Monday Blues: Where Have You Been All These Years?
Los Angeles Times, where have you been all these years. Long ago i gave up on the possibility of ever seeing any coverage of local races within the pages of the Times. Back in the 1980s or 1990s there might on rare occasion be a sentence or two about the Manhattan Beach GP, or Beverly Hills, but little more and certainly no weekly coverage of the weekends racing.
Anyway, Sunday morning the photo and caption shown above (from Saturday's Wolfpack Hustle Civic Center Criterium) made it onto the back page of the California, not the sports, section. (I would provide a link, but can't seem to find it on their online version.) I suppose that i should be happy to see any coverage at all, considering the newspapers past record of reportage. Truth be known i kind of am. It also got me thinking though. This is not the first time that the Times has covered a Wolfpack Hustle event; kudos to the Hustle, they are clearly doing something right. More significantly, they are doing so without a marketing department. This, i have to believe, is in contrast to "mainstream" cycling's governing bodies, which must have at least some money dedicated to marketing and promotion, yet can not seem to convince a major newspaper to provide even a modicum of coverage to their own sanctioned events.
Is there something to be learned from this? I think so, and i think it has much to do with the health and growth of the sport of cycling. Has USA Cycling become staid and ineffective? Is the future of the sport to be found in the "grassroots?" I don't believe USA Cycling is obsolete, not in the least, but i do have to wonder about their effectiveness at the local level of the sport. Perhaps the real question would be, what is Cycling USA not doing, that Wolfpack Hustle seems to do quite well?
Blue: A color, a mood or emotion, a genre of music. Tune in each Monday for another installment of the Blues, with a cycling twist.
Anyway, Sunday morning the photo and caption shown above (from Saturday's Wolfpack Hustle Civic Center Criterium) made it onto the back page of the California, not the sports, section. (I would provide a link, but can't seem to find it on their online version.) I suppose that i should be happy to see any coverage at all, considering the newspapers past record of reportage. Truth be known i kind of am. It also got me thinking though. This is not the first time that the Times has covered a Wolfpack Hustle event; kudos to the Hustle, they are clearly doing something right. More significantly, they are doing so without a marketing department. This, i have to believe, is in contrast to "mainstream" cycling's governing bodies, which must have at least some money dedicated to marketing and promotion, yet can not seem to convince a major newspaper to provide even a modicum of coverage to their own sanctioned events.
Is there something to be learned from this? I think so, and i think it has much to do with the health and growth of the sport of cycling. Has USA Cycling become staid and ineffective? Is the future of the sport to be found in the "grassroots?" I don't believe USA Cycling is obsolete, not in the least, but i do have to wonder about their effectiveness at the local level of the sport. Perhaps the real question would be, what is Cycling USA not doing, that Wolfpack Hustle seems to do quite well?
Blue: A color, a mood or emotion, a genre of music. Tune in each Monday for another installment of the Blues, with a cycling twist.
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