There will never be coverage of DG like ball golf or any of those situations you mention. Its boring really which is why no one will give us a serious shot. We just love DG here.....
Never be coverage of DG like ball golf? Probably not. Simply because ball golf had a several hundred year head start, and more importantly, was already well established as a professional sport by the time sports became a mainstay of the network broadcasting weekend schedule.
But I take argument to say DG is inherantly more boring to watch than ball golf. Do you seriously believe that? No one expects casual viewers to watch only the lead card play an entire 3 hour round, watching them walk from hole to hole, wait on the card in front of them, etc. But casual viewers don't have to do that with ball golf either. There's coverage of more players than just the lead cards, they fill gaps with lower card play, highlights from previous holes, analysis of swings, etc.
If anything, taking away ball golfs history, wouldn't you say disc golf has more interesting viewing/commentating/analysis potential? Now of course it would take time, purposeful promotion, some luck, a lot of patience, and more time, but imagine a time in the not so distant future where a larger player and spectator base understood enough of the basics of DG to follow along with the action/commentating/analysis. Now imagine ESPN level commentating and info graphics detailing the disc used for each throw. But not only the disc, but the approximate wear of a particular disc. And then the decisions of a particular throw. Wind direction and speed. Showing footage, from the exact same angle, of other throws made from that hole from other players and the same player from earlier in the tournament. And with more money, the discussion of the mental game becomes increasingly important. And with more money, imagine what could be done with the courses. Courses as well maintained as ball golf, but with all the added features that DG brings (wooded vs. open, dramatic elevation changes, etc).
But that damned several hundred year lead that ball golf has. But guess what, now is a better time than ever to be a fringe sport. Not only internet coverage, but even ESPN is understanding that people are as short-attention-spanned as ever and show highlights from all kinds of sports instead of talking about the Patriots for the 959th time that day.
In the end, I think we're all just arguing where in the continuum between mainstream professional sport and fringe hobby disc golf moves to in the future. To make absolute statements is just silly imnsho. As mentioned, no one predicted there'd be a device like a goPro and how it would impact action sports. The decline of boxing has been obvious for quite some time, but wasn't always obvious. What happens to football as concussions mount their tolls. Anyone want to predict the popularity of baseball in 25 years? Soccer in the U.S. (MLS, etc)?
And trust me, I'm not saying I think DG *will* be make it to that upper end of the mainstream sport continuum, BUT, I don't agree it's because of an inherent lack of excitement in the game. Like any newer sport, it'll take some luck and/or some very creative visionaries, with money, to help it break through. Heck, even a sport like basketball had guys like Sonny Vaccaro to help take it to a new level.
Hopefully we'll get those lucky breaks we need. I'd rather watch well-funded, well-edited, disc golf than 90% of the other sports on tv. Then again, I'd much rather see more World Rally coverage than Formula One coverage in the U.S., but that's also probably not happening anytime soon.
Speaking of F1, now THAT's boring to watch! And this is an admission from a former huge F1 fan.
Regardless, unless you want to keep the sport small (which is another argument), you have to applaud efforts from guys like Jussi. I don't think any of us can argue that he's working hard, and that he's trying something different. If you don't like it, it's one single tournament a year, plenty of others for you to see the type of coverage you prefer. And bonus points for the folks going out and putting in their own efforts to growing the sport. Bringing up problems is okay, bringing up solutions a bit better, but we need the folks who are actually implementing the solutions.
