Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center for a 2022 dual with Ohio State (photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com)College football kicks off in a few weeks and what is undoubtedly the fan and financial favorite of the college sports world, will have fans in droves filling up the stadiums.
It's one of few true revenue sports in college athletics and though its attendance nationally has declined some lately they will still have remarkable crowds every weekend. What drives that?
The biggest factor is the simple draw of the sport. Football is without a doubt the most popular sport in the United States. NFL is king in professional sports and College Football runs the show in the NCAA. But an added factor is the environment that college football creates. The tailgating, the get-togethers with old college friends, the marching band, the fall weather, all create an undeniable feeling that is college football, and fans consistently flock back to their alma maters and favorite teams to recreate that environment every season.
What wrestling can't reasonably do is suddenly become the most popular sport in the United States. But former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said this regarding College Football attendance in a recent CBS article and it can be applied to wrestling as well.
"We really are competing against the 70-inch TV and the beer that is cold in your refrigerator and no lines at the restroom," Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said. "We have to continue to make sure we enhance the game day experience."
Wrestling now and will forever have this same fight. With all the streaming available, fans have the option at most schools to pay for some sort of service vs. going and physically attending.
So, what are a few things wrestling can do to mimic some of the concepts that football has and create this fan-attractive environment?
Get local businesses involved
The tailgating environment is difficult to recreate for a winter sport. In parts of the country where wrestling is prominent, it's incredibly cold during wrestling season. So that just doesn't seem feasible.
But if you're a local restaurant or bar, it's probably not difficult to grab a hold of the wrestling market in your college town, because you just don't see many businesses going after it. Use social media to bill yourselves as the place to grab some food and a drink ahead of duals, slap a few free wrestling posters on the wall from the school marketing department, make a drink deal called the “double-leg†where you get a combined beer/shot…. I'm just throwing a few things out there that could be applied. There are many more.
But this is a low/no-cost concept for the university and business that can win for both sides.
Create a fun pre-match environment for fans that they want to come back to often to have a good time and then go enjoy a wrestling match.
Engage kids
Why do most parents do anything? Because it's what their kids want to do.
At Oklahoma State during football games, there is an open area on the practice field where kids play pickup football games, climb inflatables, and participate in a bunch of other stuff going on before each game for kids to do. I don't think wrestling can easily recreate something of that scale for every dual, but a similar concept would be setting up a mat or two in a corner of the gym and letting kids roll around with some of the college guys before duals. If you've got a handful of backups and redshirts that aren't competing and can take an hour before each dual to meet with and roll around with kids/fans, you're creating and engaging what could become a lifelong fan of the program.
From a program standpoint, make friends with everyone on campus
We all know this is a bit of an impossible task. Not everyone is going to like you and not everyone is easy to get along with. But wrestling programs must engage with other programs across the campus to make for a better fan experience and get them involved in wrestling. The band, cheerleaders, etc… are all part of that college gameday environment that ties into college football, and as many of those things that can be implemented into wrestling can help create that same vibe and engage casual college sports fans.
Ultimately, several other things are specific to each program that can be applied to what we're talking about here with fan attendance and engagement, but the overall point is with widespread streaming availability, the in-person experience has become what drives attendance. And there are lessons from football that wrestling could use to improve this.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now