I was reading the thread about Milos' trip to Japan last week, and I must admit, it was nice to see that side of a bodybuilder. Vacationing, posting pics of he and his family doing cool things in a new country.
IMO, if the powers that be (magazines that sign BBers and use their likeness and stories to sell ad space) were to expand upon MORE of this - IE: a few more personal stories about the bodybuilders - it would make the sport more fun to follow and create an emotional attachment for the fan to the athletes.
Face it, when you go to a show, you're rooting for nearly identical guys. You might root for Branch because he's a hard worker, Ronnie because you like his accent, Jay because of his perseverance... but when it come to many of the competitors, the fans can't tell anyone apart. You might not buy a ticket to the Keystone classic because you cannot differentiate between the bottom 80% of guys onstage. You've never heard of them, and if you have, you know nothing about them.
So that's my idea. FLEX and MD, consider doing more pieces on what the bodybuilders do OUTSIDE of the gym and the kitchen. You don't have to sacrifice the coverage of their near-identical training protocols and eating regimens. But if you dedicated a few more pages to letting the readers learn about the athletes, the emotional attachment (and subsequent rooting for/against) would lead to more people following contests, and more people going to contests. Just my 2 cents.
Rob