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Oct 8, 2010
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matburn
Site Admin
Joined: Nov 12, 2004
Posts: 3458
Location: WNY |
Al Bevilacqua, founder of Beat the Streets and a bunch of other stuff, posed this question in an email today. This was my response.
Why can't we sell wrestling to America? Here's why.
Imagine if the National Football League (NFL) held their entire playoffs, including the Super Bowl, in a single weekend at a single site. Is that a good idea? No, but that's what we have in college wrestling (Cliff Keen National Duals).
Imagine if there were no playoffs or Super Bowl at all, but instead the NFL All-Star game decided the world championship, perhaps, based on whichever team's 3 or 4 top players did the best. Is that a good idea? No, but that's how team championships are decided in wrestling (NCAA tournament, many HS State tourneys, etc.).
In my opinion, the way to make wrestling more popular is through dual meets, focusing on TEAMS rather than individuals. And I'm not talking about all-day long, stuffed-in-a-gym, when-is-this-thing-gonna-be-over, dual meet tournaments. Many fans do not want to go to those; they're too much of a time commitment. Instead, I'm suggesting a system more like how other team sports (like pro football) work, where games (dual meets) are played throughout the season leading to an eventual championship game between the two best teams.
In wrestling, all you have to do is break teams into pools, then conferences, etc. If you win your pool, you move on to play the winner of another pool, with the eventual goal of winning your conference. Then, the conference winners move on to face each other, and so on and so forth. It's important that nothing be grouped together at a single site on a single weekend (aka Dual Meet Tournament), because that would ruin it. Rather, this system should be STRETCHED OUT, throughout the season. Teams who are out of championship contention could continue their seasons fighting towards some sort of a consolation title. (And yes, at the very end of the season, we should still have the awesome NCAA and HS state individual championship tournaments to determine individual champions.)
This would prove more exciting to fans because each meet would MEAN SOMETHING. Today, dual meets mean almost nothing, so much so that they're grouped together on a single weekend just to get them over with. Boring!
Switch to a dual meet (team) championship system, do it right, and they will come.
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Go for the pin. |
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Oct 16, 2010
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backsuplex
Joined: Feb 11, 2005
Posts: 554
Location: Back to the Future |
Very valid points!
I think this is the way to sell wrestling to the masses. You have to capture their attention and give them the common goal to pull for.
I will use an example of someone who hated wrestling, but after a few years finally came to love it.
My wife was one that came to tournaments and would watch our kid’s match and some of the teammate’s matches, but was generally bored. When she went to her first Dual Meet tournament, she could watch everyone on the team without interruption and it kept her interest because of watching the teammates.
She now loves dual meet tourneys and realizes the importance of individual tourneys. You know how rabid fans wrestling moms are. She now understands the sport and realizes the strategies of duals.
A recent article I read stated that 41% of women followed the NFL. You have to go after all segments of the market to build a base. I have seen people that have been “sucked in” by the excitement of a big dual meet, both men and women, and they walked out wrestling fans.
My only disagreement with the above post is that we need to build this excitement at an early level. If you change the system now, it is like putting the cart before the horse. Selling the teams before there is a fan base would kill more programs.
The Individual Championships is still a vital part of wrestling that should continue and can continue if you put selling the team first.
I have seen a trend to youth dual meets and that is what is needed to build the fan base to accomplish selling wrestling to the America. Sell to youth-then High School -then College.
Build-Build-Build!
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The Gene Pool has a problem, there is no lifeguard |
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Oct 18, 2010
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ATM 2000
Joined: Feb 5, 2007
Posts: 1488
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Could not agree more. Teams are what people want to root for, not individuals. make the team championships the " BIG " title and then the individual tourney the all-star tourney.
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Oct 18, 2010
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fostc
Joined: Feb 9, 2005
Posts: 140
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Team duel exposure on TV would help recruitment and win fans. (Local HSchools) Other sports are getting it. Wrestling translates to TV very well. Fans came from all over section two for the shen/colonie match up last year. Love toury but a duel with Two good/full teams well get me there every time. I would love to see a couple good duels broadcast this year.
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