Sixteen surfers, one-day events, pay-to-view…
Do you worry about the future of the WCT? Of the fabulously handsome Dirk Ziff’s, so far, thirty mill investment?
It keeps me up at night!
If the WCT wants to kick itself into the black, here are the tough decisions.
First, kill those babies.
The biggest issue for the CT is the current field of 36 competitors per event. You need 26 hours of heats to run the event. Without any interruptions and running full time that’s around three days. And this is over a waiting period of around 12 days per event. Who’s that good for? The surfers? The fans? Nobody.
The sales side of this is a nightmare. Live sport is one of the last pillars of the traditional TV broadcast. Live sport, along with news, might actually survive this new digital age. And what do live sports broadcasts rely on?
Schedules.
What sports broadcaster wants to buy a product that may run intermittently for a three-day period over a 12-day stretch?
What’s the solution? Cut the tour to 16 surfers. Round one, round two, quarter-finals ,semi-finals, finals. Run a contest in one day. Waiting periods would still apply but forecasting for optimal conditions would be so much easier.
Wh’d be in the this top 16? Let’s examine the ratings: JJF, Gabs, Julian, Jordy, Wilko, Owen, Kolohe, Adriano, Joel, Filipe, Seabass, Mick, Connor, Frederico, Jeremy, Ace. The Top 12 at the end of the year requalify and the other 4 are pulled from the ‘QS Prime Tour’. It’s a sellable product, jammed with potential super-stars, that doesn’t require test-cricket like attention spans from the audience.
The biggest argument coming from the pundits that want 34 touring surfers is to allow for ‘development’. Stage two of the solution would address this and at the same time bring much-needed public attention to the QS.
Currently, the only viewers of the QS are the athlete’s parents and their sponsors. The ‘QS Prime’ circuit would become a tour for the next best 64 surfers and consists of the QS6000+ events that are currently in production. Any QS6000+ event comes with the public circus and funding of a CT event anyway so why not make it more of a spectator sport? The current prime tour would read Australia x 2, Japan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, USA, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Hawaii x 2.
The third tier would consist of the QS1000, 1500, and 3000 events. This is the ‘public tour’ where surfers can join to get enough points to qualify for the Prime Tour.
What we get is a framework that is structured and isn’t muddied by athletes competing across weight-divisions. It can also be explained to a non-surfer without the use of calculus. Schedule it right and you could have an event worth viewing (CT or Prime) every two weeks. The elite tour would create household names while the prime tour would shine a light on the best up-and-coming talent.
Having this new structure also allows for greater revenue opportunities. The UFC is a great yardstick as they produce much content in-house, in a similar model to what the WSL is trying to do. The UFC broadcasts its lower-tier fights for free, to garner attention. But they switch to a PPV (pay-per-view) model when it comes to the elite fights. In the short term, I don’t see the WSL being able to attract the ESPN’s and FOX’s of the world to live broadcast events. The online broadcast is going to be the bread and butter.
But a UFC-esque model would work for the WSL. Free online broadcast of the QS Prime and ‘qualification’ tours, and then switch to a pay-per-event or annual subscription model for the CT. A subscription service could/should follow the NBA or NFL Game Pass model, where you have access to a huge range of online replays/camera angles/insights etc. through your paid online portal.
For the QS Prime events it’s not too much of a change. You have already got big-name sponsors lined up. You could also argue that the quality of surfer would improve. However, the sponsors would have the cherry dangled that these Prime events would attract a larger audience via the only ‘free’ broadcast. The CT now opens up a range of new revenue opportunities: tickets, subscriptions and bigger sponsorships.
Firstly, tickets. Currently, the WSL faces a tricky task selling tickets due to the sporadic running of the events over a 12-day period. With a one0-day event and modern day forecasting you could almost pinpoint the day the event will run a couple of weeks out.
Also, fans are more likely to pay for entry if they know that they will be able to go for one day and see a full competition back-to-back. I’m not suggesting the WSL ropes off the whole beach area and make it an entirely ticketed event. It’d be free to stand on the beach but there’d be ticketed premium areas with seating/bars/lounges. You could charge for sponsorship suites. All this comes to life with a one-day competition.
Of course, some locations will be bigger revenue spinners, such as Australia, Europe and USA. But the extra revenue from theses would help cover the budget hole for beautiful, and necessary, stops for the dream tour like Fiji and Tahiti.
The new selective CT would also naturally create superstar names. And superstars bring large followings and big sponsorship dollars.
