I will say as a rabid audience viewer of The Masters the last four days, I heard zero talk about any of the prize money that was on the line for the winner or any of the competitors. That didn’t cause any lack of tension/drama/interest from me watching Speith KILL IT Sunday in his chase for the biggest 4th round comeback in Masters history, or seeing if Reed could go wire-to-wire with it, or seeing if Rickie “Josh Sharpe” Fowler could find a way to the green jacket.
Who knew that was an $800,000 putt that Reed knocked in on 18 to win it? I sure didn’t . . .
I’m still struggling with what your argument is here. I’m not trying to be an a**. Your main point seems to be “the audience that pinball wants to attract with big prize pools will want to see someone win a big prize. The money may not matter to most players who are watching, but it will matter to a casual audience.”
But… do people ever talk about splitting prizes on the broadcast? Is that ever a thing that is announced? I have never noticed, but it’s not something I care about, so if they ever mentioned it, I would not really remember it. I mean, we know about it (sometimes) because insiders talk about it… but is a casual viewer ever going to know that the pot was split? and if they never know, does it even matter to your argument? and when MHS says that players will get ejected for discussing it openly, doesn’t that make it even less likely a casual audience will ever know?
Sure, but you’re also talking about the Masters… something that has built up its own draw and prestige through EIGHTY FOUR YEARS and is still put on the pedestal of being one of the majors. Its like the super bowl example before… But not everything can be the Super Bowl, nor will it be that way from the start.
Golf is a sport where there is a culture/etiquette built up around what decorum is expected to be.
I ask again… what does pumping the prize pools for IFPA event on the back of other players do for the IFPA events? And why have you taken that approach if no one cares about the values? To make pinball competition more affordable for the winners?? /s
Yeah but now that’s where integrity comes in. If you promote something as one way, but isn’t carried out that way… that’s a slippery slope.
Sports broadcasting is about PRODUCTION - not just competition. Something many seem oblivious to. If you want to make pinball attractive to an audience besides avid players, you gotta put things out there people can relate to. Personal struggle, achievement, reward, etc.
I think I’ve answered this before, but pumping up the prize pools is to try and garner more media attention for what we’re doing. Over time the hope is that media attention increases our chances at the ability to land outside corporate sponsorship.
Eighty four years from now when we’re broadcasting IFPA99, I’m hopeful that the interest in the millions of dollars all the players are winning is mostly irrelevant, and that it’s more about the chase of this historic event for my Great-Great-Great-Grandson to do something his Great-Great-Great-Grandfather never did . . . win a Major.
Pfft… try quoting them from this thread and see what you get. Prior, Josh’s only answer was a joking reply of “Because splitting a BIGGER amount is better ”
I ask, because I know the answer… which is what Josh finally replied above… that the prize pool is being used as a DRAW to generate interest. The unwritten attraction there is people want to see consequence and payoff. Which is why promoting what is SPENT on an event doesn’t work… promoting what people are competing FOR does.
I support this idea, and lobbied for it when the IFPA fee was first introduced. But it’s funny how people conveniently ignore this purpose when somehow they take offense to the idea that money somehow impacts an event they are participating in.
Yet during the media clip put together for Big Buck Hunter (our model we are trying to emulate right?)… what do we see?
Oh, a head to head final battle and what is mentioned? Oh yea, the 20k prize multiple times - 2min+ mark
Oh and the oversized checks to go with the prize presentation…
And what is on the description of the youtube video? oh yea, mentioning the prize pool
“The 2016 Big Buck World Championship broke records with the largest prize pool of all time and biggest party of the year!”
”
