softball in again as there are hardly any equivalents)
- Soccer (No one sends their best teams, saving them for more prestigious international tournaments)
- Snowboarding (What we need to do is expand the X-Games to a week long event, give them more broadcast time and alternate summer and winter games ever year. The current format of both summer and winter games in each year for one weekend is fun, but to build tradition/interest, they need some changes)
*Some people would have issues with basketball, boxing and ice hockey not being cut. I would argue that basketball and ice hockey do not have a greater international tournament, while Olympic boxing is an entire different sport.
We also need to shuffle a few sports around, mainly to give the Winter Olympics some buzz. The major ratings hogs (season of games):
- Track and Field (Summer)
- Gymnastics (Summer)
- Swimming (Summer)
- Basketball (Summer)
- Sand Volleyball (Summer)
- Ice Hockey (Winter)
- Figure Skating (Winter)
To make this even more lopsided, track and field has 47 different disciplines, swimming has 34 and gymnastics has 14. The Summer Olympics are loaded with more exciting events, more history and an overall more consumable product. For the Winter games, we are told guys need to watch the hockey and women need to watch figure skating. This is what NBC will show you and you better tune in.
Now I understand track and field, swimming, sand volleyball, ice hockey and figure skating need to remain where they stand now. Basketball and gymnastics, though? These are held indoors in big arenas, there is no reason why we couldn't move either or both. If we move basketball then we would create a common gap in both the NBA and the NHL seasons. We would be forced to watch the Winter Olympics because the US would have both its major leagues on pause, the NFL would have just ended and the MLB would just be beginning Spring Training. As it is now, we can just focus attention to other places (Take in point this weekend: the NBA's All-Star Weekend which will most assuredly draw eyes away from the Olympics). If we move gymnastics into the winter games we effectively create the greatest women's sporting period every four years. In the sports realm, figure skating and gymnastics are the two events where women are the dominant force in viewership. Imagine a two week span in which we have one week focused on gymnastics and anther week on figure skating. The two would build on each other and the ratings would be higher. Some might argue that this would consolidate things too much and we would lose the viewership in the summer. This is warrant-less as the ratings would still be strong for the rest of the sports. The summer games are by no way man-exclusive. Everyone would still watch.
Either shift would create a massive increase in interest.
2.) Create more pageantry
If you watched any of the Beijing Summer games in 2008, you most likely remember a certain event as one of the most unbelievable sights of your life. The Opening Ceremonies were the pinnacle of pomp and circumstance. The Beijing officials blew the world away and set the stage for the games. As the years pass, we will remember the spectacular athletic performances (Michale Phelps and Usain Bolt), but I think more will remember the Opening Ceremonies. This is what the Olympics still do better than any other sporting event. Is it efficient to spend this kind of money on useless fireworks and dance routines? Probably not. But does it make the entire event more meaningful? You bet. They need to build even more around the fringe elements around the sports. Like I mentioned before, those who are intense fans of these sports can get their access in other ways at other times in the year. The Olympics must capitalize on the atmosphere and environment created. Play up the global factors, make the medal presentations more over the top, throw even more money at the Opening and Closing ceremonies. I can't wait to see how Vancouver responds to Beijing in their ceremony tonight. Kind of like following Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show (Or following Jay Leno on the Tonight Show, wait, too soon?)
3.) Pick better cities for the Winter Olympics
Much like the older brother, the Summer Olympics seem to get an absurdly superior set of cities to play the backdrop for their events. Compare and contrast the cities since the current format of alternating every two years was put in place in 1992:
Summer: Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London (2012), Rio De Janeiro (2016)
Winter: Lillehammer, Nagano, Salt Lake City, Turin, Vancouver, Sochi (2014)
This would be funny, if it wasn't so one-sided. You find me one person who is excited for Sochi 2014 (or even find me 10 people who know what country its in).
4.) Open up the coverage
NBC pays an enormous rights fee to be the sole broadcast partner of the Olympics (nearly $900 million for the Summer Olympics), so I get why they want to keep the product self-contained. What happens if you miss an event you wanted to watch? Can you catch the video on SportsCenter? Nope. Can you find the video online? Not likely. Will NBC show reruns on their other networks at some point? Would not count on it. This seems backwards.
You have a two-week event which should, in theory, build on itself. NBC has an uncontested two-week prime-time slot to tell the audience why they should be watching. It would make more sense to hold the rights to the original, live broadcast, but then let anyone show the coverage after the fact. We all want to see the events live, so we will tune into NBC. For those of us who miss an amazing event, we will want to see it somewhere because it will make us more interested. The more captivating clips the audience see, the more likely they are to tune into the later events. Why go the boxing route by only letting still-frame shots with verbal recaps on other networks? It killed boxing and it's killing the Olympics.
David Stern, the NBA commissioner, was recently interviewed by Bill Simmons from ESPN.com. I will paraphrase. Simmons asked Stern about his league's embrace of YouTube and online distribution. Mr. Stern explained that the NBA was only concerned with getting their product in front of as many people as possible. They are much less concerned with the distribution method.
NBC should recognize that while they are much different than the NBA, they still need to embrace an open distribution of its video. Let the fans watch your product, it can only lead to better ratings.
The Olympics are great. They have provided some of the most memorable moments in sports history and they will continue to in perpetuity. There is no reason to sit back and let the games become irrelevant to the main stream. A few changes could bring the games more full center in the public's minds. I hope the IOC and NBC are listening.
GRM
