Twelve hours after Germany had won the World Cup in Brazil, the country’s waterpolo team jumped in the pool for the opening game of the European Championship in the Hungarian capital.
It is probably not the result – Germany suffered a sound 10-5 defeat at the hands of Croatia – that kept news of the game out of the limelight.
Professional waterpolo has been shunned for so long that the sport’s leaders now fear for its survival.
That is not the conclusion one might come to at the Margaret Island Aquatics Complex, which has been outfitted with 8,000 seats and fills to capacity on most nights, especially when hosts and world champions Hungary play.
Television is so saturated with other sports, however, that waterpolo sponsors get nowhere near the kind of media exposure they would through other sporting events.
“Waterpolo has been around forever, and some games induce downright euphoria out here,” said Tamas Gyarfas, the Hungarian vice president of the international water sports association FINA.
“But their TV appeal is weaker for a number of reasons. We worry that it might hit a point where it can no longer be considered a top priority sport.”
Gyarfas, who has also had a career as a media businessman, said it is hard to popularise, and therefore make money on a team sport where the athletes are mostly submerged in water and the action is interrupted every few seconds by referees.
“Viewers have little idea what’s going on,” he said.
“It is not enjoyable the same way as athletics, where people dash about, or gymnastics, where they fly around. Still, we would like to save this game.”
The summer league in Malta takes waterpolo from its regular-season professional roots and puts it where it belongs: in the sun, by the water, where fans get to enjoy the games while they spend a day at the beach
Waterpolo leaders have sensed this challenge for years.
FINA dedicated a conference to reforming waterpolo this year, inviting marketing and advertising experts from other professional sports like the US National Basketball Association to learn how to sell a game well.
One presentation compared the introductory show at an NBA game with the start of a waterpolo match.
The contrast was huge: fanfare and fireworks on one side, a solemn announcer reading out players’ names on the other.
With that in mind, Hungary is putting on a big show at the aquatics centre, with boisterous sound effects and a cheerleader who directs fans during the championship.
For lasting change, however, more will be needed. Pushing back play-offs into summer months so spectators have more fun at open air games is one idea for reform.
Other ideas include smaller pools to allow faster games, fewer players to fit in the smaller pools, or a smaller ball to allow more powerful shots and more goals.
The long-term goal is to spread the sport, which is only really big in the Balkans and some southern European countries; but waterpolo officials are reluctant to change a sport that has taken a century to develop.
FINA waterpolo director Gianni Lonzi said any changes need to be tested before they become adopted, a process that could start next year.
“It is like when I have an old car which I want to change,” he said.
“Until I see a car that gives me the same satisfaction, I don’t change.”
Apart from a regular contract with Hungarian team Szeged, three-times Olympic gold medallist Tamas Molnar has also played for the last five years in the summer league in Malta, where people adore the sport like nowhere else.
“To the 400,000 people who live in Malta, there are ten teams,” Molnar, who plays for champions Neptunes Grimaldi, said.
“Prominent games often have 2,000 fans, not just spectators, but proper fans, with flags and drums and all.
“They create a fantastic atmosphere. It’s exceptional.”
He said part of the secret is that the summer league in Malta takes waterpolo from its regular-season professional roots and puts it where it belongs: in the sun, by the water, where fans get to enjoy the games while they spend a day at the beach.
Molnar’s generation had exceptional opportunities which allowed them to focus on the game and earn a very decent living doing it.
But he says those circumstances may be hard to emulate in the future.
“I don’t know how long this type of a professional game can be sustained,” he said.
“It is impossible to plan for the long term. Clubs struggle to secure sponsors on a business basis.”
The annual budget of a championship-level waterpolo club can be close to €1.5 million, he said.
That may sound like peanuts for some other professional sports, but even that money is often from sponsors who like the game and not investors.
“We hoped that the US would show the way and start a well-financed professional league when the men played in the Beijing Olympic final and the American women won (the 2012) Olympic Games,” Molnar added.
To this day there is no professional waterpolo league in the United States, and not because Molnar and the Hungarians beat them in that Beijing final. It is because the sport just won’t lend itself to mass media.
When big companies finance waterpolo it is usually a case-by-case affair.
Britain’s Vodafone PLC has sponsored Champions League football and Formula One on a global basis. It only backs waterpolo in Hungary.
Vodafone Hungary CEO Gyorgy Beck said Vodafone’s annual waterpolo sponsorship budget was more than €320,000 until recently. It has been cut back now, although it still sponsors youth games and special events.
The company constructed a temporary waterpolo arena on a downtown Budapest square for the European Championships which have now reached a decisive phase after most of the group qualifiers have been played. Hungary are in the semi-finals.
The arena is emulating the beach atmosphere and broadcast games live.