Good news for Jeep KOM and tv coverage of the sport

blt2ride · Dec 21, 2005

Mike B. said:
King of the Mountain Series Secures Network Television Coverage

DECEMBER 20, 2005 -- VAIL, CO (BRAIN)Eclipse Television & Sports Marketing announced plans to expand television coverage of the Jeep King of the Mountain 2006 World Professional Mountain Biking Championships to include three hours on CBS Sports, with international coverage also in consideration.

The Jeep King of the Mountain Series features 16 of the worlds top riders competing head-to-head to capture the title of World Professional Champion as well as a share of the richest cash payout in the sport.

Based upon the ratings success of last seasons Championship telecast, Jeep, Eclipse and CBS Sports have agreed to expanded airtime for the 2006 World Professional Mountain Biking Championships. The three hours of race coverage will represent the most extensive national coverage offered to professional racing in recent history.

World Professional Champions are crowned based on a system of cumulative points earned throughout the Jeep King of the Mountain Series, which will include three races to be held between June and August 2006 throughout the United States.

Last seasons World Professional Mountain Biking Championships achieved an all-time record for attendance and television ratings, which can provide the industry an unparalleled integrated marketing platform to reach a highly targeted national core audience, said Henry Schneidman, president of Eclipse Television & Sports Marketing. We are now looking for the cycling and action sports industries to step up and become promotional partners and to use their resources to grow this program and the sport overall.

Ok, now everyone can debate about the KOM format and whether more tv coverage is good or bad for the sport.

This is kind of what everyone has been waiting for--more TV coverage. I think it will be a great thing for the sport. In addition, I'm going to say that this is going to be a pretty bad year for NORBA...

ChrisKring · Dec 21, 2005

I helped out with the Jeep race in Michigan last year. The guys from Eclipse have their act together. They were calling me months in advance for logistics information since I was local. These guys were working on the stuff that always seems to be missed or last minute at Nationals. I can't even describe how much detail goes into their planning.

An example is how much effort goes into making sure that the TV shots have "people and signage" for the sponsors. Or how well they stick to the schedule. They don't let set up run late since that effects the practice schedule which effects the race.

Also, the races are close to a metro area and in conjunction with a Jeep event. There were more spectators at the Pando race than at any national that I have been to in the last 3 years.

Cant Climb · Dec 21, 2005

I caught 2 of the events on TV last year and i am embarrassed they call that mountain biking and i would also be embarrassed that non-biking friends and family would think thats mountain biking......

Is good i guess on the whole .....but i am one of the people that see the sport as a participant sport. Weather pros get big payouts or not i could care less, all i care about is keeping the local trails open for use to ensure the future of the sport.

John P. · Dec 21, 2005

I think the Jeep series is great for the pros and seems to be a very professionally-run event. They also do a great job getting the word out locally, and because they're the only people getting any kind of national TV coverage of an MTB race, you've got to give them credit for that.

However, the races are painfully boring to watch on TV. Maybe I'm just spoiled from having seen so many great race and freeride videos over the years, but as is usually the case, TV coverage just doesn't do justice to what is probably a pretty decent course in person.

Having racers that my company sponsors in the event, and having our products displayed somewhat prominently there on the screen before me, you'd be hard-pressed to find a ton of people who should be more interested in watching the event on TV than me. However, the races are so boring on TV that I didn't watch an entire event once this year. Often times, I'd catch the first couple of heats, then I'd either be nodding off or channel surfing after about 15 minutes.

I really wish they'd switch to a 4x format and build some giant courses, ala Whistler or something. Watching the footage from the Crankworx 4x comp was awesome - huge jumps, high speeds, and big passes. With the current format of the Jeep races, I have to imagine most of the audience is battling just to stay awake.

--JP

Jeremy R · Dec 21, 2005

Ha, that last Jeep event was on at the same time as a football game,
and I was switching back and forth, and then I just left it on football.
My wife said, "That is pretty bad. You love this sport so much that your whole life revolves around it yet you cannot watch it on TV.
How do you expect other people to?"

Maybe that is the point. We need to except our sport for what it is.
It is an awesome grassroot sport that is never gonna have a long lasting mainstream appeal, and that is just fine by me.
Mountain Biking is a participation sport.
All I wish for our sport is that it was run a little better, so the top guys could earn some loot, and keep the sport progressing.

kidwoo · Dec 21, 2005

Jeremy R said:
"That is pretty bad. You love this sport so much that your whole life revolves around it yet you cannot watch it on TV.
How do you expect other people to?"
.

I think it would be about as fun as watching a multi-day road race on TV............oh wait.

