Being a fan of pro bodybuilding vs other sports?

[Howard]

Part of me would love to be just a fan of bodybuilding.
The reality is , there just isn't enough there to keep most fans interested for long, extended periods of time.

For example, I'm a big MLB baseball fan. The 162 game season plus playoffs, provides any fan with a lot of activity to interest them.
The NBA  and NHL  have 82 game seasons and a long playoff series. The NFL is only a 16 game season, but the analysis and coverage maintains a lot of hype and fan excitement. Any slob (like me) can buy the various satellite TV viewing packages and see any game they desire in real time or DVR it.

Fair or not, pro bodybuilding isn't set up to be a major fan friendly sport.
Don't get me wrong, I love watching and attending pro events. BUT, c'mon, how many contests a year will fans care to see?
The reality is that the current IFBB contest format could be as good as it gets for pro bodybuilding, as a sport.
The Olympia is the one big show, every fan wants to see. The other pro events are great, and allow fans to see the lesser known pros who have physiques worth seeing.

The one thing that  needs change is   contest coverage. There is no logical reason, why BB fans can't see a pay per view ,quality web cast of every pro contest . Perhaps other fans will demand this and support it.

[SuperTed]

How can bodybuilding compete with real sports when it barely can classify as a sport?
It's a beauty pageant where the competitors are judged on their appearance. The Mr Olympia is more comparable to Ms World than it is to the Superbowl.

[_aj_]

Bodybuilding isn't a sport. It's a semi-athletic, aesthetic hobby. It has more in common with throwing pottery than it does with a team sport like soccer or (American) football.

[falco]

Is bodybuilding a sport?

[oldtimer1]

The sport of bodybuilding takes place in the gym. The contest is just a subjective beauty contest of oiled up men posing to music in their underwear.

My wife has 4 brothers. They are normal guys who like baseball, basketball and football.When she was going out with me and saw my bodybuilding magazine collection she told me she nearly left me finding it shockingly odd. Wondered if I liked guys. I live by the beach and board walk. When a roided to the gills guy walks the boardwalk people laugh and point instead of being in awe.  The cats out of the bag how he got there concerning the drugs.

[ritch]

what bugs me is the asking price for local shows. Insanely expensive to benefit the promoter more than anything else.

Add the fact they got men's and women's bikini now to make the shows longer... I've never been to one and now will likely never go because of those divisions.

[Donny]

Weightlifting is considered a competitive "sport" why not Bodybuilding? Maybe they should include some form of lifting but is posing not competing against other individuals?
http://johnhansenfitness.com/2014/02/11/bodybuilding-in-the-olympics/

[_aj_]

Weightlifting is considered a competitive "sport" why not Bodybuilding? Maybe they should include some form of lifting but is posing not competing against other individuals?
http://johnhansenfitness.com/2014/02/11/bodybuilding-in-the-olympics/

Bodybuilding in the Olympics is -- far and away -- the gold medal for retardation idea in the entire universe. It's stupidity is so god-damned luminescent that it could light up the night. Every time I think about it, I get overcome by the giggles, it's so blindingly idiotic.

[Donny]

Bodybuilding in the Olympics is -- far and away -- the gold medal for retardation idea in the entire universe. It's stupidity is so god-damned luminescent that it could light up the night. Every time I think about it, I get overcome by the giggles, it's so blindingly idiotic.

say what you think aj 

[SF1900]

I find most sports to be equally boring. I don't follow any sports throughout the year, nor do i watch ESPN. The only thing I watch is the superbowl and the stanley cup.

Baseball is by far the most boring sport out of the major USA sports. I don't get how someone can actually watch a baseball game from start to finish. Absolutely boring.

Basketball sucks. Everyone is tall, so they just slam dunk.

If I was going to pick any sport to follow, Id pick hockey or football. Both are fast paced and exciting to watch.

As for bodybuilding, it will never ever become popular. Most people think bodybuilders look absolutely disgusting. And even the people that are hardcore bodybuilding fans in the beginning, eventually die off. We can all remember a place where we loved bodybuilding and followed every contest. As time goes on, you sort of lose care. It gets boring. I remember buying every flex magazine, etc. I cant even recall the last time I looked at a bodybuilding magazine or website (besides getbig).

[SuperTed]

Weightlifting is considered a competitive "sport" why not Bodybuilding? Maybe they should include some form of lifting but is posing not competing against other individuals?
http://johnhansenfitness.com/2014/02/11/bodybuilding-in-the-olympics/

Drug Test the New Division – In keeping with the guidelines of the Olympic Committee, this new division of Bodybuilding would have to be strictly drug tested. The Olympic Games are tested by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) so the IFBB should also employ the same Agency to drug test their competitions featuring Classic Bodybuilding.
The drugs that would be tested for would include anabolic steroids, growth hormone, diuretics and any other drugs that fall into the banned substance list for the Olympics. We all know that there is no fool proof test for making competitions completely drug free and there are no doubt many Olympic athletes who are finding methods to use drugs but somehow pass the drug tests. That’s not important. What is crucial is that the bodybuilding competitors in this division are strictly drug tested and they must pass those tests to be eligible to compete.

LOL! What a complete clown this John Hansen truly is. Is he trolling with the above comment?

[Donny]

LOL! What a complete clown this John Hansen truly is. Is he trolling with the above comment?

  donīt think John Hansen is a clown. Does some good interviews and is always very civil and polite.

[FermiDirac]

Weightlifting is considered a competitive "sport" why not Bodybuilding? Maybe they should include some form of lifting but is posing not competing against other individuals?
http://johnhansenfitness.com/2014/02/11/bodybuilding-in-the-olympics/

In weightlifting the one with the best result wins, if you clean & jerk 200kg you will win over people in the same weight class who lifts less than you. Very simple.

