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Originally Posted by Danzig
for a better take on why many don't follow racing....a lot of people don't gamble-and they connect horse racing only to that, not as entertainment.
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To some people in the sport, the horseplayers and gambling are all that matters. Casual fans, fans of the horses, "Barbaro followers", etc. - don't bother, not good for racing, they need not be encouraged or developed. (I completely disagree with that, btw)
PBR focuses on the animals as athletes, gives details on the riders - and there are certainly terrible crashes - but the sport is thriving, as the average fan can readily know about the participants - human and animal. Someone gets hurt badly, and the focus is turned on Dr. Tandy, sportsmed, what they can do, etc. (like the AAEP vets at big race days)
I agree with the NASCAR success model - heck, even I know lots of the names associated with NASCAR, and that's only from casual contact when it floats into my field of vision against my choice.
People don't even know what most jockey's faces look like. Haven't seen the Animal Planet program, but I agree that there is (nearly always) no bad PR, only PR.
Too bad the average racetrack program didn't have a few pages devoted to photos of the jockeys and trainers, with short bios.