If the IFBB dropped the MS. O...would that be a bad thing?

[BTX]

It will be interesting in light of the well recieved 2005 MS.O, how long it will be before we start reading stories of it's imminent demise...

Which started me wondering... If the IFBB drops FBB once and for all... is this really a BAD thing? I mean isn't there enough of a subculture out there to sustain this? ( If you think about it, the men's shows have no mainstream appeal at all... but it does have a well developed subculture that forms a consistent revenue stream)

I've long believed that the problem with Women's Bodybuilding was that it was put through a "forced evoloution" in the '80s. In other words it was expected to fill auditoriums, long before "schmoes" had become its main support system. That's why the sport "declined"...it was never a mainstream sport to begin with and its audience was developing elsewhere.

I think the IFBB hurts the sport (sometimes with good intentions) because they want to appeal to a mythical "mainstream" and do everything in their power to insult and alienate the core audience (bad enough we're called "schmoes"...how many times have you read BB magazine editorials/articles that have either played "blame the shmoe" for the way the women look to questioning our sexuality for finding them attractive?)

So maybe Dave Pecker SHOULD pull the trigger...so FBB's can move on. Some will leave the sport, others will stay and make their living on the net. There are already rumors of another federation. Maybe change will have to come from the culture itself.

Any thoughts?

BTX

[fivegrand]

It's been said before (not only by myself, but others with much more authority and history as well) that the IFBB should kill it, purge it, be done with it once and for all. Just get it over with, rather than wade through all the mewling and whining masses of those that are unsatisfied. Clearly the IFBB (or at least key people at the top) doesn't care for or about the women's side of it, or they would be more actively doing something about it to save their investments in revenue.

Only then, I think, will the women get a fair shake at recognition; with a restart from within the women's ranks as well as the subculture, FBB can be the success that it once was, that it should be now.

Of course, with that restart (new feds for example), there are tremendous infrastructure considerations to be made: Who will feed it (in terms of other groups - or will there be a new amateur level as well), who will fund it, who will promote it, who will take the plunge and "cross the lines," as it were...

The future possibilities are exciting, but are equally uncertain. If too many people take the "wait and see" approach, any new feds will never get off the ground.

[Harry The Hat]

A few points. The initial interest in women's bodybuilding was just that - initial interest. When the novelty factor wore off, there was always likely to be a decline in coverage and therefore interest.

The Weiders dropped FBBing from their magazines when they discovered Cory and Rachel didn't sell supplements. Shows return small profits and if FBBs can't sell product then they're no use to Weider or AMI.

Apparently, Pecker wanted to bin the Ms O completely this year and Manion talked him into staging it at the Expo. I'm guessing it screwed up Pecker's PPV TV package. The blue collar demographic doesn't want to see such non-traditional women.

The current problem is twofold. One, Pecker doesn't want it. Female bodybuilding can find its feet, attract good crowds and decent sponsorships, but it can't do that without some exposure. At the moment Pecker and the IFBB are further marginalizing the sport. FBBs are effectively slowly being squeezed out. They can stay as long as they don't rock the boat and are happy to live on crumbs.

Two, the IFBB don't have a clue what to do with it. They don't look beyond the protein sheiks for sponsorship, and they don't understand the concerns and attitudes of the women in the sport. They're also woefully ignorant of the internet, which is not only the fastest-growing medium in the world, but also where the interest in FBBing - which is considerable as witnessed by the success of the many FBBing sites you find - has gone to after the women were largely banished from the pages of the muscle magazines.

The IFBB is an old-fashioned (some might say chauvanistic) organization who base their business model on a bodybuilders = supplement sales basis.

Does this mean that FBBing in the IFBB is doomed? Not necessarily. It needs to turn over the running of women's bodybuilding to the people who most have the best interests of the sport at heart - the women pros. I'd like to see a Women's Steering Committee set up, with a PR Officer, a Sponsorship Officer, an Athlete's Rep, an Internet Liaison Officer etc. The women aren't going to participate within the IFBB unless they have genuine influence within the IFBB.

Unfortunately the IFBB isn't a democracy and while they think that women's bodybuilding will never provide them with the big bucks they want, they also have an instinctive distrust of handing over any form of power. Even if it's to the people who really matter - the women themselves.

[Maxt]

I think the IFBB should keep the Ms. Olympia.

[Tre]

Yes - answer a lot of prayers and get rid of it.

The IFBB is the problem, not the answer.

It'll always have its apologists like Maxt, but the real fans will move forward with the women wherever they end up.