Quote Originally Posted by Lundefaret View Post
But we also have other exeptions, of a more exeptional nature. Sports that really should not appeal to the general public, atleast not as a TV-sport, but does - beqause of a set of circomstanses (that word cant be spelled corectly?. Petter Solberg helped bring rallying not only in the newspapers, but on to the front page. But we have even better examples, and the best one, the sport that really takes off on television in Norway right now, is the extremly not entertaining game of Chess!
Yep - Chess is one of the biggest successes in Norway the last couple of years.
Well... Since the sport is not called Chess-skiing, the answer to the question "WHY THE HELL????!!!" must be something else.
Well, in Magnus Carlsen we have the new world champion in chess. This helps. But the young Mr. Carlsen, tough not completly without a sence of houmor, is what You can describe as an (extremly) introvert person. He is not the person to come out of the TV-screen and touch the audience, to put it mildly.
But, VG, wich is the largest newspaper in Norway, and has the largest internet-site, has taken chess under its wings, and made it to something special. Something that reaches far beyond the viewers this sport really desserves, if You only look at what it really consists of. To men sitting downat a table thinking really hard. And making small movements every half hour or so.
Well, how has Norways largest and most tabloid newspaper made this into a viewing frenzy?
Have they done it by dumbing it down? Showing chess "for the masses" by comenting really simple so everybody should understand?
No!
They have done the complete oposite. They have taken the nerd-factor to elleven!
VGs own commentator is a chess fan, this helps, but the real stroke of genious comes from how they have picked their expert commentator.
(Follow this link to see a picture of him: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Olav_Lahlum)
He is a super nerd, in the best possible meaning of the term, and has a genious level of competence and knowledge.
This is a good post from you, so much truth. To add to this here is an article describing how they are making football ("Soccer") popular in the United States. They do it just the way you state here, playing to the die-hard fans instead of the casual idiots. In the US of course basically everyone is ignorant about football yet they made it happen without changing any rules of the game. WRC promotors should take notes.
http://worldcup.usatoday.com/2014/06...ore-world-cup/

The Major League Soccer started in 1996 from absolutely nothing. Today it has a 90 million tv contract and 20000 spectators on average for each of its 20 clubs. A great achievement for a league that is not in the top10 most important football leagues worldwide.