After Red Bull's greeting article to the world of MTB (greeting which, we recall, concerns the World Cup events), web users have unleashed against the world of Pay TV and the fact that MTB may no longer be free (it should be noted that there is no was still an official communication that it will be paid). In this article I will focus on the possible advantages (and disadvantages) that this step could arise, in order to make a right mix with the disadvantages.
If it were to become paid, however, we are talking about figures around € 50 per year for Eurosport player for example, just to give a rough figure.
SOME COMMENTS RECEIVED
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN 2023
About a month ago, the 2023 World Cup race calendar and the first major changes were noted, namely the fact that all major mountain bike formats have been united, for the first time, in a combined calendar. 15 rounds covering 34 races in 10 different countries. Enduro also often enters the DH and XC racing program, after having traveled parallel to everything else in recent years.
The grouping was created to maximize sustainability, in order to help both the teams and the entire entourage that follows the circuit. We work to unify everything in a large off-road family, also giving importance to the Marathon races, which now seem for many years detached from cross country (remember that this discipline also has its own World Cup).
And have you seen the calendar of the MTB World Championships 2023? We even find road and BMX in the same world program. This means that UCI and Discovery Sports / Eso Sports are working well in symbiosis.
DISCOVERY SPORTS / ESO SPORTS GOALS
The objectives are clear: to bring the MTB to have the same appeal as the road, given that the off-road vehicle has exceeded the number of practitioners on the road and leads to very high indices in the tourism sector. To move users' preferences, the topic must be brought into everyone's homes: and this has a high cost!
The off-road vehicle has very high potential but at the moment they are not exploited commercially. In recent years we have also seen how many road users have re-evaluated the world of MTB by seeing champions of the caliber of tom pidcock e Mathieu van der Poel get dirty in the mud.
Example, the teams budget: Ineos Grenadier travels over the 50 million budget for his team (source Cyclingnews.com), Specialized Factory (one of the richest ones) is about 25 times lower. From this figure we understand that there is too high a disparity and we will try to level this aspect by bringing part of the road funds also to MTB: otherwise off-road will always remain a niche sport only for us enthusiasts.
Returning to the Ineos theme, here is the reason for some rumors regarding Ineos Grenadier even on a possible purchase of Ferrand Prevot: the team would also like to focus strongly on MTB and have 2 stars at the start of the major international competitions such as Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand Prevot, would be a big hit. This could be one of the concrete actions to bring some budget from the road to the off-road.
SPORTS MAINTREAM
I admit, I am also a nostalgic, one of those who "once was better" "the music of the past there is no history" (but on this aspect how not to blame me). And so on. However, nostalgia must not be confused with myopia: if you want to make a sport grow on a media level, this is the price to pay, that is the fact that not all content will be free and that the environment could become professional as a mentality.
A bit like football: we will not be able to see the Champions League final live, but then we would have no problem getting all the information on the event, deferred, highlights etc.
EDIT
Even for us in the sector there will be a professionalization, no longer being able to create content easily (but also often with little professionalism) but undergoing more restrictive licenses.
CHANGES ARE SCARY
Changes are always scary, and no one has the magic wand to predict the future, but to say regardless that "no one will look at it anymore because it will be paid for" (I always remember that no official communication was made, however, that it will be for a fee) it seems to me a far-fetched phrase. How many of us pay for Netflix, Amazon, Spotify and more? If a product deserves it, and it's made with quality, people are willing to pay. I know, a completely free world would be nice, but someone still has to eat there. The passage under the wing of Discovery Sports and Eso Sports will bring a much higher visibility, on another level, compared to the already large number of Red Bull contacts.
THANKS RED BULL
We all have to thank Red Bull for the great job it has done and for offering free quality live streams, without wanting to further gain on the final audience.
They have significantly raised the level of MTB by offering live shows that had nothing to envy to other sports defined as major. We media too must acknowledge the excellent level of professionalism held by Red Bull through the Red Bull Content Pool, where industry insiders could take various content and insert it into their articles for free.
DEFECTS OF THIS CHANGE
As we said, no one has the magic wand to say that it will go for the better, but the direction is the right one to give the right weight to the off-road world: a world that deserves much more attention and therefore not find ourselves saying: "but why Don't TV or the newspapers talk about Luca Braidot's victory? "
All this will lead to a professionalization of off-road vehicles and many dynamics typical of minor sports will disappear (I am thinking of the availability of athletes to the public for example). Later, if MTB becomes a Mainstream sport, let's get ready for more and more people on bikes and for a finally sporting culture.
It is logical that all this will lead to our sport losing a bit of magic, that exclusivity that only niche sports have, but this is not the main theme of this article. And we can create the magic in our mind.
Posterity will judge.