Here’s how it looks:
CT – 16 Competitors
Top 12 quality of the next year
Bottom 4 relegated to the Prime Tour
Contest Structure
Round 1 – 4 surfers – 1 advances to QF, 2 to round 2, 1 eliminated
Round 2 – 2 surfers – 1 advances, 1 eliminated
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
*15 heats in total for the competition.
Prime Tour – 64 competitors
Top 4 promoted to CT
Next 40 stay on Prime Tour
Bottom 20 relegated to Qualification Tour
Contest Structure
Same as current format, except seeding into higher rounds for the top 16 on tour
Qualifying Tour
Top 20 advance to Prime Tour
Open numbers
If the WSL switched to this format, here’s who’d be where.
CT
- John John Florence
- Gabriel Medina
- Julian Wilson
- Jordy Smith
- Matt Wilkinson
- Owen Wright
- Kolohe Andino
- Adriano de Souza
- Joel Parkinson
- Filipe Toledo
- Sebastian Zietz
- Mick Fanning
- Griffin Colapinto
- Jesse Mendes
- Wade Carmichael
- Tomas Hermes
Prime
- Connor O’Leary
- Frederico Morais
- Jeremy Flores
- Adrian Buchan
- Kanoa Igarashi
- Caio Ibelli
- Michel Bourez
- Conner Coffin
- Joan Duru
- Italo Ferreira
- Ian Gouveia
- Miguel Pupo
- Wiggoly Dantas
- Leonardo Fioravanti
- Kelly Slater
- Ezekiel Lau
- Jack Freestone
- Nat Young
- Jadson Andre
- Ethan Ewing
- Stuart Kennedy
- Yago Dora
- William Cardoso
- Keanu Asing
- Michael Rodrigues
- Patrick Gudauskas
- Michael Frebruary
- Jordann Couzinet
- Alejo Muniz
- Bino Lopes
- Hiroto Ohhara
- Ricardo Christie
- Vasco Ribeiro
- Alex Ribeiro
- Joshua Moniz
- Deivid Silva
- Mikey Wright
- Flavio Nakagima
- Carlos Munoz
- Dion Atkinson
- Maxime Huscenot
- Cooper Chapman
- Davey Cathels
- Ramzi Boukhiam
- Adam Melling
- Kiron Jabour
- Miguel Tudela
- Peterson Crisanto
- Mitch Coleborn
- Ryan Callinan
- Soli Bailey
- Lucas Silveira
- Aritz Aranburu
- Evan Geiselman
- Marco Giorgi
- Thiago Camarao
- Victor Bernardo
- Noe Mar McGonagle
- Barron Mamiya
- Ian Crane
- Gony Zubizarreta
- David Van Zyl
- Marc Lacomare
- Cam Richards
Qualifying Top 20 to advance
- Heitor Alves
- Tanner Gudauskas
- Benji Brand
- Dusty Payne
- Rafael Teixeira
- Hizunome Bettero
- Brett Simpson
- Charly Martin
- Hiroto Arai
- Luel Felipe
- Oney Anwar
- Marco Fernandez
- Imaikalani Devault
- Mitch Crews
- Tanner Hendrickson
- Krystian Kymerson
- Beyrick De Vries
- Seth Moniz
- Koa Smith
- Kalani Ball
Tell me this wouldn’t work.
I believe you’re right Nick, I tried to keep my figures conservative, but anything over 100 million is a huge, huge amount for one person to shell out. I guess we’ll see how long a Billionaire’s patience can run with out turning a profit.
I will never understand why someone who doesn’t play(or has never played) said sport, tunes in consistently to watch said sport. It’s like girls that are into watching hockey. Stop making spectator sports the new opiate of the masses.
its getting particular attention now that media companies know that sports are becoming the only thing people watch live, so we can’t bypass the ads
James and I shared a scintillating ‘thought shower’ regarding new Olympic formats for surfing: http://beachgrit.com/2017/1…
30 million? You’re wrong. Your not even close. (Better do your research). It’s 30 million ‘each year’! Dirk has been supporting the WSL for 3 years now, this next year is going on his 4th year, which means he will have spent over 100 million easily by the end of next year. Kind of mind boggling, 100 million from him in 4 years. The WSL really found a killer ‘sugar daddy’ in Dirk.
I guess that’s what happens when your wife has a thing for pro surfing.
