Historical perspective: Pro Surfing Media Deals

Historical perspective: Pro Surfing Media Deals

Graham Cassidy all but closed one of Surfing's biggest broadcast deals in the 1990s

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 12 October, 2012 : - - Graham Cassidy put together the most spectacular offer the sport of surfing has ever seen over a two year period during the mid-1990s, one that makes the offer from Californian media company ZoSea, which was accepted this month, look amateur by comparison.

ZoSea has persuaded the ASP that it can sell the broadcast of the pro surfing tour to a major TV network for more than the $20 million-plus usd that the tour costs to produce. But its bona fides are unknown. It is a new company led by two people who have modestly impressive backgrounds in youth and pop culture organisations. For Terry Hardy this has been a three-year project, and his energy, vision and Californian contacts may enable his success.

Cassidy's proposal was solid. He had persuaded CSI, one of the biggest sports broadcasters in the world at the time, to invest in the sport, promising to increase the prizemoney of four events to $US1m by 2000. There was also a prize pool for the world title, an insurance scheme for athletes and a five-year commitment to grow the sport, with a focus on taking events to the best locations.

In a tumultuous meeting in Hawaii in December 1996, the ASP board voted to request amendments to a contract it had signed with CSI earlier that year. CSI, the goose that had spent that year laying golden eggs, declined. At considerable expense, it walked away. Surfing has never recovered from it.

The carnage that the surf industry finds itself in today is directly related to that one dramatic decision. Pro surfing has remained a fringe marketing tool for the surf industry ever since, and the companies that financed it are mostly now in trouble...

Read the full article by Fred Pawle

Source: Australian

Author: Fred Pawle

Tags: Pro Surfing, World Tour, ASP

World Tour: Surfersvillage