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Most obscure sporting broadcast?

PirateJohnny said:
One sport that aired once ABC's Wide World of Spots back in the mid 60s was one I watched closely and enjoyed so much I tuned in every weekend for more, but never saw any more coverage. I think it is still contested. I've found references to it on the internet but sadly, no YouTube videos. It was a competition for fire departments racing against the clock in several different obstacle courses. They used vehicles that were pickup truck size hot rod fire trucks. A crew would ride the truck down a straight track as fast as possible to a burning obstacle and had to deploy different tools for each race, racing against the clock for the best time. The one I remember vividly was the ladder climb. Once the truck stopped a ladder was set up and a fire-fighter had to climb the ladder and hit a button at the top of a structure to stop the clock. The ladder had to be raised from horizontal from behind the truck. One team was so quick that before the truck had stopped and the ladder was even vertical the climber was already half-way up the ladder!
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There were some really bizarre sports on "Wide Word" back in the 60s. My fave from 1965: the Air Force Fighter Interceptor Rocketry Meet, which featured such exciting contests as which crew could load a rocket the fastest.
 
One could only imagine how much more obscure ESPN could've been then! Would that kind of network even have been possible in terms of satellite with virtually no cable?
 
How about handball and Table Tennis. NBCSN aired it as an Olympic event but most of the attention was in Swimming, Water Polo, Track and Field, Boxing, Basketball and gymnastics on the main NBC feed with hype over the medal competition in those events. Handball and Table Tennis are obscure pro sports in the USA but big in other places . Americans only see these events during Olympic time.
 
davect said:
Candlepin bowling is a regional sport, mostly limited to areas of the Northeast USA and Canadian Maritimes.
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Those candlepin shows used to do huge ratings here in New England -- especially MA, NH and ME -- but I believe they're all gone due to aging demographics killing their appeal to advertisers.
 
RadioPatrol said:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/sports/duckpin-bowling.html

Say Duckpin bowling expanded the same way as the PBA bowling and expand the sport nationwide would they be talking about this their downfall today.
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Tenpin was around long before duckpin -- or candlepin, for that matter. I suppose if either game had somehow overcome tenpins' head start and caught on nationally, it might still be viable. Maybe it would have developed a nationwide tour and got a national TV deal. But don't forget, tenpin bowling is losing houses as well, and its TV exposure is a fraction of what it once was. Bowling in some form will likely always be around, but eventually, they'll likely be talking about tenpins the way they're talking about duckpins.
 
CTListener said:
Tenpin was around long before duckpin -- or candlepin, for that matter. I suppose if either game had somehow overcome tenpins' head start and caught on nationally, it might still be viable. Maybe it would have developed a nationwide tour and got a national TV deal. But don't forget, tenpin bowling is losing houses as well, and its TV exposure is a fraction of what it once was. Bowling in some form will likely always be around, but eventually, they'll likely be talking about tenpins the way they're talking about duckpins.
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6kijOoACCCo

5 pin bowling its big in Canada but then again I don't know if expansion to the rest of the world would work out too.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giz8T0KI47c

Lawn Bowling and Carom Billiards these are obscure Sports here in the United states and could only be seen on Youtube. These sports may or may not be televised in other countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnPGo4Oqt-s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAEh8B5REmg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS5sHWoDw2Y

https://www.youtube.com/user/WorldBowlsTour

Here's a league dedicated to Lawn Bowling. Note this sport is only televised on youtube if you life in the United States.
 
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I mentioned this on the TV Schedules forum too- that ABC would do what was a "super regional"- where a big game(like Oklahoma-USC) would air in 99.2 of the country where as a game like Citadel-Appalachian State would only air 4 stations at most. That led to Georgia and you guess it- Oklahoma to challenge the NCAA monopoly all the way to the Supreme Court. John Paul Stevens delivered the opinion, holding that the NCAA had violated the Sherman Act with its stranglehold on televised college football, and now there are so many game on TV these days.
 
I once saw 2 CFL playoff games going at the same time, the eastern CBC feeds had one game while the western one had the other game. This was around 1994-95.
 
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