Maximus had a millennial lasting valid point. With the recently liberated heads rolling at his feet, he demanded of the crowd... "Are you not entertained?" Had value been delivered?
One race into the season, and surely we can award ourselves the first reflective review.
The coliseum, completed in AD80, could hold a maximum of 80,000 die-hard, blood-lust filled fans. Perth (Western Australia, not Scotland dear reader) has just completed a billion dollar 60,000 seat stadium a modest 1,938 years later... that folks is progress! Centuries of progress that have delivered us advantages that saw Ancient Rome denied Cricket, loop-backs, and Ed Sheeran. Suck on that Caesar...
I'd have paid good money to see chariot racing at the Circus Maximus (great name...). This mightiest of the ancient contest complexes was over 621 metres (2,037 feet) long and over 118 metres (387 feet) across while seating comfortably in excess of 150,000 fans... which back then was about 25% of the planet's population... for comparison the billion dollar Perth Stadium provides an arena (playing field) 165 metres long (541 feet) and 130 metres (430 feet) wide. Basically 2,000 years ago the Romans had a playing field four times as long that could hold close to double the number of frenetic fans.
Now Liberty media has gone into print with its stated goal of moving from a sport to an entertainment activity. Any confusion fogging our minds should now be dispersed as completely as dew on a cool Spring morn.
Legend has it that Caligula was once so bored with the afternoon 'sport' at the arena that he had the guards herd segments of the crowd into the ring to be torn to pieces by wild animals. The post-match report did not cover what this did for future attendance and fan engagement.
Is Liberty, one race into its second year at the helm, about to similarly have its existing 'traditional' fans thrown to the Lions in its rush to entice, excite, and gather a new attention-span challenged fan base? This is a serious question to explore. I'm sure Liberty's ever expanding headquarters of well remunerated suits has buried within the darker inner sanctums a number of spreadsheets that we the traditional fans would find both fascinating, and alarming in equal measure. Just as local governments scream about safety while purchasing new speed cameras at a rate that maintains cash-flow within a maximal sweet-spot (too much deterrence and drivers actually do stop speeding, crushing revenue, while the death rate will only be moved by other, unrelated, factors) so Liberty is looking to liberate dollars at a maximal flow-rate, not build a global sport that is respected for its morals, ethics, and unimpeachable sporting standards. Sure, if by chance its entertainment resembles a sport that's all well and good. But the spreadsheet will highlight in pivot-tables and graphs just that sweet spot of cool flowing cash it is seeking.
As it monetizes everything, we can expect to see data-heavy complex products for the few traditional fans that stay the distance, at a suitable premium price, and then lots of sound-bite, fifteen-second video mash-up, easy to swallow in the blink of an eye, sized bites of entertainment for the new, cash-flow dispensing fan base.
This closely guarded spreadsheet, let's call it "The Golden Fleece", will offer many options on how to slice and dice and monetize the F1 product for maximal gold flowing into the coffers of the pirate galley Liberty.
10,000 traditional fans who will not let Liberty pry gold from their cold, hard fingers are worth far less to Liberty than 100 new fans who will each pay a gold piece per month for streaming excitement. Thanks to Netflix, Google, YouTube, and many others, the dollar value of large scale audiences that were the golden flow of money generated by mass audience free-to-air television companies for years have been reduced in a few short sporting seasons to dust bowls running dry as an Alice Springs Creek-bed.
And the Golden Fleece that is Liberty's guiding oracle spreadsheet will be telling them this: 'Throw the free to air audience, the traditional fans, to the Lions, they are no longer worth anything to us. We must monetize the New Young Things to get those rivers of gold running hot and molten back into our pirate galley'.
A digital timing app here, an online game (with in-game purchases naturally) there, a streaming service showing, well I guess the Kardashians visiting Lewis' dog, 24/7, and then a premium high definition pay-per-view service, and off we go.
Our articles of last year asked "Who is coming to Dinner?" of Messers Chase and Co. Many years ago, quite by accident, I caught the curious entertainment of Don Estelle (the short one from It Aint Half Hot Mum) wandering around singing at Harry Ramsden's Fish and Chip Shop deep within the darkness of the Leeds, Bradford, Doncaster triangle (not unlike the Bermuda Triangle, but with less Sunshine, less beach-style, and funny accents...). Maxims in Paris it was not. Michelin three-star dining it was not. Packed out, sold out, and making a fortune... it very much was.
Formula One has spent the majority of its time on this planet either believing, or presenting itself as the Michelin Three Stars experience of the delightful degustation that is world-class motorsport at the very limit of human possibility. At the very best of times it could be both believed and presented as this, for it was true.
Yet that was now so last century.
In thrall to its Golden Fleece spreadsheet Liberty will throw all non-gold producing fans to the Lions. This is about maximal gold for minimal effort. This is about entertainment, not sport.
This is not about maximal fan base, as in most viewers, any more. The Golden Fleece spreadsheet is guiding Liberty with nine-decimal place precision to the most gold. Gold, gold, and, please, more gold.
As I've noted on the esteemed pages of Pitpass before, Liberty will be looking at the money flowing in the English Premier League, and Boxing, not at total fan numbers. Dollars per fan and total dollar take rule. Not, I repeat, not total fan numbers. That was way back in the day of mass audience free-to-air television and simple advertising models.
Maximus demanded of the audience to know if his brutal winning in mere moments was entertaining them. Effective? Yes. Impressive? Yes. An afternoon chock-full of family friendly value for money sport...? Possibly not. Entertainment? Well, briefly, yes. Yes indeed. So Maximus won a ticket to Rome where the opposition lasted long enough to deliver value for money for the owners.
Yet the fans delivered adulation, and Maximus delivered honour, morals, and ethics. A compass of right in a black night when Rome's leadership was lost at sea.
In the movie, Caesar delivered one last moment of entertainment before taking his final curtain. Maximus delivered hope, vision, and inspiration before likewise bowing out.
In real ancient history both the coliseum and the Circus Maximus delivered blood, suffering, death, and entertainment for the blood-lust crowds of the day. A distraction for the people, a gift of entertainment from the Caesars. A blessing for all who were not in the lion's jaw or under the chariot wheel.
So is Liberty becoming more Caligula, Nero, or Claudius? Bernie has already been Marcus Aurelius (expanding the empire to its greatest size), so free bread and endless days of circus aside, what, now it commands the praetorian guard, is Liberty going to do?
Will it appear to be a philosopher emperor, while in the darkness of the night, praying to the Golden Fleece to reveal precisely the fans to sacrifice on the alter to ensure maximal flow of golden coin? Will it be the people's champion? Will it, like Caligula, seek only immediate pleasures for its own gratification?
And are we, dear reader... Are we entertained? Well that will very much depend on if you're a new age, gold providing lover of bite-sized entertainment, or a gold-hoarding lover of the traditions of the sport.
At least we traditional fans are not in danger of being thrown to the Lions just yet. The sport we love is becoming increasingly masticated, yet for now we still stand. A few teeth marks around our ankles, but stand we do.
Are we entertained!? Well, that dear reader is a very personal question. Just like asking "Is this still the sport I fell in love with?"
Maximus died, honour enhanced. The Circus Maximus saw many pass for the fleeting joy of the crowd. The arena saw more blood let in the name of entertainment than any "sport" before or since. As the Circus Master Chase and his band of marauders eye the Golden Fleece with starry-eyed delight, pressing on the World an entertainment event no longer masquerading as a sport, I wonder who, or what, will be thrown to the Lions for Caesar's delight?
Max Noble.
Learn more about Max and check out his previous features, here
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