Many sports in the Olympics are peak professional. There is a reason why Olympics call themselves as amateur sports. If they start calling themselves as professional they might have to start sharing revenue with athlete which they don't want to. I know some sports in olympics like football, wrestling, boxing are irrelevant. But saying whole olmypics are just glorified inter university tourneys is just stupid.
Seems like you haven't read my full text. Commercialized sports league have failed in India except PKl and IPL. I can list down tons of leagues which have disbanded in the past. Economy has nothing to do with it. Even being a poor country IPL is successful because of high viewership. If people don't watch it, it won't make money simple as that. It's a bad take to not care about Olympics. Olympics is a stepping stone for bringing interest in sports. Just see how much interest Saina and Sindhu have brought to badminton. That interest is than converted to viership and then you can have all viable sports leagues.
Yes, Olympic atheletes are peak. Thats why a teenage me was flumoxxed. I am not questioning the capabilities of the atheletes. Just monetary aspect of it.
Problem with Olympics, Asians, and Commonwealth games is one simple thing. The pipeline. Players mostly earn handsome sums when they win a gold medal especially an olympic gold. Most of the players go unnoticed. It requires extensive government support. We have SAI for it already. How is it doing?? Isn't it at the whims of govt? How much sporting infrastructure have SAI created??? What about the stories about entitled Phogats?? Miser SAI officials???
Yes Olympic medals are great at spotlighting a sport. But here is a problem. How much did they help the sports ecosystem as whole in India??? As i said in my ICC Tournaments vs IPL. Only a few benefits. Much of the ecosytem does not. Players like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar earned good even when their was no IPL. The real question is did Ranji Players earned enough?? Don't you think average cricketer earns more now?? Don't you think IPL actually made cricket and its ecosystem a viable career for many??
As i said Olympics and its adjacent tournaments are a different breed. I do recognize their potential to catalyst a sports. I am from HR, I know the buzz it creates. Its just monetary aspects.
Now, You are wrong to think, I didn't read your post. I fully read it and understood it. You are half wrong in failure of Sports leagues.
Let me be concise here:
Viewership = Piece of a Pie. Large Viewership > Large Piece
Economic Size = Total Pie.
Sport League Economy = Pie X Piece
For it to be successful, Sports League Economy > Operating Costs (They are fixed)
So, we shouldn't discount IPL success. Neither we should be jealous of it. The large viewership actually helped it in crossing the viability threshold in our smaller economic pie.
Other sports leagues failed because we didn't have enough economic weight.
There is a reason PKL is successful and maturing now. Because our economy has that buffer space. Earlier only IPL could tap into it. In future as our economy grows and commercial sporting culture takes foothold. I am sure other leagues will also become more successful. Ofcourse at the cost of IPL.
