2018 Olympic Preview: New Focus
The Olympics have had much of the same problems that have affected the other major sports around the world.
After all, they are playing in the same pool as the rest of the world of sports as they are a part of that sports world.
One of the biggest issues facing all of the major sports is the fact that all entertainment is struggling to find their way into a new generation of fans.
The younger generation is not an easy group to nail down and yet they are the group that sports need to figure out.
The older generations are no longer the biggest and the group known as Millennials is right in the heart of where sports have always thrived.
That perfect age where people have time and money to spend watching games, going to games and buying the merchandise.
Although most of the disposable income is there they are not spending it the same way that people in the past used to spend it.
It is a massive problem as viewership is down across the board while many teams are struggling to gain interest in their games.
Television numbers are getting worse as may younger people are no longer watching cable while the leagues have failed to keep up with the change.
The Olympics are struggling with a lot of the same issues and like the other major leagues, they are also losing fans through their product.
Whether the game is baseball and has a reputation for being too slow for the younger generation or it is hockey and football that have been suffering from the concussion issues in both leagues.
The appetite for sports has begun to decline and the Olympics has suffered just like any other league or sport.
They are one of the biggest sporting events in the world and one of the oldest but that is the problem.
They involve so many sports that are just not that exciting for fans and even more for younger fans.
That has been the challenge for the Olympics as they continue to try to find ways to appeal to a younger crowd.
They want to find a way to attract those young fans and their current attempt to do that has been to look at new sports that can bring a younger fan base.
The Olympics has always had a policy of bringing in new sports and removing older ones just to keep things more interesting through the times.
They have always tried to keep things interesting with new sports that are entertaining and that have a bigger fan base.
That isn’t necessarily easy as many sports that are trying to be in the Olympics aren’t the ones that bring some of the biggest fan bases.
The Olympics has begun to focus on a certain type of sport that they know brings a new group into the Olympics.
Action sports are far from traditional and never really fit into the Olympic program with the image that the Olympics and Action sports portrayed.
Yet they both needed each other as the Olympics provided Action Sports with a bigger stage than they ever had before and Action sports provided the Olympics with younger programming.
The pattern started in 2006 when snowboard cross was added to the Olympic programme bringing a sport from the biggest showcase of action sport, the X Games, to the Olympics.
In 2010 they added ski cross to the programme, then in 2014, they added another X Games speciality in slopestyle.
This year among the many new sports that have been added to the programme that includes, mixed doubles curling, alpine skiing team event and speed skating mass start will be snowboard big air.
The big air competition is an event with one big jump where snowboarders have one big trick to earn the top score.
It is a sport right out of the X Games bread and butter and the Olympics will enjoy the fruits of that labour this year.
Big air is just the latest in the move by the Olympics to get younger and bring new fans into the fold to keep the event interesting to the new generation.
It surely won’t be the last time they add a sport out of the X Games catalogue as this is just the beginning of the trend.
The Sport Addiction 