well, maybe there's no way in skiing will ever be as big as football...
but maybe we can help it get a whole lot closer than it is now... I like that quote up above about Punk and the world -- we really can influence what becomes reality, especially in such a small, tight industry like skiing is.
6-digits is great money, but that's a huge exception to the rule in this industry, for an athlete. and we could make it a lot more common if we accept and encourage gapers and weekend warrior posers, because they will come into the sport and spend money, and idolize their heroes, and the athletes will (hopefully) end up benefitting from it financially.
For example, almost every mountain has a freeride team now... What if the freeride teams of different mountains started challenging each other on their own turf? Then the home mountain would rally the community around its athletes and the competition would be scored individually (like wrestling, swimming, or gymnastics), but in the end the dominant team would win the match. Individual glory, but also team spirit. Then you've got the local mountain's communities showing up for the events and cheering on their mountain's athletes against the other mountain's visiting team. Then you're creating really cool events for the community to go to -- especially if it's at night under the lights, like a halfpipe comp, with a band and food and the local news and everything. That would not be too tough for a ski hill to pull off -- they would LOVE the publicity, and it wouldn't cost much. Something like that could quickly snowball into something bigger, if it turns into being more of a spectator sport where eventually ppl actually pay to go watch.
it may never reach the scale of football, baseball, or even a little sport like rugby. but it would definitely increase the exposure for the athletes to non-skiers who like to spectate, which would increase $$$ for the industry to the athletes, since resorts would begin to actually PAY the best athletes to ride for their team...
I know this isn't a perfect plan, but it's a thought... what do you guys think??
NOTE: we need more ppl in skiing -- even if they are gapers and 40-yr old weekend warrior wannabees -- before there will be enough money in this industry to begin to pay the athletes what they are worth.