Is it really THAT boring?

Lightninleana · Dec 21, 2005

I participated in the JKOM in PA this year, and it was amazing how professional it was run. Athletes had great lodging, food, and transportation provided. I definatly felt very VIP being part of the event.
As far as the course went the staff didn't have much of a hill to work with. The course was 20 seconds long and the top was completely flat maybe even up hill. But that was the price they paid for having it take place in the middle of the big Camp Jeep. I asked some of the spectators if it was interesting to watch, and they were like not really. You pass by us so fast and then it's over. And I admit that I can't watch more than 5 minutes of it on tv.
The good part is that JKOM knows that the tracks need to get a lot bigger, and they know how to fix it. As soon as they get a good location with a steep enough hill I am sure the course will be great.

binary visions · Dec 21, 2005

I dunno, I find the KOM events to be entertaining. I do recognize that the general public would find it boring, though.

I'd much rather watch one of those than sixteen camera angles of some guy doing the same 35ft drop...

jmtf40 · Dec 21, 2005

I think its great that someone is trying once again to get the sport on tv. I think that someone needs to send Eclipse tv, a copy of any of the Earthed movies, so 1. they can try and get the event organizers to copy the World Cup courses, and 2 study the camerawork. I have people who could care less about dh, who have seen Earthed2 and are blown away. Now thats a long movie, and they enjoyed the whole thing. Then I popped in some old OLN coverage that covered one or 2 of the same courses, and they couldn't take more then 5 minutes of it, nor could I.

DH tv coverage can be exciting if it is done right!!

b stevens · Dec 21, 2005

I liked watching all the jeep races and I worked at the one in michigan and liked it better live, whats not to like its side by side bike racing. it beats watching bowling or golf or hunting and fishing, I guess any kind of racing is fun to watch for me.

DHCorky · Dec 21, 2005

They definately need bigger courses. Everything looks smaller on TV. They need to do something to put some suspense into the TV coverage.

I am with everyone else I could not watch more than 5 mintues of the Jeep KOM on TV. It was even harder to watch in person. The courses do not put the riders skills on display. I know the riders and I know they are pros, but the Jeep KOM on TV looks like the local Highschool football game versues a NFL game.

ChrisKring · Dec 21, 2005

DHCorky said:
They definately need bigger courses. Everything looks smaller on TV. They need to do something to put some suspense into the TV coverage.

I am with everyone else I could not watch more than 5 mintues of the Jeep KOM on TV. It was even harder to watch in person. The courses do not put the riders skills on display. I know the riders and I know they are pros, but the Jeep KOM on TV looks like the local Highschool football game versues a NFL game.

You saw the 2004 Mount Snow course that was limp. The 2005 Michigan course was big unless you can jump 30 foot double-doubles while banging bars. Mulder was over-jumping them in practice and had a hard time doing it in the race. None of the women could get them everytime. Heck one of the jumps Lopes and Prokopp couldn't even get. They just manualed it.

DHCorky · Dec 22, 2005

I do own a tv

I have seen some of the other races and they have done nothing to keep my attention.

BC VAN · Dec 22, 2005

Lightninleana said:
I participated in the JKOM in PA this year, and it was amazing how professional it was run. Athletes had great lodging, food, and transportation provided. I definatly felt very VIP being part of the event.
As far as the course went the staff didn't have much of a hill to work with. The course was 20 seconds long and the top was completely flat maybe even up hill. But that was the price they paid for having it take place in the middle of the big Camp Jeep. I asked some of the spectators if it was interesting to watch, and they were like not really. You pass by us so fast and then it's over. And I admit that I can't watch more than 5 minutes of it on tv.
The good part is that JKOM knows that the tracks need to get a lot bigger, and they know how to fix it. As soon as they get a good location with a steep enough hill I am sure the course will be great.

you do get the vip treatment at those races, but the course location is something that is a decision made by eclipse, they try to have the races at the jeep gatherings to keep jeep happy, not always the best location though...last one i did was in austin that was flat...not a little flat.. REAL FLAT, then it rained. until we get on big hills it will look the same i'm afraid, still hope i get an invite this year

Superdeft · Dec 22, 2005

Apparently everything about these KOM races is great, except the racing. I too turned off the TV after seeing a few runs. The course and racing just weren't exciting to watch.

BC VAN · Dec 22, 2005

Superdeft said:
Apparently everything about these KOM races is great, except the racing. I too turned off the TV after seeing a few runs. The course and racing just weren't exciting to watch.

