Brought to you by The Plaidcast
Every sport eventually faces the same question: how do you grow your audience without losing what makes the sport special?
For show jumping, that conversation has become increasingly relevant. Major competitions draw elite riders from around the world, yet the sport still operates largely within its own community of participants, owners, and fans.
Sports marketing professional Michael Cruciotti believes expanding the audience will require a careful balance of learning from other sports while embracing what makes equestrian competition fundamentally different.
“We’re not football or baseball… we have something completely unique to offer.”
Learning From Other Sports
Cruciotti’s perspective comes from working at the intersection of sports marketing, media, and partnerships. Through his work with MAC Sports International, he studies how other sports build fan engagement and attract major sponsors. Cruciotti explained that looking at the sport from a sponsorship perspective and studying how other sports manage athletes and partnerships has given him a different view of equestrian sport.
Large professional leagues have spent decades refining the systems that bring fans, brands, and athletes together. From sponsorship strategies to media coverage, those sports have developed powerful tools for expanding their audiences. But applying those lessons to show jumping requires nuance.
Equestrian sport operates within a completely different culture. Riders build careers around partnerships with animals, competitions often unfold in open environments rather than enclosed arenas, and the community surrounding the sport includes everyone from Olympic athletes to young riders attending their first show. Cruciotti’s goal is to learn from successful models elsewhere and adapt those ideas to the realities of the equestrian world.
Embracing What Makes the Sport Unique
One of the mistakes niche sports sometimes make is trying too hard to replicate the structure of major leagues. Football, baseball, and basketball operate on enormous scales with massive television audiences and highly centralized organizations. Show jumping has a different kind of appeal.
The sport combines athletic performance, horsemanship, and a deeply rooted culture that extends far beyond the competition ring. Riders develop long-term partnerships with horses, families often participate in the sport for generations, and horse shows create communities that exist both inside and outside the arena.
That uniqueness should not be hidden or minimized.
Instead, it should be the starting point for introducing new audiences to the sport. When the sport is presented authentically, showing the relationships between riders and horses, the dedication required to train and compete, and the culture surrounding the barns, it has the potential to capture attention well beyond the existing equestrian audience.
Education as the First Step
One of the biggest barriers to growth is simple familiarity. Many people outside the equestrian world have little understanding of how show jumping works. The rules, the structure of competitions, and even the scoring system can be unfamiliar to newcomers.
Cruciotti emphasized that education is a key piece of helping new audiences understand the sport. By helping new audiences understand what they are watching and why it matters, the industry can make the sport more accessible.
When spectators understand the strategy behind a course, the partnership between horse and rider, and the technical difficulty of the sport, their engagement deepens. What might initially look like a simple jumping competition becomes a complex athletic challenge involving precision, trust, and years of preparation.
The Opportunity Ahead
The industry has always relied on passionate participants to sustain it. Riders, trainers, owners, and fans form a dedicated community that travels from show to show, supporting the sport they love. But as we look toward the future, expanding beyond that core community will be important.
Cruciotti believes the opportunity lies in presenting the sport honestly. Learning from other sports can provide valuable insights into marketing, sponsorship, and fan engagement. But those lessons must be adapted carefully. Because ultimately, the strength of equestrian sport lies in what makes it different.
Want more insight from Michael Cruciotti? Listen to this episode of The Plaidcast and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform for conversations with the most influential voices in the equestrian world.
