49
follow @hurlinghampolo
that my efforts with @polo.days will help
attract more people to polo,’ she concludes.
Some would argue that the risk in broadcasting
chukkas would dilute the inherent appeal
of watching live matches. After all, you can’t
have your very own
Pretty Woman
treading-in
moment from the comfort of your sofa, no
matter how fluffy your carpet. As it stands,
a great number of polo spectators go along for
the atmosphere and unofficial fashion parade
as opposed to any real knowledge of
handicaps and ride-offs.
‘I really don’t think televising polo
would detract from the sport at all,’ says
McCullagh. ‘In fact, it would raise awareness
and engagement. However, I think there is
a reason it has not happened yet. That is,
not enough people care about the sport and
traditional broadcast models rely on large
audience numbers. A lot of polo is already
filmed really well, for outlets such as the
Polo Channel online (
polochannel.com
).
The main challenge is getting traditional
broadcasters to air polo and even in the
US, where the sport has more of a following,
broadcasters such as ESPN (
espn.co.uk
) only
show the largest games of the season. It
might be possible to create a dedicated polo
channel that is supported by advertisers,
or to have regular games being shown on
specialist channels such as Horse and
Country TV (
horseandcounty.tv
). As we
see more changes in the way that TV is
consumed, for example as it becomes more
and more personalised, I believe there will be
a much bigger place for niche sports like polo.’
Maybe what is needed to lift polo from
being a niche sport is the opposite of what the
tabloids are doing. Maybe instead of focusing
on the Duchess of Sussex’s dress at the
Sentebale SPS Polo Cup, we could celebrate
the winning Sentebale St Regis team instead.
That way, we could recognise the skill of polo
players, and encourage a generation – not of
spectators – but players, instead.
