Zigball: A Fading Sport?
October 06, 29481 - Ferrell [Atlantean]
IRRK Freelance - With the recent players' strike and the disrupted professional schedule of games, Zigball is not having a very good season this year. Although the die-hard fans of the game still wave their pennants and cheer for their home teams, slacking attendance and "leeting" controversies have plagued this once-great sport.
"It's come to the point where you ask the new Arrivals from the ICC Shuttleport who they are going to cheer for, and they say 'Zig-what?'" says Arnold 'Artie' Grundy, a local fan of the Galway Titans. "What are the kids into, these days? They don't even know where the Zig-gurat is or when the Super Zig happens. And don't even try asking them about legends like Chan DeLeer and Iona Yahm. I blame that darn Gridstream radio."
Still, the Zigball management has other ideas. "We believe that it is only natural that such an old and acclaimed sport such as Zigball would decline in numbers, as the primary fan base starts to age," states Zigball marketing and advertising analyst Martin Zapp. "What we need to do is to appeal to the NEXT generation of Zigball fan. We have signed a deal with Phasefront to advertise in our games with their 'Generation N' extreme hoverboards, and plan to blitz the billboards with advertisements specifically appealing to our youth. We're cool, we're hip, and we're going places."
The new advertising campaign promotes various Zigball-related sports drinks, like New Giovanni SPORT. It also heavily promotes controversial players, such as Dan Geruss, who recently has been under fire for supposed "leeting" before games. The players are emblazoned with slogans such as "I am not a Role Model" and "Winning is Everything. Defeat means you are Nothing."