Well said Howie, thanks for speaking up!
Thanks I love bodybuilding but stopped taking it very serious when the sport does everything to avoid looking legit. What causes this?
1. The scoring is not open and most are clueless about how the actual judges score a meet.
2. Because of #1, all kinds of myths and theories are started kinda like the Roswell crash
3. The night show rounds are not scored in any amatuer event and the IFBB pro rep Chic admits they are not really scored in an bjective manner.
4. Uncontrolled , extreme drug use is another key factor. In brief, most other major sports have fans that do NOT aprove of drugs and look at the use of them as bad for the sport. Case in point: baseball and Bonds.
In bodybuildinh the fans look at drug use as a GOOD thing and complain about any law or effort ot stop top bodybuilders from useing them. Natural shows are considered 2nd rate and we even have Natural/TESTED and NON tested.\ drug user events.Many fans and bodybuilders seem to feel that roids and bodybuilding are one in the same.
5. The movie John Q with Danzel showed that pro bodybuiding could be seen in a positive light with a possible mainstream fan base just like any other sport. However, by allowing the "we love freaks" crowd to dictate policy and standards the sport is doomed to branch out and really grow.A freak show gets 15 sec of shock value fame and that is about it.
6. NO TV time or coverage in recent years = death to any real $$ and sponsers.
Consider that skeet shooting, ice curling and bowling , blow bodybuilding away in terms of recent media coverage...never mind poker which is people sitting , yup SITTING there plaing cards. That to me is about as exciting as watching somebody take a test or read a book, but they figured out how to market it, and now have a HUGE fan base.
Howard