Idea #1: Realistically, there isn't much debate or discussion
here about upcoming individual games. But suppose some fan who
loves jai-alai, likes to be on camera, and happens to have a little
charisma started uploading his thoughts on Youtube for the daily
Miami and Dania performances. That might be just what it takes
to overcome the inertia. Pepe's Green Card - 2012 version.
Idea #2: Fan ratings. I used to really love chess, studied it
constantly, and made into the top 10 of tournament players in
my home state of Michigan. So I can tell you that in chess, it's
all about ratings. People obsess over their ratings, buy lots
of books, and study TAO. When I quit, I was was just about low-end
master, which is 2200, and probably about the top 1% or so of
tournament players. Now, if we compare chess ratings to jai-alai,
what if someone devised fan competitions along the lines of Tiger's
contests? People could be paired head-to-head in contests and
after a while their skill / knowledge would manifest itself in
the form of a rating. If you believe you are a jai-alai expert,
maybe your performance in contests would prove it.
Along these lines, if you sign up with ICC - the Internet Chess
Club - besides playing, you also get to watch the very best grandmasters
in the world. And while watching, there is a lot of commentary
at the bottom of the screen from various other spectators. If
you see a comment from a 'grandmaster', naturally you
give it more respect than you would to the comment of a 'Class
C' (average) player. Jai-alai might benefit from the same
setup. I know that I would like to see comments from someone of
Benny's caliber who ocassionally popped in to participate.
Finally, don't you think it is strange that the interface for
CAJA allows real-time comments from viewers but the commercial
frontons never even considered it? That's what I mean by imagination.
