Space News Letter to Editor

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Al Globus wrote:

> >> 3. Orbital sports facility paid for by TV advertising
> >
> > Can you flesh this out more? What kind of sports? Team or
> > individual?
>
> The shuttle can hold about 10, with two needed to fly it.
Assuming it
> flies again, we could have up to 4v4 team sports as long as the
shuttle
> pilot and commander can handle the video. As to what sport --
that's
> fun to speculate about. Soccer and racketball seem to need the
fewest
> modifications to the rules to work in 0g.
> >
> > Will the players live in orbit or will we shuttle them there for
the
> > game and then being them back?
>
> To draw big crowds you need big names, so shuttle existing sports
stars
> up.
> >
> > What will the advertising pay for?
>
> The olympics pulls in billions of advertising revenue. It would
be
> nice to get some figures for the revenue generated by major
sporting
> events (super bowel, world cup, olympics) but I don't have the
details.

Check this out.

ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox Say Broadcasting Pro Sports Is a Loser

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?
pid000103&sid=aDrxF_aMol_8&refer=us

I'm not really sure what your sports proposal is advocating. My
first read of it is the novelty factor, rather than a proposal that
embraces fans to cheer on their local teams, to follow the careers
of players, and in the case of the Olympics, to cheer on your
national atheletes even though you may not follow their particular
sports.

Are you advocating the creation of a large league so as to surpass
the novelty factor?

I think that the novelty factor will wear thin after a very short
time (not for the players though). Look how enthralled the public is
with current zero-g activities? Not much by my reckoning.

If you're looking for novelty that will sell, film naked zero-g
gymnastics and wrestling, film zero-g sex and put it on pay-per-view
( He blasted her out of this world :) film "College Girls in Orbit
Gone Wild"

On a related front, why not outdo the promoters of the "Mile High
Club"

http://www.flamingoair.net/fancy.html

with something that you just can't get on Earth.

TangoMan