Dirk and co have been supporting the operation since mid-2012. That’s when Speaker was zooming around the world convincing the pros and half the old ASP Board to sell up. By 2013 the new operation was in full swing behind the scenes setting everything up. Numerous new-deal employees were travelling the world tour, working out how to re-invent the wheel and terrifying half the old employees in the process. They’d have spent close to $25 mill before the 2014 Tour began. The underwriting in the first two years was colossal — almost nothing in the original business plan went to plan, and costs kept mounting as they fired the Money Gun at every problem that arose. They roped a fair bit of that back in during 2017 but it still lost money, and more has been spent outside the actual events in that time. From what I’ve been able to draw out of various knowledgeable sources the underwriting so far would be in the realm of $120 million.
Do we really need to monetiZe it? Is this the kiss of death for the CT?
We can only hope so!
Nup. Trying to monetise a pro sport is pretty silly really. You wanna try to get it to break close to even, and use the pro sport to sell something else. Like err, wave ranch resorts.
I think we’ve only been knocking on the door. so far…. How about a Dior fragrance for men called Rio-water, an after shave called holy-pits or, say…. how much did that guy selling JJF flags at pipe make?
Cool with all of that but you need to add also Spits’ idea of setting up big wave venues.
What’s Spits’ idea?
Fred Hemmings made money. As far as I can tell he’s the only one. Surfing Vic, Surfing Qld etc make money from running events but the events themselves don’t make shit. Prime Ticket might have made some ad dollars off the Bud Tour but I don’t think that was their goal necessarily, it was more about building a lifestyle-sport roster. Really, pro surfing is God’s way of telling us there’s too much money in the world.
Yeh I agree, some form of wild card should exist as well to throw a cat amongst the pigeons…. whether that be for a local or a Dane/Craig/Mikey kinda figure
Dude they are paying people millions of dollars a year to get this dialled, like I am gonna spell it out here on the Grit in 200 words.
But here is how to kill a modern sport – or your part of it anyway:
– Reduce the numbers
– Reduce the hours
– Ignore the women
– Charge people money for something they’ve always had free
– Try to sell it to TV
What’s listed above does all that, but more to the point, it also ignores what’s actually happening in pro surfing today.
Pro surfing can’t stand still, it never has really, its longer story is one of persistent re-invention in the face of never quite cracking the nut. You could say the same of many pro sports actually; they’re mostly pretty bogus business-wise, they survive on the back of the athlete pool and the stories that emerge from within it, and usually with the help of a lot of rich benefactors. Right now pro surfing is in one of its re-invention stages and it is a fucking weird one, but my god it is original. You’ve gotta say it’s original. Chucking the Pipe showdown, piling on the Surf Ranch, pushing a business case around wave pool country club resorts, using the athlete base as a lever, going off-piste for a double title decider, building a Premium (“SurfPass?”) viewer fan base, crossing fingers for the Olympics? None of it may work, god knows, but right now this is a case of fact savagely out-classing fiction.
You’re right the WSL/ASP has never got it right. The surf industry has never got it right. It got lucky for a decade or so where they could blindly pedal their shit to the masses… fast forward to modern day and here we are.
I’ve met a lot of the managers and executives in the surf industry getting paid millions. I wouldn’t trust them with a potato gun.
Actually the ASP worked for the Surf Co’s , as they were able to own and control their own events , and they used the sport to blow up their share prices , make billions of $’s , so what we are witnessing now is a burst bubble , declining sales , share prices reflect the real value of the Surf Co’s , which in turn means a lot less $’s for marketing , which means less $’s for contests , so really when you boil down the tour , without Government subsidies , well what’s left?
Surfing was visited by a small group of families , who came plundered and left empty marketing vehicles for the next generation!!
Well I actually think pro surfing has got it right a number of times, for a time. Think of some of the classic shit they’ve done! Night surfing at Cronulla Beach with 50,000 spectators, some of whom pissed on a local councillor’s rose bushes. The Smirnoff Pro 1972-77. Grajagan 1995-97. The Op Pro 1982-86 and that climactic riot scene. The long drawn events like Bells and Pipe (seemingly RIP, I wouldn’t write its obituary yet though). The Dream Tour mythology. It all coheres for a while then stumbles a bit and somehow gets on the sled and re-sets. There’s for sure many reasons for this but a pretty big one lies in modern surfing itself, the way it’s changed itself around and around over the past 50 years or so, trying so much stuff: different waves, different boards, different generations, shifts in global surfing populations and habits. It’s still getting to know itself really.
