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Television Broadcast a Success for BPC

Submitted by Staff on August 21, 2008 - 7:59am.

Coming off of a successfully executed British Championships, which included television coverage by Sky Sports, BPC President Brian Batcheldor comments at Powerlifting UK on the results of the exposure and future plans to keep powerlifting on television.

Batcheldor says that he has been contacted my multiple potential sponsors, "In the last 24 hours, I have been contacted by 4 major non-sports based companies who watched the program after me giving them the details, all of them wish to now pursue some kind of involvement."

He discusses future television opportunities, "My intent was never just to get one event filmed, but to build on it and get several more televised. Certainly next year, the British will be shown in 2 parts, the Worlds even more. But I am working on several other big events (I’ll provide details shortly), -more events, more coverage for everyone."

Batcheldor also reveals his strategy behind developing the piece, "it’s important to understand that I was never trying to market powerlifting to the general public, it was being aired on a sports channel, -I was trying to market it to sports enthusiasts and potential sponsors. If you invented tennis today, you’d struggle trying to market it to the general public! Therefore, there was never any fear of it being too hardcore, -the fastest growing sport in the world is mixed martial arts. The TV guys didn’t show poor Eddie Bitek’s bicep go 3 times for nothing. If you had to scrape Paul Turner off the platform with a wallpaper stripper after Dave’s 1000 lb landed on him, the crew couldn’t have been happier! The sports public demand extreme, and if that had have happened to Paul it would probably have been the most viewed clip on Youtube! To that end, I think the crew pulled it off. I’ve done my homework and I firmly believe that. Janine Murphy lifted Saturday, about 30 members from a local tennis club where she trains people came to see her. These were competitive sportsmen, not enthusiasts. On Sunday, when she’d finished lifting, they came back and bought tickets again, -so impressed were they with what they had seen so far. A friend of mine who manages that tennis club phoned me yesterday to tell me that when they showed the lifting on the club TV on Sunday, it was one of the best attended and popular sporting events they had ever shown. Why, -because tennis players train with weights. I’ve had exactly the same feedback from other sportsmen I know, from rugby teams to boxing clubs that watched it, for exactly the same reasons. I wanted it to be accepted as a serious sport and I think that is achievable. This kind of audience doesn’t need to be patronized; they’re familiar with kgs and Kms. You didn’t hear anyone explain that Usain Bolt had just ran the distance of 2 of your granddads allotments, did you? The sporting public and athletes in particular know these movements well and understand kilograms. This shouldn’t be compared with strongman, this is a sport. Strongman is marketed at the general public, but its viewing figures peaked years ago, -the very reason why the BBC dropped it. I was around it for years and brought many athletes into it, I know how it ticks and powerlifting would be making a mistake to try and go the same route."

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Comment viewing options

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 21, 2008 - 9:52am. » quote

WHy isn't this guy the WPC president?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 21, 2008 - 3:32pm. » quote

Because his rants on the UK powerlifting forums aren't offensive enough yet...but he's trying hard to catch up with KK.

Submitted by hacketjj1 on August 21, 2008 - 6:37pm. » quote

only the strong survive

Great work Brian, Intersting view to not go the strongman route. Hopefully all your hard work will pay off for the sport world wide.
Jeff Hackett.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 21, 2008 - 10:58pm. » quote

Anonymous wrote:

Because his rants on the UK powerlifting forums aren't offensive enough yet...but he's trying hard to catch up with KK.

Why because he is frusterated about the fed getting splintered like the USA? I'd be frusterated as well.

