OutKick Readers' Responses To Upcoming Olympic Games Is Not Good For NBC
NBC may have an Olympic size problem for their upcoming Olympic Games.
Ahead of the relatively lackluster buzz of the Olympics, I asked the OutKick audience if they are excited about the 2024 Paris Summer Games and if they would even consider taking up AMC Theaters' offer to allow fans to watch the games live at the movies (For a price, of course.)
The OutKick fans answer? A resounding "No," and "No." Yikes!
That's definitely not great news for NBC, who will be broadcasting all the Olympic Games across their various platforms.
I'd argue that no sports outlet loves America more than OutKick readers do - and if they aren't excited about it, then who is?
More importantly, what happened to the Olympics brand overall that the 2022 Tokyo Olympics were down 40% from the 2016 Rio Games? Just look at some of these comments:
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OLYMPICS?
There's a variety of reasons why the average sports fan and even American may not be thrilled for this year's Games.
First off, have you looked outside? Or more importantly, have you gone on social media lately? The country is a cesspool right now, divided over everything. One would think that the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump would be a moment that would unite the country in realizing that when it all comes down to it, we are all Americans. Apparently not!
NO BIG NAMES
But sports are supposed to be beyond politics, right? We tune into athletes and players competing against each other in the NFL or MLB as an escape from the mundaneness and chaos of daily life. So why not now?
Well, NBC and the Olympic Games can get the blame for that: nobody knows who is even competing! The marketing has been absolutely dismal for Team USA to generate any sort of hype for these games. I literally cover sports, pop culture and trending stories for OutKick and if it wasn't for Steven Spielberg talking in front of a green screen of Paris's Eiffel Tower trying to hype up the Games on a commercial every 10 minutes, I wouldn't have even known they were happening so soon.
Without Googling, how many Team USA athletes can you name offhand? Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and… ?
Sure, the NBA will have many of their players on Team USA, but this isn't the 1992 Dream Team, folks. The combination of more NBA players representing other countries this year than ever before as well as the NBA's overall poor reputation in recent years on social issues, China, and ‘workload management’ has definitely hurt their image.
Oh, and let's not talk about the fact that the Olympics Committee left off Caitlin Clark for the Women's team. Brilliant move, there!
As you can see, with more athletes using social media as a platform to voice their opinions, so too comes the damaging result for not only them but their team as well. Just ask Megan Rapinoe.
To be fair, some of our audience did say they would tune in for swimming or the track and field or gymnastics competitions - which is no surprise being that, traditionally, those are the more popular ones. Not one person said that they would dare pay to watch the Games at AMC Theaters - which is definitely not ideal for the already struggling industry. Hopefully, there are a lot of summer camp day trips scheduled for the next few weeks that can kill time for a few hours by taking the kids to the movies to watch the games.
Mike Eruzione Speaks With OutKick
WAIT JUST A MINUTE…
In the end, I truly believe that Americans will tune into the Games - so long as the athletes give us something to root for, unlike last night's men's soccer game in which Team USA was shut out 3-0 by France.
Nobody roots harder in the world than Americans do. We love competing and coming out on top. Those Michael Phelps years when you could walk into ANY bar in a city and watch him compete with complete strangers surrounding you all going nuts? THAT's what the Olympics are about. Just ask Mike Eurizone and the 1980 Men's Hockey Team.
Hopefully we get some of that in the coming weeks!
WILL YOU BE WATCHING THE OLYMPICS? TWEET ME: @TheGunzShow with your thoughts!