I’ve always wondered why football and basketball became the most popular sports in America? Why soccer in most of the rest of the world? Why cricket in India and England? I haven’t found the answer but would love to hear your opinion. Here is some food for thought. Roone Arledge is widely recognized at the genius behind taking NCAA Football’s popularity to the next level. A brilliant man and innovator at ABC in the 1960’s, his blueprint was to give the viewer enough background info to make him care about a game taking place thousands of miles away between teams to whom the viewer has no relation. “we have a supply of human drama that would make the producer of a dramatic show drool,” he said in a memo to his superiors at ABC back in the 1960’s. So does wrestling, volleyball, swimming and every other sport for that matter! Let’s capitalize on this! He continued, “…we will have pre-shot film of the campus and the stadium so we can orient the viewer. He must know he is in Columbus, Ohio, where the town is football mad; or that he is part of a small but wildly enthusiastic crowd at Corvallis, Oregon…. Then the viewer must meet the players, but he will meet them as he would if he were at the game. This will be accomplished by using a blowup of the cover of the actual game program and introducing the individual players by means of pictures of them in their normal street attire….” An innovative blueprint. Let’s follow Mr. Arledge’s lead. We don’t have tv coverage like NCAA Football but we have plenty of other tools at our disposal. Adopt this philosophy to your sphere of influence. No more excuses. Not sure what the next step is?  Here are some more thoughts….