![Photo: Kirstin Scholtz | WSL](http://www.theinertia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/WSL-1-670x387.jpg?x71573)
Photo: Kirstin Scholtz | WSL
![The Inertia](https://www.theinertia.com/wp-content/themes/theinertia-2018/dist/images/favicon-surf.png?x71573)
Ground control to Major John John! We have lift-off! The World Surf League is in the big leagues now! The big leagues of, er, sports leagues and such!
Where is all this enthusiasm coming from? Mainstream media welcomed the WSL in a major way when the New York Times pooped out a plunker of a story in its widely-renowned Sunday edition. And not only was it written about, but “successful” was one of the main descriptors applied throughout. According to NYT, an “average of more than 6.2 million people tuned in live to watch the Billabong Pipe Masters, where Mr. Medina won his first title. Those numbers exceeded the American television audience for the final game of the 2014 Stanley Cup hockey finals. Not a second of the surfing competition was shown on traditional live television in the United States; instead, it was streamed on YouTube, with 35 to 40 percent of its viewers on mobile.”
![Keeping the viewers in mind. Photo: Kirstin Scholtz | WSL](http://www.theinertia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/WSL-2-670x387.jpg?x71573)
Keeping the viewers in mind. Photo: Kirstin Scholtz | WSL
Yet there is one rather significant problem or issue with the comparison to last year’s holy grail of hockey: 6.2 million people tuned into the entire 2014 Billabong Pipe Masters, over several days and countless heats; 6.0 million people tuned into Game 5 alone (without counting Games 1 through 4) of the 2014 Stanley Cup finals between the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers. Unless only 199,999 people tuned into the rest of the Pipe Masters, the rest here being every heat but the final one between Gabriel Medina and Julian Wilson, then the data is inaccurate and misleading.
But we’re getting picky, and this story isn’t for naught. While the numbers may in fact be misleading, the story is intended to be more representative than anything: “The World Surf League’s successful web-first broadcast strategy is at the leading edge of a gradual transformation taking hold in sports television. As more and more viewers move online and audiences become more global, the professional leagues have all adopted streaming as an important way to attract younger fans around the world. But the purity of surfing’s model — reaching millions of viewers online without being beholden to exclusivity contracts with broadcast and cable networks — demonstrates the power of online audiences for sports big and small.”
And it is cool to see WSL at the forefront of this transformation. Not sure I would go so far as to agree with Chas Smith and Beach Grit that “Sunday’s edition of the New York Times is the Paris Fashion Week” — what does that even mean? – but the butt-tokin’ style savant of sorts is correct in that the story is a BIG signifier that the WSL has in a way arrived. Whether that is a result of genuine admiration from the Grey Lady or a sizable push from PR flunkies to place the reinvented ASP among mainstream media outlets doesn’t really matter; they’re firmly in the public eye as a notable sports league and that is good for exposure and whatever branding/revenue opportunities will come. Is that good for surf? Depends on who you’re asking.
Christmas came early for the world tour and CEO Paul Speaker probably has visions of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s $44 million annual salary (contract began in 2012 and runs seven years) dancing in his head. Maybe the WSL will similarly structure as a non-profit to avoid taxes as well… all the cool kids are doing it.
![That mainstream media swag. Photo: Kirstin Scholtz | WSL](http://www.theinertia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/WSL-3-670x387.jpg?x71573)
That mainstream media swag. Photo: Kirstin Scholtz | WSL
Read the original story on NYTimes.com. And for more color, head over to Beach Grit where you’ll stumble into the ramblings of Chas Smith.