Mark Lebedew authored the post Selling Volleyball in which he basically took the volleyball community to task for the sport not being in a better situation with regards to its popularity worldwide.
To quote:
It is a widely agreed upon truism among volleyball people that volleyball deserves more respect and deserves wider media coverage. I am not one of those volleyball people. I think volleyball has the respect and coverage it deserves.
Mark’s main point is that volleyball suffers from pretty shoddy coverage because we in the community allow it to happen. Specifically, the governing bodies who provide the broadcast feeds don’t seem to give much attention to the quality of the product they are putting out there.
Oh, sure. The FIVB has done all sorts of things over the years to try to make the game more spectator and/or TV friendly. And they continue to look at more things they can do, as per my post on the subject.
The on-court product, however, is only one aspect of things.
Poor TV production
The elements around the actual play are also very important. Mark has taken some of the commentators to task for being poorly prepared and/or educated (#volleyballdrinkinggame), and producers for failing to show highlights of excellent plays. The fact that we see this sort of thing speaks to a failure on the part of FIVB, CEV, etc. in allowing that sort of thing to be the case.
I will add a complaint of my own. Let us hear the noise of the crowd!
A volleyball match broadcast where by far the loudest thing we hear is the voice of the commentator is DULL! Granted, for some matches there isn’t much of a crowd. When there is, though, the volume of the in-arena sound should at least match that of the commentator.
Let us experience at least some of the energy the spectators are putting out.
Poor in-arena atmosphere
I mentioned above the fact that some matches are poorly attended. This is going to happen in tournaments when the host country, or at least one of the bigger favorites – isn’t playing. Hard to do much about that.
I’ve watched matches where there have been good-sized crowds with hardly any energy, though. That’s really uninspiring.
I remember a couple years ago switching between watching matches from the Montreux Masters tournament on the women’s side and FIVB World League (I believe) on the men’s side. The energy coming through the screen for the Montreux matches was excellent, and I don’t think there was even a commentator. Great in-arena noise. And I’m not just talking about the crowd. The on-sight production was good. Lots of music and complimentary audio between plays.
In contrast, the men’s matches were depressing. I think they were in Argentina, but I could be wrong. The only sound you heard was the the ball contact. There wasn’t any kind of music that you could hear, no commentary, and if there was any real energy coming from the crowd you couldn’t tell. It was hard to watch, especially after having just watched the Montreux coverage.
As Mark suggests in his article, if you want prospective viewers to take your sport seriously, you need to take seriously the quality of the product you’re asking them to consume. It’s not enough just to stream matches. Not if you want your audience to be more than just the diehard volleyball folks.
I will admit that the FIVB has taken some positive steps in this regard for international competitions.
Getting a bigger crowd
I have some thoughts on ways to improve volleyball match attendance which I’ll save for another discussion. Suffice it to say, however, that you’re more likely to attract and retain spectators in the seats if you provide a good product. Good volleyball is certainly part of that, and for sure winners get bigger crowds.
There’s more to it than that, though. Some of what makes for a good TV broadcast also makes for a good in-arena experience.
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One Response
Volleyball is a very specific sport, where good visibility of the ball in an every moment and place is a crucial factor for following this game. Unfortunately the current FIVB color combination balls have a poor visibility and recognizability especially for Internet/TV viewers but also for the audience. FIVB and other v. bodies should deal at last with this pressing issue as a top priority… This issue have also an negative impact on access of this sport into TVs, and thus to draw strong sponsors. In many countries this nice sport only survives.
These balls function similar as a rotated color wheel, or the Newton disc, see : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPHOCysZS2k