Submitted by Brian Batcheldor (not verified) on August 22, 2008 - 4:28am. » quote

You know why I rant? Because I can't come to terms with how 2 faced and selfish some individuals can be. Because sad gutless S.O.B.'s that haven't got a clue about our politics poke their nose in and hide behind anonymous identity. I had a boxing club above my old gym, if you parked in one of their spaces, you knew about it in minutes. Yet in this came, you get a 300lb bag of lard smile at you, shake your hand, keep his mouth SHUT in a democratic AGM where is supposed to air his opinion, -then sneak off and write something offensive and untrue about you under a pseudonym on some noticeboard that they hope you'll never see. It's fine hopping from fed to fed, showing no loyalty. But who is going to hold it all together when the people putting in all the work get pissed off with your lack of committment. They don't do it for money, so why assume they'll just carry on forever. How many lifters stay in the sport once they've finished? This is signed by me, and I've got no hang ups speaking to you face to face anywhere.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 22, 2008 - 4:29am. » quote

Anonymous wrote:

Because his rants on the UK powerlifting forums aren't offensive enough yet...but he's trying hard to catch up with KK.

Why because he is frusterated about the fed getting splintered like the USA? I'd be frusterated as well.

Fair point. He is very passionate about the sport and there is no denying the huge amount of work he has put into the fed this year. But constantly & publically putting down and being plain rude about his own grass roots lifters, many of whom have consistently supported the BPC for years, will only push members away.

Submitted by Brian Batcheldor (not verified) on August 22, 2008 - 4:33am. » quote

Anonymous wrote:

Because his rants on the UK powerlifting forums aren't offensive enough yet...but he's trying hard to catch up with KK.

SPROUT SOME BALLS MR ANONYMOUS. Discussion and pointing facts out is not ranting. The reason I have to endlessly explain the simplest of things is because of mindless morons like you

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 22, 2008 - 7:27am. » quote

If everybody in Powerlifting had been loyal there would only be one Federation and the BPC wouldn't exist

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 22, 2008 - 8:00am. » quote

loyalty ,a virtue

Submitted by Brian Batcheldor (not verified) on August 22, 2008 - 8:36am. » quote

Anonymous wrote:

If everybody in Powerlifting had been loyal there would only be one Federation and the BPC wouldn't exist

Explain that one, Mr Cryptic?

Submitted by CR Yptic (not verified) on August 22, 2008 - 9:38am. » quote

Were you loyal and follow the rules of the Federation you were involved in before the BPC?

Submitted by Brian Batcheldor (not verified) on August 22, 2008 - 4:35pm. » quote

CR Yptic wrote:

Were you loyal and follow the rules of the Federation you were involved in before the BPC?

Yes, actually, I was loyal to them for years. Then I recived a life ban for allowing a WPC event to be held at my gym when there was actually no ruling on such circumstances. Years later, I was offered the chance to come back, but chose not to.
The difference with us actually is that we don't ban lifters. I merely asked for loyalty at a key time. There was never any need for a breakaway fed to be formed, because we would never have stopped any lifters competing in GPC events anyway. Many of our lifters also compete for BWLA, -not a problem. We would have also paid the affiliation fee to the GPC, but this was never the real issue with them. We have achieved much in the last year and solidarity was particularly important for the sponsors and continued TV coverage (which benefits all powerlifters). So basically, they never needed to form a new federation anyway. They've had 2 qualifiers for their Worlds, -2. 16 lifters competed in 1, around 10 of which wouldn't have qualified for our Nationals, but strangely enough are good enough to lift in the GPC Worlds. In the other qualifier, a handful competed without realizing what was going on. When they did, they competed in our Nationals, bar 2 or 3 from Ireland. So when the dust is all settled, they will have another "National" federation of probably less than 10 lifters. How does this benefit powerlifting. Incidentally, they've included names of several BPC lifters on their list of entrants for the GPC Worlds, none of whom were asked, -done puely to mislead. Their Worlds will have about a quarter of the entrants of the WPC Eurasian Championships.

Submitted by 6 Pack Lapadat on August 23, 2008 - 6:52pm. » quote

Love the TV exposure!

Any one who can get us on TV is doing something right in my books.

I also agree about going the sporting route. Strongman has for sure taken a back seat. After the spectacle you need substance. Like MMA, they had to evolved into a true sport.

Now I like Strongman, but it would be hard to envision it in the Olympics or World Games.

I think any need for strongman type stuff is filled with that sport, and powerlifting has to go the route of a Olympic Weightlifting with its presentation.

LIke Brian stated, lots of people lift weights so they can relate to how much is being lifted, and how crazy that is.