Why is it that we need a fixed group of CT surfers? It’s always confused me. Why not just Grand Slam type contests and a single set of ratings? And I think they’re doomed if they use the UFC as any kind reference. When somebody yells fight, all and sundry rush to watch. As much as Strider dreams of a future where the call of PADDLE BATTLE draws similar crowds, surfing will never be the tangible spectator experience a fight is. Surfing is much more akin to test cricket, which is fucked and offers no solutions. I’ve always been interested in what the Yanks could do for cricket though, given they’ve made Golf exciting, I think.
“Why is it that we need a fixed group of CT surfers? “
Damn strait.
Personally I pay to watch an event where 20 random people are plucked from the street and dropped in at somewhere like Pipe when the setting is at ‘turd-vaporising’, big-ass Chopes etc.
Surf or Die! Attempt to ride the wave or be machine gunned where you lie prone, weeping.
Not what I meant, but this sounds interesting. Can we also select the water patrol at random?
Don’t mind that idea for constant seeding as well! But tennis is in a bit of funk. All anyone cares about are the 4 Grand Slams. Tennis, like golf, is literally watching it’s audience being buried in the ground and is frantically trying to appeal to a younger generation.
Golf even tried to make every TV viewer an umpire and let them report rule infringements via social media!! What a disaster!
It would have to be more than 4 rotating onto the top tour. 8 would be better and would make for a much more competitive environment if half of them were going to be cut every year.
I kinda like the 12 day who the fuck knows when it will run contest window to be honest. You see all the moods of a place and how the top guys deal with the changing conditions etc. Nature is dynamic and there’s a somewhat guilty pleasure to be had watching your least-favorite surfers getting totally skunked by the ocean.
It’s almost like going on a surf trip with the tour – except you can mute Turpel whenever you want.
Poor Sally though. What bitter soul would have taken pleasure from that?
Poor Sal indeed. My heart weeps for thee!
I thought about it, liked your comment briefly, but then thought about the flip side of watching the 16 best surfers wrangle the best breaks in the world whilst they were firing… like my world better.
It will never happen though. The WSL has been cursed for waves by poseidon himself…
I think you should get some kind of royalty or sell this idea to the WSL. Good job you smart cunt!!!
No need to cut the field to 16; Pipe Trials ran in a day. Just do 4 man heats, and cut the non-elimination heats.
This is an amazing idea, except surfing will never ever ever ever be a profitable spectator sport. Ever.
They want the fans to pay, thats fine, but give us the best surfers in comps.
Giving Ian Gouveia the wildcard!!
Come on, i was stoked he did well at pipe and apart from Italo is prob my fav brazo.
BUT, give wildcard to Mikey Wright and the viewer numbers would of tripled those tuning in to see Ian. Fact.
Give it to Dane or Albe Layer or Ando.
Yep they may not go any good in comps, but if you want viewer numbers, thats what we want to see. Dane at Keramas. Bet my left nut the traffic for his heat would be 10 times Ians.
Could Ali wrestle..nup..but the ratings were through the roof when he went on WWE.
Macgregor goin over to boxing..see the ratings. Nobody cared he couldnt box, but fans WANTED that match up.
If wsl said Tom Carroll has wildcard at pipe cause we know it will be 8-10ft or Curren at Jbay, ratings would be off richter.
Once they know surf will be good with new program, leave a mystery spot open n keep fans guessing or use social media to get fans to vote who takes the spot.
Note to Sophie;
I wont pay to watch Ian surf, but Dane at Keramas. Shut up n take my money!
Amen!
Fuck Mikey Wright , put Jack Robinson on the Ct and get Trevor to head up the WSL PR/Marketing dept , now that would attract viewers!
Guys like Dane and Ando won’t work as they don’t and won’t want to compete , so after watching them get beat , well would they even want to compete?
Bringing back a vets tour , could bring back more viewers , as the demographic from 40-60 is bigger than 15-40…
If they format it so they line up comps with pumping swells, they’d compete. All those sort of guys just cant handle the grind and waiting periods etc.
When waves are absolutely pumping it eliminates a heap of that heat strategy stuff.
If a comp got called at GLand 8ft, and Ando got wildcard, no way he wouldnt froth about going.
Imagine Clay Marzo even.
This is what gets viewers amped for comps. Guys they know are as good as those top guys but arent part of the WSL.
Viewers always love seeing a wildcard who is actually an entertaining choice.
Thats what the sport is when its mashed up as competition, entertainment.
Would rather watch Dane ripping apart Keramas even for a few heats than a year of consistent Adriano.
Agree 100% Brutus with the veterans tour.
