Bullet Meets Foot: How the sport of axe throwing is hurting itself

A lesser-known but prevalent game within all of axe throwing, is considering why the sport isn’t growing. Covid really did a number. It’s boring to watch. We don’t have enough drama. The list is ere growing. But I think one of the largest factors is one that, well, we don’t really discuss enough: Why the hell do we have two different organizations vying to be the league that makes it big (edit for clarity: “big” as in bigger, sustaining numbers of throwers, rather than shrinking year over year).

This in utero fist fight between the IATF and WATL, frankly, hamstrings the growth of both organizations. It spreads out the base of players, money and interest between two organizations when, frankly, there may not even be enough growth to sustain even one axe throwing organization.

But badger – lots of people throw in both!

Cool. But think about it for a second: belonging to two different leagues means an individual is spending more money, spread out over two orgs. It may not be taxing for the player, necessarily, but it’s lost money for either the IATF or WATL. Plus, you know, time is a thing: a thrower doing both WATL and IATF will, on occasion, need to make a choice between which they’re gonna do.

How do I put this succinctly…your ass can only fully sit in one chair well. If you’re trying to sit on two chairs with one ass…it’s….it’s not gonna work. Does that track? Is that anything?

But badger – more axe throwing is good!

No.

Hahaha, no no, I get your thinking. But axe throwing is stuck in the station. My fear is that we’re not building up enough steam to launch ourselves down the track. Holy hell, how many metaphors am I gonna use in this post? Eventually it’s going to read like I’m selling an E.D. medication. Oh shit. Badger brand E.D. meds.

Clutchies: You’ll always go up.

ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew

Anyway: What I’m getting at is how, with WATL and IATF both trying to find sponsorship and visibility and an expanding player base, we’re robbing both organizations of clear expansion paths. Instead, we’re fighting with each other just to keep numbers up, and the net result, I fear, is that neither organization really grows enough to get to whatever the hell step two is.

But badger: lots of sports have multiple leagues!

Sure. AFL/NFL, Premier/FA football, so on and so forth. There are some big differences, here: Many of the big sports that have multiple leagues have a sort of matriculation in place (that is to say: you can start in the minors, move to the majors, etc. etc.).

But axe throwing has no path like that. You don’t start in IATF and git gud enough to move to WATL – you’re one or the other (or both). So rather than create a groundwork for growth, you have two lil’ guys trying like hell to build something separate from each other. Again, the two chair, one ass analogy.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the reasoning is also fundamentally different – or maybe the cause: Axe throwing has two (3 with MLAT) leagues because it’s young. Big sports have multiple leagues because there is enough interest to allow for it.

But badger: some other excited argument!

Listen, I hear you. Maybe this is a tiny issue considering all the other reasons axe throwing isn’t growing in a way that is sustainable (pivot: maybe it is growing the way it should?). But it strikes me as hella troublesome that such a young, new, struggling-to-find-bigger-footing sport has two (really, 3, if you count in MLAT) orgs.

I think it is likely that one of the two big leagues is gonna eventually disappear/get consumed by the other. The question I can’t answer is whether either league is gonna survive long enough to see it happen.