Can Powerlifting Get Back on TV?

It's possible, but it would take a couple of sponsors with the potential for mainstream appeal to take a risk and finance this. Someone like EFS from the general fitness side and a couple of supplement companies would need to take the risk. Your typical companies that sponsor meets, like Inzer or Titan, wouldn't really see a benefit from mainstream advertising.

for anyone who wants to be part of televised powerlifting see that you get to the WPC worlds in england this year,brain batcheldor has alaredy had the BPC british championships in 2008 televised with great success and the same is expected for the worlds so as RDC says it can happen and is happening.

Brian managed to do it for the BPC so its not impossible , the lifters themselves have their own means of keeping in comunication with each other and have discussed the matter and realise the product must not be like watching paint dry its not good enough that you be an athlete but must be a sports entertainer as well this is a new ball game and we know whats needed !

In semi-related news (publicity-wise), I see that the USAPL women will give a PLing demo at a Miami Heat game. (Women's Nats is in Miami this year.)

I've always felt that feds should take their meets to where there's already an audience.

Brilliant idea of the day:

Next year, the NFL plans to bring the Pro Bowl back to the mainland and rotate the venue yearly. (Honolulu will be in the rotation.) It will be the Sunday BEFORE the Super Bowl.

Why doesn't some fed - ANY fed - MULTIPLE feds, plan to have some big meet in that city the day before the game? Don't tell me ESPN, Fox, CNN/SI, etc. wouldn't wander over to see some heavy weights lifted. Invite the NFLPA, maybe get some players and ex-players to guest lift. Even just announce. Whatever.

Hobnob, socially network, schmooze, bribe - do what it takes to get noticed.

Does PL need TV? If so what would the reason be?
Do you want more money in the sport?
If so TV would be nice but maybe not needed.
I very rarely see BB on TV and they give away hummers and 50 G at some comps. How does this happen in body building but not in our sport?
BB became popular through magazines not TV. They make young kids wish they looked like MR O. Then that kid spends 80 bucks on some fake ass Tren product.

Anyway PL needs exposure in many ways. TV would be great and I hope to see it happen at some point.

Mark JackAss Bell
Owner of Super Training in Sacramento.
www.supertraininggym.com

Let's face it...Powerlifting is not a spectator sport. There are 250 channels on my satellite and I am sure that powerlifting could get on one of those but if you are talking old school, Wide World of Sports or Sportsworld type of show; what would be in it for the network? Do you really believe that it would draw a share? For it to be viable in this present market it would have to be raucous, goofy and supercilious, e.g. the WPOx's 2.
If it is quiet and sanitary, e.g., USAPL, why, seriously why would the public watch?

Hi Mark was only looking at your page today too haha
TV was what got me into powerlifting in first place i was passing a shop when i see this hairy hillbilly looking guy being slaped around the head and though mmm that guy who slaped him is gonna get his arse handed to him now but no he just lifted a huge weight in a manner i wasnt used to seeing , turned out the guy was Eddie Pengelly and the rest was history i was hooked !

I disagree with that. It depends on how the meet is presented. If you just place one camera in front of the platform and show nothing else then it will be boring. If the meet used multiple cameras, included bios, showed different angles, included training footage or lifters getting psyched out before a lift then I think it would be much more interesting to the viewer. Maybe even break the meet down into 3-4 classes like the WPO did just so it is easier for the audience to follow along.

Have you ever watched football game without announcing? Makes it a very boring game. It always depends on how the show is presented. They have other sports on TV that are also very dragging in nature but because they edit the programming it makes it much more entertaining to watch.

Think about some of the powerlifting training videos and how they are presented. You have SUper Training and Underground Strength Mags that do a great job editing and it makes it much more interesting to watch.

Look at West Side Barbell videos. Very boring. I think Louie just threw a camera in front of the lifter and let it run for an hour. Both are basically informing the lifter on how to train but one does a better job then the other.

Who fuckin cares. Stop beatin this dead horse over and over. It's probably not gonna be on tv, but who cares. Things will somehow continue...(note the sarcasm). Just go to the gym and train, and let the TV crap take care of itself. If it happens it happens, if not than boohoo.

Eddie presented the trophys at one of my first ever competitions. He also lifted as he was trying to make a comeback as a Master after illness. He died shortly afterwards - very sad. He was a great lifter.

These are some very good questions. As you say, BB is marketed towards kids who want to look like that and it works. With PL, a similar approach could work with people who want to be strong like that. This means single ply gear or raw as the thought of a kid watching a monolift and a multiply lifter would be "what is that? what are they wearing" instead of "wow, I want to be that strong". The ideal combination would be single ply gear with strict rules, but with WPO format (4 weight classes) and music/hype/presentation - like the Mountaineer cup but with a bit more "entertainment". This would give sports entertainment and make it fun to watch but you could clearly see what was going on people woulod actually see the strength on display, not the circus.

Its people like Eddie we need now ! as it happens his old nemesis Dave Mannering was here in my gym two days ago and we were talking about Eddie and that tv worlds he was in.