4 comps a year in only pumping waves would out rate the wsl comps. Imagine Occ v Curren, Gerr v Pottz, Carroll v Kong. Cant believe Redbull havent jumped on this as those veterans aren’t sanctioned by WSL.
the problem with waiting for good waves is the dependence on mother nature for good waves .
I don’t think Dane/Ando/Creed/Noah etc are real competitors , something you either have or do not , which means they surf better in free surfs , but struggle with a fixed format, there was / is an incredible surfer called Brendan “Margo” Margieson , best surfer , worst competitor !
So trying to mix free surfers with competitors looks good on paper , but usually ends up pretty boring no matter what the waves are like!
Thats why the comps need to be just like those Billabong challenges used to be. They see a swell, strike mission.
Occy wasnt competing and he went well in them and so did Margo. Its the 30min heat time management they cant get their head around.
2hr sessions, 6-8 surfers in each. 2 or 3 heats then final.
Like the Eddie is.
The pros jump on a flight all the time for a swell, so they will gladly jump on one for a comp with pumping waves.
Fox sports sets up full cameras/coverage on the day before a 2hr footy game live on a Sunday, pretty sure WSL can get there coverage for net only sorted within a few hours for only 10 comps a year.
Best surfers in best waves. Thats all we want.
the problem is the logistics , having to have permit dates , and a team of cameramen/commentators etc.
The Billabong Challenge was organized a year in advance , and had locked in dates.
year ago we put forward an idea of a small cruise ship , doing a number of contests ,say in the Mentawi’s , where there is ample waves and variety . I think that the idea of finishing the WSL tour in Indo with only 6 surfers is a start . I don’t think abandoning man on man heats adds to the competitive nature of surfing and to try and change that , so Ando or Dane would compete well its just not competition….
we do have the best surfers at the moment , just too many journey men ,silly losers heats which uses up swell and drags the event out , 1 day contests in great waves and only 16 surfers!
Dane could certainly put together a Davo or Wardo-like showing. think he might have worked some shit out making that movie as well, knows he can lose every heat and he won’t lose a single fan.
actually surfing in contests might make him lose fans , and he just is not a competitor!
I’d like to see it. At least a one off. I like the idea of winner of round 1 gets to go straight to the quarters. Overall winner has to surf up to 5 heats.
Wasn’t this idea coined by Scott Bass and David Scales? It sure sounds like it. Personally, there is no right answer. Surfing will never be the NFL, or the like, it just won’t. Even surfers don’t watch, atleast most that I know. Whatever their reasons, most don’t and won’t sit down and tune in for hours of bad commentary, lack luster waves, no controversy, and zero color. It’s dull, boring even. Taking away surfers doesn’t change that, just removes potential guys that people can identify with.
I don’t identify with Aaron Rodgers. But fuck I love watching him sling the pig skin! Taking away surfers means we don’t have to watch Keanu Asing vs Ace Buchan trade turns in 3ft Teahupo’o
You do identify with Rogers and that’s the trick. I’m not a pro football fan, especially recently, but watching certain guys display their gift is sports. Whether it be Nolan Ryan’s fastball, Adrian Peterson’s running, Michael Phelps speed, and so on. They have a draw, a hook, that draws us in. Slater has this gift, among other notable surfers, people want to see and be a part of. I guarantee someone likes the guys you mentioned for their own reasons. Limiting to 16 choices will cut the potential viewing audience in half. Time will tell. Add some color, side stories, who screwed who, controversy, flare, that’s what people want.
This is a terrible idea. I love watching these guys dreams crushed in shoulder high close outs!
I like it and it makes total sense, the only thing I would add is the number of elite events to be increased for example there are 20 F1 grand prix’s per year, currently the CT does11 if they are only 1 day events let’s crank it up to 15
Everyone’s focusing on my suggestions for the CT. However, the Prime tour I suggested would assist in it taking centre stage as well. Like I said, you could get 2 comps per month (one CT + one Prime). And then the Womens tour as well….. So effectively 4 quality broadcasts per month.
the idea of a reduced CT has been around for years , the interesting development is the idea of having a CT from feb to August , a PPV final in Indo , then a Prime series from Sept to Xmas which would include CT surfers who were knocked off tour , and the qualifiers from the events held start of Jan to end of Aug.
There is one really big problem here and that’s the diminishing budgets of the Surf Co’s , with Governments supporting more and more events , the price of a prime 6000 , is $500K , the big question we are all facing is who and what sells product to pay for the comps?
Approved.
You’re hired!
Can start Monday.