ESPN to broadcast drone racing, because why not?

ESPN is embracing more things that aren’t traditional sports by airing a drone racing event this summer.

Say this about ESPN: Even if the once invincible sports network has reached the point where it’s now a giant drag on Disney, it’s not going to do a slow fade into obscurity without trying everything possible to future proof itself.

The network’s commitment to eSports is one sign of that, but now the Worldwide Leader in Sports is going to broadcast something that would fit even less people’s traditional definition of sports. According to E-Commerce Times, ESPN will air something called the 2016 U.S. National Drone Racing Championships this summer, followed by the 2016 World Drone Racing Championships in October. Both events will be carried live via stream on ESPN 3 before being edited into one-hour shows for ESPN.

This writer has to admit to being unaware that drone racing was even a thing, yet with the increasing ubiquity of drones, it’s also not a shock that people would get together and race them. And while it does seem cool that these things can be used to race, SportTechie mentions some challenges facing drone racing as a spectator sport, not the least of which is making it simple for viewers to keep up with the action.

Plus there’s the issue of drones being too small to carry sponsor logos a la NASCAR vehicles. It’s undoubtedly going to smack of desperation in some corners for ESPN to embrace drone racing, but the other way to look at it is as a hedge bet on what could possibly be the Next Big Thing™. Time will tell which of those it turns out to be.