DH World Cup thread

[Weeksy]

That I think is partly human nature, why should we pay for what was free? & partly people seeing that the product did not improve to justify the price when it changed hands. In fact the opposite happened as the format was tinkered with, reducing the experience. And we lost Warner in the process who was synonymous with it to fans.

BEcause it was never really 'free' ... it was sponsored covering the cost... which to the end user of course WAS free... but also, not quite.
I think the theory was that the WBD money from subsciptions would trickle and come into the riders pockets etc... but that didn't/hasn't panned out i think.
The Warner vs Ric thing, well for me Warner was great, but when you listen back, he wasn't that much more clued up at times than Ric is. Ric seems to have good knowledge of historicial results etc, but maybe not the close knowledge of riders, which is where someone like Wyn jumping in with Ric would be golden... Although i rekon Wyn would kill Ric within 10 mins.
A lot gets made of the commentary thing, but me and the boy actually laugh a lot with it. This weekend was great when Luca Shaw came down
"coming from California he'll be used to the dry dusty conditions"
We're thinking "so in Australia, Morzine, Spain, Mexico it's never dry and dusty ? Not to mention the fact he's spent the last 15 years racing in Europe but the fact it's dry in California means he'll go well

 

[JP-NZ]

I always find it funny people who watch on Tiz or other free sites or those that refuse to pay for the sport are often the ones who wonder why the athletes don’t get paid more.

Kinda goes hand in hand IMO. Keeping in mind as has been mentioned we follow a VERY niche sport.

 

[RustyMTB]

Free to air in return for Red Bull plastered everywhere was ok by me. Warner I sorely miss, I couldn't give a shiny shite about a given rider's national results going back ten years, I want to be entertained, to have someone ratchet up the tension as the race unfolds. No one beats Warner for that.

RM is like listening to someone reading the phone book to me with an irritating habit of adding the region every time the venue is mentioned.