The sport's international governing body, formerly known as FISA, relies almost entirely on financial support from the International Olympic Committee and faces the same challenges of rising costs, declining importance and declining revenue that have affected everything else in the sports business world, from the NFL to Cornhole.
Competing for attention – and the sponsorship money, attendance and broadcast rights that come with it – has proven “very difficult and very competitive,” World Rowing President Jean-Christophe Rolland said at the Olympics.
Earlier this year, Secretary General Vincent Gaillard bluntly stated that World Rowing was “not in a good place” and “going in the wrong direction”.
Rowing is thriving in the United States, with record participation and spectator numbers on the Charles, Schuylkill and Hooch Rivers in the fall and at the ACRA, IRA and Youth National Championships in the spring. Rowing can be successful when presented well, as at Henley Royal Regatta, which this year drew record numbers of participants, 300,000 spectators and approximately 100,000 viewers per day on its YouTube livestream.
Those figures are close to ESPN's average viewership for F1 races of 1.1 million per race in the U.S. Last year's Las Vegas Grand Prix drew 315,000 spectators over four days.
But World Rowing still runs elite-level rowing in the same old Euro-centric way the sport has functioned since the early 2000s, with a World Rowing Cup with almost no one in it (outside of Lucerne), a World Rowing Championships that is always held in Europe except the year after the Olympics, and a regatta programme that should have been held over a few days now stretching over a week or more.
This is costly and counterproductive for all but the few European teams that dominate the medal count. At last year's world championships in Belgrade, European countries won 70 of the 87 medals. In Paris, three European countries — the Netherlands, Great Britain and Romania — won 9 of the 14 events.
Pressure to cut costs and numbers has led to Olympic rowing being comically small: just seven eight-man boats and nine four-man and quad boats. The eight-lane course is the international standard, effectively eliminating the need for heats and semi-finals. The current Olympic program can be run over a long weekend by the same volunteers who make the Canadian Henley so successful.
But rowing is beloved. Ticket sales in Paris reached 97 percent, with nearly 20,000 fans filling the stands each day to cheer on the athletes. Swimming, athletics and cycling also garner public attention, with star athletes winning multiple medals at every Games. The Romanian women's eight proved it could be done in rowing, too, winning two silver and one gold medal.
To facilitate this, why not run all the smaller boat events on the first four days of the Olympics and World Championships, and the larger boat events on the last four days (or less). Instead of individual boats, countries could qualify for the Olympics and compete in as many events as possible with teams of 20 men and women in all rowing events (bring back the coxed fours and pairs!).
The sport certainly needs Michael Phelps and Simone Biles, and with 20 national teams of 20 rowers, there are only 400 athletes — fewer than rowing's current quota of 502 — leaving plenty of room for international competition.
With the addition of a pairs event at Head of Charles and elite international crews already competing at Head of Charles and Henley, why not make these popular regattas part of the World Rowing Cup Series?
European national teams are already investing in training camps in far-flung locations, but why not try setting up training camps in places like Aiken County, South Carolina, or Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in preparation for the World Rowing Cup at Sarasota's Nathan Benderson Park in early spring?
The choice between Florida and central Europe in the early spring is easy: World Rowing can join an already thriving rowing sport, rather than continuing the failed practice of expecting the world to come to them.
World Rowing has hired outside consultants to look into the issue and propose possible solutions, which is commendable, while organization leaders point to indoor rowing, coastal rowing and esports as “exciting” new sporting disciplines, though they have yet to achieve the same level of participation and attention as real rowing.
The leaders of elite rowing have their heads and their hearts in the right place, they're just slower.
And if you row slowly, you won’t be successful.
