The sports a hard sell to sponsors when the guys look the way they do, and for that you can blame the judging, and lack of drug testing. Drug testing needs to be introduced to minimise drug use and bring physiques back to a realistic level of development, and also help with the hard sell to business.
Steroid use is illegal, Nike, Adidas all companies are very concerned about their image, but they sponsor athletes who use drugs but not as openly as bodybuilders, they are tested and compete in organisations where there is testing to give the illusion that the sport is clean, no sport is clean, and if the athletes they sponsor are caught they dump them.
If the 100mm sprint was conducted under no testing whatsoever guys would be running 9.5 say for example, if they were running totally clean 10.0, but as they run in a tested environment where they still use drugs they run 9.7, as they cannot maximise they drug taking potential.
Bodybuilding would benefit from a drug tested federation, where athletes are promoted as clean had to do drug tests that would force guys to reduce their drug use, which in turn would reduce the sizes of their physiques this coupled with an aggressive new marketing approach could work in attracting other sponsors to our sport which could result in higher prize money and contracts for the athletes.
But all of this is pro active and requires investment and does not guarantee more money for the federation. This coupled with the fact that guys continue to risk their health and are happy to spend more money getting ready for shows than what they would win, is a huge determining factor in the federation not having to do anything.
