The fans are the most important audience of rodeo and bull riding. As a public relations professional it is your job to make sure that your audiences are kept happy. When trying to bring in new fans it is important to make sure that your original fan base is happy with the way that things are.
Now the issue that arises now is how to keep the audience happy when they have in their minds that the system is broken. The issue as of late is that when challenging rides one rider seems to always be on the winning end of things, while other riders in what appears to be the same situation seem to get different judgements. The bottom line is simple: bull riding, like most sports. is bases on a system of subjective scoring. The judges do their best to look at the situation presented in front of them and make accurate judgements on times and determining if there was fouls made during the ride. The fact of the matter is the judges are well trained on how to do their job and they are humans and mistakes are made. The main rider who seems to constantly seems to be involved in controversial decisions rides in such a way that is harder to determine accurately things such as when to stop the clock and if contact was made with the bull. The judges thus have a harder time and look longer at it to make sure their decision is accurate. Fans do not get to see exactly what is being seen by the judge but he can see better than most what is going on in those tougher to call situations. With the rider most questioned by fans lately, the way he rides looks as if he is off well before the time is up but when reviewed it can be argued that he is holding on by the tail of his rope, which is legal.
So the question comes into play is how as a PR professional do you ensure the fans that the judges are being as accurate as they can and not showing favoritism? I have spent a long time contemplating this and think I have come up with a good answer. There has been new technology introduced called hypermo, a special form of slow motion replay. The PBR has experimented with it and just by watching it for a few seconds you can see it makes it easier to critically review issues that come under review. By making this technology available for judge replays you can make the job of the judge easier. I believe that more wide use of this could make fans feel more confident in the decisions that the judges are making.
Now knowing that this technology is expensive and all budgets might not be able to afford it I also have an alternate route to take. I think that by making it be better known who the judges are and what there history is might help make fans feel more confident in the job being done. Most all judges at any level of competition are well experienced with great credentials to do their job. Making fans more aware of this information might help build confidence.
Now I have to note that earlier this season the PBR did show a good decision by making it known to the fans that they do penalize judges who make decisions that seem out of regulation. By continuing to do this also helps ensure that the PBR will not stand for judges making bad calls.
It just needs to be remembered that judges are human and humans make errors. This does not mean organizations should have to justify every decision a judge makes but if it seems that the fans are upset by decisions being made and voicing those opinions in a public forum then there needs to be some attention paid before fans are forced to turn away because they can't trust the way things are being judged.
