National Spelling Bee on Prime Time Again, Why Not FIRST?

[skimoose]

Once again, the National Spelling Bee will be televised. This year on ABC tomorrow, Thursday June 1 @ 8:00PM. Good Luck and Congratulations to the finalists.

If this noble competition can get prime time airing on a major network, why can't FIRST get the same treatment for Championships? If ABC can sell enough commercial air time during the spelling bee to give it a prime time (maximum exposure) slot, why can't FIRST and our numerous sponsors show ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, etc that Championships can sell too?

This isn't a new thought, but what do we as the FIRST community need to do to get this kind of exposure? Someone has to be able to convince the media that this type of event will sell commercial air time, and bring in viewer ratings. Since the NASA web cast has the highest viewer ratings on the web, this should certainly carry over the TV. So that only leaves the selling of commercial air time. Why wouldn't the same companies that air commercials during the spelling bee, be interested in airing commercials during a Championships broadcast?