Mirror, Mirror (Part 1 of 3)

When a new product is released, who can afford it?  Only the rich can afford to purchase it.  Businesses then use the profits from these purchases to begin to produce a larger batch, which is then sold to the almost-rich.  Then those profits are used to mass produce a product which is then available to the general public at a reasonable price.

We’ve seen this process occur many times in recent years.  The automobile, televisions, cell phones and computers are listed as common examples of this process at work.  But it is not limited to just technology products.  Medical breakthroughs, rehabilitation from injuries, and programming techniques all filter down so the general public can gain access to them.

So what does this have to do with Magic?

This illustrates that the health of an activity or a sport is based not on the very top, but on the masses who can partake in the activity.  Tiger Woods popularized golf, but it is the multitudes of people who play golf regularly which makes the health of golf, tournaments, television revenue, etc all possible.  The same can be said of tennis and soccer and others.

It’s not the professionals, but the amateurs which determine the activity’s health.  I’ll expand on this next time.