- Joined
- Mar 17, 2013
Great point about "social gravity." I'm experiencing it now, actually. I am in the land of the Seattle Seahawks, which won its first Super Bowl on Sunday. I don't even live in Seattle (I'm about two hours away), but the amount of community togetherness this whole event has generated in Seattle and throughout Washington state is amazing to me. I mean we're talking some businesses closing to let their employees watch the Super Bowl with family friends, 12th man flags all over town, everyone wearing Seahawks gear. And who wants to bet a majority of those folks cheering would be hard pressed to explain the safety that happened in the first 12 seconds of the game.
The Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl in 2006 (I hadn't moved yet to Washington at the time), but my husband says that the amount of community buzz was nowhere what it was for this go around. And part of that was driven by a ragtag group of players that are endearing. You got the down-to-earth quarterback (Russell Wilson) trying to prove you don't have to be a tall guy to win games, the fun-loving social media trash talking cornerback (Richard Sherman) and the Skittles-loving, media-hating running back (Marshawn Lynch). Then you throw in the combeback wide receiver who was injured for much of the season but came back for the Super Bowl and ran 87 yards at a kickoff for a touch down (Percy Harvin). And then you got the college football coach who many thought wouldn't amount to anything in the NFL (Pete Carroll).
Many that just made me want to watch that Super Bowl game again...Oh wait! So yeah, some sports just have the ability to bring people together IN SPITE of a lack of technical knowledge. Figure skating isn't at that point and it's unclear whether it will ever get there. We got a taste of it when J. Brown had his viral Riverdance, but as I said earlier I'm not sure that will be sustainable in the long-term.
So I agree that figure skating might have to ride with the changing culture of the U.S. and again is better served to accommodate its niche customer base during the non-Olympic years.
Yes, embrace its niche-ness. (And get rid of the dinosaurs)