It has been a tumultuous start to her tenure as the WSL’s CEO. But Sophie Goldschmidt remains upbeat despite the giant amount of criticism she’s copped in the short period she’s been at the helm. In an interview this week with surf forecasting website Surfline, Goldschmidt apologised for the failed Facebook roll out, discussed plans for a pay-per-view model and watered down Kelly’s plans for retirement in 2019.
One quick thing to note, the WSL and Surfline are ‘partners’ so it does feel a little corpo press release. Ain’t too many pointed questions at the CEO if you know what I mean.
To recap: On Sophie’s watch we’ve lost Pipeline and the Triple Crown, arguably the grand slam event of the Hawaiian Winter. Not to mention Fiji and Trestles have been dropped from the calendar. The final straw was the bungled Facebook rollout at J-Bay. Audience numbers on the Facebook stream were at best 17K and at times as little as 2K. The WSL explained that those numbers are based on ‘region specific’ but critics have disputed this explanation based on their own data gathering from the event. Sure, there have been gains. The addition of Keramas and Kelly’s Surf Ranch. The latter hasn’t gone down too well with surf purists. Especially since there’s been such a push towards promoting wave pools from the WSL this season. Abandoning Margs for fear of sharks present in the area didn’t stop the WSL running the J-Bay Open. Sharks momentarily halted competition multiple times in both the men’s and women’s events but competitors were sent back out to surf their heats. A decision which would have had many head scratching at WA Tourism.
Here are some pearls from Goldschmidt’s interview with Surfline.
On the Facebook criticism:
“This was a first for Facebook and the WSL, and we’re learning all the time. We extensively tested it before the migration and, unfortunately, there were some issues that Facebook is confident they will resolve. We are pushing the boundaries with the technology and sometimes there are teething issues. We understand that many people loved the experience as it was on the WSL channels, but as we look to grow the interest and profile of the surfers and surfing, getting the chance to partner with the biggest online community in the world is a great opportunity for us. We thank the fans for their patience and support as we continue to work through the transition and the challenges with some devices, and we want to remind everyone that we’ve re-instituted the broadcast across our WSL channels until further notice. Now you’re able to watch our live broadcast on the WSL website, the WSL app, and of course, on Facebook. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience fans may have experienced.”
On the decision to finish the Margaret River event at Uluwatu:
“Margs was an exceptionally unusual set of circumstances, unlikely to be repeated. We have very good protocols in place to ensure the safety of the surfers. We took a couple of breaks in J-Bay when sharks swam through, but finished the event without incident. The infrastructure and protocols are very solid, but we will always make decisions based upon safety first.”
On a pay-per-view model:
“No firm plans at the moment. It’s very unusual for all aspects of a sport to be offered for free to the world, and going forward, we want to make sure that the correct decisions are made for the fans and the sport — so it can grow and thrive, and so we can continue to strategically invest in its development.”
On Kelly’s retirement plan:
“After his initial surprise announcement, Kelly then posted that he’s been threatening to retire for 10 years now, so don’t hold your breath on this. With the Olympics round the corner, and him being one of the most competitive people on the planet, there are no plans yet!”
[Read the rest of the interview in full here.]
Needless to say, the comment board is lighting up like a Christmas tree on this one.
Can someone see if Rabbit is available so we can go back to his original model?
