Big money sponsorship from large companies for professional jousting, coverage by ESPN, an international tour circut, star athletes risking bodily harm and possible death chasing a dream on the pitch. Millions of people watching the points standings coming into the world championship, who will be champion of the world?
Several things that should be avoided... Staged combat, like wrestling, fake entertainment.. It needs to be a real brutal competition for those involved, so as to maximize the "action sports" credibility necessary to capture the attention of the 15-24 crowd. It should marketed as the orginal extreme sport.-- ecolonsmak, Jun 09 2003 Given that the various Gladiators shows seem to have bombed out http://ds.dial.pipe...m/town/square/fm71/I doubt that jousting would prove very easy to get going. Especially if the animal rights mob gets concerned about the horses. [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004] National Jousting Association http://www.nationaljousting.com/An American sporting association already exists. [Aristotle, Oct 04 2004] And, if you scroll down, http://emol.org/azrenfest/azrenjoust.htmlyou won't be able to get away from the staged combat bit. It seems it was common even in Medieval times. "As in many Medieval tournaments, even the exact number of blows is often settled." [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004] World Championship Jousting Tournament http://www.aemma.or...ews/orangeville.htm"includes heavily armoured jousting event" [Aristotle, Oct 04 2004] Knights of Farkley http://www.knightso...y.com/displays.htmlExample of a jousting display team. [Aristotle, Oct 04 2004] coming to a mall near you http://www.medievaltimes.com/They are building one of these near me. [crabbie, Oct 04 2004] There is already a jousting sports association in America [see link] so all you would need is the sponsorship.-- Aristotle, Jun 09 2003 That association sponsors "ring" jousting events. Not the same thing as this proposal.-- ecolonsmak, Jun 10 2003 If you looked a bit further the World Championship Jousting Tournament features a "heavily armoured jousting event" [see link].
Come back to Europe and you'll find that there are large numbers of jousting display teams [see link for an example]. You provide a sponsor and you could probably draft teams from all over Europe to joust in the full kit - functional armour, authentic trimmings and horses with the right appearance (although they would actually be draft horse instead of destriers).
However given enough incentive people would probably be able to breed back the traits that people used in medieaval combat. Dressage, for example, was originally developed to train a horse to attack people and maneouvre in combat.-- Aristotle, Jun 10 2003 This wouldn't be a matter of "Gladiators" but the latest in "Extreem sports." I mean, the point wouldn't be to hurt or kill anyone (something which modern saftey equipment can go a long way to preventing) but the danger would be there. Plus it would be exciting and require a great deal of athleticism and skill. I think it would be a great spectator sport.-- nathen, Jun 10 2003 I dunno. I'm involved in a medieval reenactment society <hides> and from what I've heard we don't try jousting because it's too ridiculously dangerous for both people and horses.
I doubt that large companies would want to be associated with something so risky. Coca cola may as well sponsor bulls in Pampalona.-- madradish, Jun 11 2003 The World Championship Jousting Association (www.wcja.ca) holds a world championship jousting event each year in Canada. Also, each year, the Scotfest in Estes Park, Colorado (www.scotfest.com) holds a US/Internation Jousting Tournament, and these are only two. Many corporations are now beginning to realize that sport jousting is legitimate, exciting, and a tood marketing tool for their products.
As to being "too dangerous", jousting at this level (professional) is competed by jousters that have many years of experience in theatrical jousting. To date, (knock on wood), we have never had a horse injured and injuries to competitors is roughly that of any contact sport.
- Lloyd Clark, 2000 World Jousting Champion-- Jouster, Jun 23 2003 Jousting as a modern contact sport is alive and well. The largest tournament of the moden era will be held in London, Toronto, Canada next month. See www.wcja.ca. As for it being ridiculously dangerous to horse and rider, in 10 years of full contact, competitive jousting I have never seen a horse injured. I have seen riders suffer minor injuries, but that is part and parcel of any contact sport.
There are a lot of misconceptions about jousting, mostly spread by those with very little knowledge and no actual experience of the joust. There are large competitive jousting organisations in Northern America and Australia that compete regulary.
Rod Walker. 2003 International Jousting Association World Champion.-- Rod Walker, Jun 23 2003 To see what a real jousting tournament looks like (with corporate sponsorship) go to: http://www.happyproductions.ca/
This was action from this year's world championships held in London, Ontario, Canada.
- Lloyd Clark-- Jouster, Aug 13 2003 C'mon jousting couldn't be any more dangerous that football, boxing, or ping-pong.-- MikeOxbig, Dec 09 2005 I took some sword lessons from a friend of mine who used to joust on the ren fair circuit. He had some interesting dents in his 1/8" thick steel gorget (throat armor).
He also had a tale of a comrade who took six inches of broken lanch through a slot in his helmet and into his brain...surgery was successful, mostly, but it's not an injury-free sport.-- normzone, Dec 09 2005 random, halfbakery