A Wider World Of Sports

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He has lived the dream of the modern American athlete, turning pro straight out of high school, scoring a luxurious home in San Diego and becoming no-worries wealthy through the sport he loves. He has appeared in commercials for Mountain Dew, Gap, AT&T, Gatorade and milk, taking his place beside the white-mustached Pete Sampras and Cal Ripken Jr. But Tony Hawk isn't a tennis or baseball player. He's a professional skateboarder who spends his time in swimming pools. Empty swimming pools. Preferably lefthanded, kidney-shaped pools with lips of grindable concrete coping, perfect for landing nollie backside 180s, pulling fakie 540 kick-flip indies or even busting his phat 720 front-side airs.

If you don't understand that skateboard speak, then you're probably outside the 12-to-34 age demographic that advertisers and programmers covet--and that alternative-sports stars like Hawk can deliver. He's one of a new band of athletes who are helping drive the fast-growing world of nontraditional sports to an ever increasing share of the TV-ad dollar. Emerging sports such as surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, mountain biking, rock climbing, NASCAR racing and even bass fishing are gaining increasing TV exposure, providing greater choice for sports fans and advertisers.

For years the sports market has been dominated by baseball, basketball, football and hockey. But lately those major sports have seen their TV ratings slide, even as the fees that the leagues charge the networks for broadcast rights have skyrocketed. We just watched--or didn't watch--the lowest-rated World Series in history. Monday Night Football audiences are down 10% compared with last season. The extra commercials that networks air to offset their higher costs have only prompted viewers to channel-surf more frequently away from the major sports. Big-salaried athletes with bad attitudes have been turning off fans. And now a squabble over money among a bunch of rich men--pro basketball's owners and players--has forced cancellation of a month of games, further alienating that sport's followers.

The traditional sports fear they are losing touch with a whole generation. "I can't get my 11-year-old son to sit down and watch a whole football game, and he's the target consumer they want," says Rick Burton, director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. "He'll watch the X Games longer than he'll watch football." Participation rates, which may indicate which sports people will watch, are booming for pursuits like snowboarding (up 33% in 1997 over 1996), skateboarding (up 22%) and fly fishing (up 6%), while they are noticeably soft for old standbys like baseball (down 10%).