2 of the 3 races i did were fun, and the racing was super close, i just don't think it translates well to tv, but someone is watching it or we wouldn't still have the series. no matter what the format tv doesn't do our sport justice....there are no stats that people can look at and compare....they never say "this jump is x amount of feet" or "riders will hit a top speed of 45 today so when your driving down the road put your head out the window at 45".
hopefully it all will get better?

Cheetabrian · Dec 22, 2005

I liked watching it on tv. I don't know why they don't have some races on the the downhill bmx tracks though. They had some great bmx races on xgames at Woodward and at the dew action sports tour in San Jose they had bmx supercross and that was awesome. Better in person, as everything is, but it was still cool on tv. They had a BIG roll-in, some big jumps that you can not roll and 8 guys on the gate. Now that is exciting to watch.

Superdeft · Dec 22, 2005

BC VAN said:
2 of the 3 races i did were fun, and the racing was super close, i just don't think it translates well to tv, but someone is watching it or we wouldn't still have the series. no matter what the format tv doesn't do our sport justice....there are no stats that people can look at and compare....they never say "this jump is x amount of feet" or "riders will hit a top speed of 45 today so when your driving down the road put your head out the window at 45".
hopefully it all will get better?

You make a good point, football coverage is famous for providing us with hundreds of statistics that the real football nuts enjoy, and similar coverage would be great for our sport as well.

DHCorky · Dec 22, 2005

The Jeep KOM and the US Open are the best things going for this sport right now. As much as I do not enjoy watching the KOM races they are giving the sport exposure.

ChrisKring · Dec 22, 2005

DHCorky said:
I do own a tv I have seen some of the other races and they have done nothing to keep my attention.

Maybe they could add an aligator pit in the middle of a set of doubles. Go big or become food.

4X might be more exciting. However, the course construction is extremely difficult to make sure there is more than one line. The best racing action (most passing) is when the course is flat or has non banked corners. Or, the course needs to be built so big that not all of the pro's can ride it. This would make it so that none of the women could clear everything. The only courses that I can think of that came close to this was the 2001 Mount Snow 4x course (nice job EC), the 2002 Wisconsin 4x course and the 2004 Snowshoe 4 x course. Even then, there was limited passing. It's not like these bikes have 45 horsepower engines to enable line selection.

Personally, I think dual slalom is more fun to race and watch.

stiksandstones · Dec 22, 2005

Jeep could care less about what the riders, courses or the industry look like....it all boils down to this-It is cheaper for them to put on this jeep series than what 30 min or 1hr of Jeep commercials would cost in these weekend time slots.

It's a no brainer for them, they are doing it as a cheaper method of advertising. Jeep wins, MTBing wins (gets on TV) and everyone is happy, even the riders, because they are getting paid. I learned one thing in all my years of MTBing, pay the monkeys money and they will do AND enjoy anything. If these JEEP courses were part of a WC or National I can guarantee no one would race-no one...but throw a few benjamins at em and it's on.

I noticed the last 3 seasons they have done these JEEP races everyone says what "they need to do" to make it better...guess what, they do not care about the racing. So enjoy what you see because it is not going to change, the head of this series LOVES the courses, the racing, the format and he is as stubborn as a bull.

At any rate, wicked awesome there will be another season for the fat and lazy americans to see mountain biking in action (they do not care what type of MTB racing they see, as long as the sport gets seen by the masses, it will increase awareness about riding mountain bikes).

Msisle Dad · Dec 22, 2005

ChrisKring said:
Maybe they could add an aligator pit in the middle of a set of doubles. Go big or become food.

4X might be more exciting. However, the course construction is extremely difficult to make sure there is more than one line. The best racing action (most passing) is when the course is flat or has non banked corners. Or, the course needs to be built so big that not all of the pro's can ride it. This would make it so that none of the women could clear everything. The only courses that I can think of that came close to this was the 2001 Mount Snow 4x course (nice job EC), the 2002 Wisconsin 4x course and the 2004 Snowshoe 4 x course. Even then, there was limited passing. It's not like these bikes have 45 horsepower engines to enable line selection.

Personally, I think dual slalom is more fun to race and watch.

I watched JEEP KOM in Mt Snow '03- Boring. My 2 favorite Norba courses "as a spectator "was 02 Mount Snow, and 04 Snowshoe.

One of the most exciting rides seen on a Norba course was the 02 Alpine Valley Wi Event , When the rains started and the pro's put on a show after qualifing was called off. That was fun stuff...

Sea Otter has the best DS

mobius · Dec 22, 2005

I can't stand to watch KOM its so boring, im sure its fun to race it but watching is horrible. 4X is necessary

Good news for Jeep KOM and tv coverage of the sport

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