In bb your placing is determined by a group of judges, which is a biased/subjective form of evaluating placings in a competition. Even if there are standardized key features to give points for it will still boil down to the interpretation of the rules by the judges.

[tleilaxutank]

Part of me would love to be just a fan of bodybuilding.
The reality is , there just isn't enough there to keep most fans interested for long, extended periods of time.

For example, I'm a big MLB baseball fan. The 162 game season plus playoffs, provides any fan with a lot of activity to interest them.
The NBA  and NHL  have 82 game seasons and a long playoff series. The NFL is only a 16 game season, but the analysis and coverage maintains a lot of hype and fan excitement. Any slob (like me) can buy the various satellite TV viewing packages and see any game they desire in real time or DVR it.

Fair or not, pro bodybuilding isn't set up to be a major fan friendly sport.
Don't get me wrong, I love watching and attending pro events. BUT, c'mon, how many contests a year will fans care to see?
The reality is that the current IFBB contest format could be as good as it gets for pro bodybuilding, as a sport.
The Olympia is the one big show, every fan wants to see. The other pro events are great, and allow fans to see the lesser known pros who have physiques worth seeing.

The one thing that  needs change is   contest coverage. There is no logical reason, why BB fans can't see a pay per view ,quality web cast of every pro contest . Perhaps other fans will demand this and support it.

I agree. There should be a contest every Sunday like football. More action and the death pools will be much more exciting!

[SuperTed]

  donīt think John Hansen is a clown. Does some good interviews and is always very civil and polite.

He may be polite but he is also a clown for writing such nonsense.
LOL @ him trying to put forward an argument on how bodybuilding should be an Olympic sport, talking of drug testing a sport built on drug use and telling us how bodybuilding in the Olympics should be done naturally while also posting numerous pics of drug enhanced physiques as what the standard should be.

[Donny]

In weightlifting the one with the best result wins, if you clean & jerk 200kg you will win over people in the same weight class who lifts less than you. Very simple.

In bb your placing is determined by a group of judges, which is a biased/subjective form of evaluating placings in a competition. Even if there are standardized key features to give points for it will still boil down to the interpretation of the rules by the judges.

Interesting is there was a Mr universe or was it Mr America canīt remember but John Grimek won because he did some Gymnastic moves better than Reeves. The Judges could not decide on physique alone but Reeves did say later it was done on purpose ..as you said Judges have favourites too.

[Donny]

He may be polite but he is also a clown for writing such nonsense.
LOL @ him trying to put forward an argument on how bodybuilding should be an Olympic sport, talking of drug testing a sport built on drug use and telling us how bodybuilding in the Olympics should be done naturally while also posting numerous pics of drug enhanced physiques as what the standard should be.

well you know Judo started as a synthesis of Jui Jitsu and as such in the early Days was seen as a form Combat. Kano was a Professor and Educator and pushed for it to be a "way" of physical training and moral teaching. I think it will be a sport as such in the Olympics. Not like the Mr O shows but much like the Mr Physique competitions.

[FermiDirac]

15 years ago,( as a judge) I suggested to  chairman Luke Tesvich , that the Louisiana region should have a genuine NPC Grand Prix and we did.
It was an overall scoring systems based on participation and level of placement for each show in the region.
In other words, I got that competed and placed 2nd, or 3rd in all 4 shows could beat a guy who won 1st but did only 1 contest.
It actually got quite popular within all the divisions and the contests were all in the summer.
I'm not sure if it still exists?

At this point I'd be thrilled if I could just watch every pro and national contest via streaming video on the web.
The IFBB doesn't have that many pro BB shows, so you'd think this could be done.
I don't think it costs much $$ to set up a web cast does it?

C'mon now, all minor league sports have some form of on line game coverage.
http://echl.neulion.com/echl/home

Why can't pro bodybuilding  ( at least )have this kind of coverage? I just don't understand ?

I think the higher ups in the industry are afraid of losing their control of this niche market. They seem to fiercely guard the bb industry from any outside source. If large companies outside were to join in and sponsor events or 'athletes', the bb companies would no longer have any leverage to force professional bb's into such slave like contracts. Things like having to pay a fee to be considered "professional" or being only paid in supplements, these were all things pushed on by the higher ups to control the market.

[Thong Maniac]

LOL! What a complete clown this John Hansen truly is. Is he trolling with the above comment?

I saw that hansen guy in some roid palace called a gym in Tampa or orlando. I forget where. Him and his training partner just kept staring at women and making comments. They looked like pretty big dick heads actually, like guys u wouldnt want to be friends with unless u were totally immersed in that sub culture of misfits

[Donny]

I saw that hansen guy in some roid palace called a gym in Tampa or orlando. I forget where. Him and his training partner just kept staring at women and making comments. They looked like pretty big dick heads actually, like guys u wouldnt want to be friends with unless u were totally immersed in that sub culture of misfits

name the place. Back up your talk.

[ritch]

name the place. Back up your talk.

I bet it's hard to name a place where guys are acting like dicks in a gym c'ause that is pretty much everywhere...

[Donny]

I bet it's hard to name a place where guys are acting like dicks in a gym c'ause that is pretty much everywhere...

yes OK mate but if i want to slag a Guy down, he should still remember the Details.

[SuperTed]

Hansen claims natural too.

[FermiDirac]

Hansen claims natural too.

As natural as a dude his age using a smartphone  

Impressive physique nonetheless

[Donny]

Hansen claims natural too.

He posts on here now and again... ask him yourself.