It can happen. Look @ strongman. When u see it on t.v there is hardley any spectators. The general public cannot relate 2 the things they do. But they have very smart marketers. The wpo had the right direction, but the wrong people behind it. The meets could not, have 2 many lifters, only the best so it doesn't get drawn out and boring. It should show warmups, people getting ready 4 the meet, small interviews, accidents,ect.... maybe only 3-4 weight classes and 5-8 lifters per class. Find the right investors,sponsors and advertise the heck out of it. Lets hope it can happen, cause we all diserve a little bit of money.

Its not just all about money its also about leaving a bit of history behind making a mark that says you were here

TV camera's won't help me lift more. I don't care if they're there or not.

www.Ryanopower.com
www.AndersonPowerlifting.com

Who watches TV anymore anyway? With the advent of Hulu, YouTube, MySpaceTV all you need is the $ for mb storage on their servers. What would work is a package show 60-90 minutes long with back-stories and rivalries. Drama brings people in, sadly Powerlifting doesn't have any real drama outside of arguing about what gear to wear. Strongman is on TV because of drama, back-story & rivalries. Powerlifting is so fragmented that it's real hard to have any rivalries. Powerlifting rivalries usually only live through the record books.

For all the people who disagrees, or trys 2 find ways of shooting down the concept of making powerlifting mainstream, explain why this wouldn't b great 4 the dport we love. Just think of all the possibilities that could open up 4 all of us. Just bcause ur not a top lifter, u shouldn't what other people 2 succeed. And it would create more history, by allowing more people 2 b involved and broadcasted throughout the world. And its not just 4 the money. Because all of us here r doing powerlifting already, making sacrafices and spending a lot of money 4 what we love 2 do. Wouldn't it b nice, 2 maybe be somewhat compinsated for what we do?

ok this isnt intended to start a drug vs. drug free argument, but....look at baseball. voting for the hall of fame just closed and all we heard on espn were "experts" crying and nagging that one guy shouldnt be voted in because he was in the steroid era and blah blah blah. for the longest time i was all against steroids, then i trained with some well known guys who are on, and saw chris bells movie and now think differently. but the general public sees steroids as being so evil thanks to george bush back in the late 80s early 90s and the other jerkoffs in congress. all they hear is they are awful they will kill you. do we really need to have powerlifting on tv so all these liquor sucking, cigarette smoking, fast food eating perfectionists can tell us that what we do is bad for our bodies and nobody should be using steroids to lift weights.

One possibility is to "V Cast" the event to subscribers .....as in PPV. My own computer system is sophisticated enough to either Record OR Stream an event to a targeted audience. Broadcasting methods are many and varied enough to allow video to be sent out to those who are interested. One wouldn't have to worry about the General Public....just those folk's interested in Powerlifting. And to the Genious who wants to carp about Bandwidth...That arguement is no longer valid with the New V-casting Technologies available. It can even be streamed "Live" without alot of hullabaloo.

As USPF Webmaster I have been ivestigating ways to either stream or record our Premier Events with some relatively "Low-Tech" equipment. We may have the means to do this by the WPF Worlds in Las Vegas this year....who needs ESPN when we can get Nick Busick to provide color and either Dr. Dave Hall or Chuck LaMantia to announce. Throw in a High-Def Video Camera, some lighting and sound Booms...Courtney's trusty computer system and The Riviera Hotels Broadband connection and Broadcasting resources and...??? Voila !! Homemade ESPN....!!

So...who would watch??...WE WOULD!!...those who couldn't get there,of course. Cost.....way less than 70K ..that's for sure....

"USPF....the Legend continues......"

TV? Hell, I'll settle for getting the results from a Pro-Am that night.

Boring.

thats a very valid observation. you never see BB on tv either and those f*ckers are getting paid!!!

I love competing but watching a powerlifting meet is boring as hell. Why the hell would anyone put it on tv? At least in strong man competitions you have some action when guys go head-to-head and some exciting and different feats that are always changing to keep your interest. That's why bodybuilding has next to no coverage despite its prizes. Who wants to watch some huge guy in a thong flexing for 2 hours? BORING! Bodybuilding makes for good pics but not TV.

I think YouTube will do more to promote powerlifting than TV anyway.

The TV company thats already covering powerlifting events (for the next three years i believe) has already dictated exactly how it wants things done and i have been told they made inquiries elsewhere in other organisations before reaching their agreement. From what i already seen they have very good technology to cover any event but just like WSM / TWS its under their terms not ours.

ITS ALREADY BEEN SAID
THE WPC WORLDS IN ENGLAND 2009 WILL BE TELEVISED BY SKY SPORTS

i mean they have golf, baseball and bowling on tv and how boring is that.

Look at poker on espn. How boring is that. But somehow and someway they were able 2 make it somewaht watchful. They r not going 2 b able 2 televise the whole meet. Big squats,benches,deads and world record attempts. And as stated above, accidents, interviews and battles between othere countrys or gyms. Look @ powerlifting usa, I see more and more ads from supplement companys.. That's a good start. The wpo was heading in the right direction. But the wrong people behind it. I work @ the arnold classic and u wouldn't believe all the talk about the wpo @ the arnold. I heard a lot of the strongman,bodybuilders,olympic lifters and people in general that loved watching it.

Neat Robbinsons PLJ in those days wasnt it ?