The real problem with RAF sustainabilty?

[BruceyB]

After responding to @okokzach's question about who would have the longest match streak of title defenses, it made me think that there are two very significant obstacles that the organization will have to navigate (outside of $)

The first is two-pronged regarding college wrestlers. One issue being that so far we don't even know if college athletes can compete in the events. In every domestic weight class, the majority of top contenders are still in college (if not high school). The other problem is that even if college athletes can participate, when would they? These top college athletes are getting paid to wrestle for their school, I don't see any coaches signing off on a RAF side quest. After the college season is WTT and worlds for these guys.

The issues with college athletes leads to the very real issue of the lack of truly competitive athletes to pull from. Just look through domestic rankings and you'll see that most of the guys on the U.S. ladder are still in college. A lot of weights only have 2 or 3 active wrestlers. Pulling guys from RTCs or coaching because they have name appeal won't lead to a good product, they might sign-up and wrestle, but they aren't going to be the best version of themselves. I'm curious if international guys would be interested in signing with RAF. I think it could be really beneficial for more casual fans to watch given the "just root for the USA" concept that would give even the most casual of fans a rooting angle.

What do you guys think? Are there enough active wrestlers that could realistically climb the ranks and challenge for a title to make RAF a long-term success?

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

20 minutes ago, BruceyB said:

After responding to @okokzach's question about who would have the longest match streak of title defenses, it made me think that there are two very significant obstacles that the organization will have to navigate (outside of $)

The first is two-pronged regarding college wrestlers. One issue being that so far we don't even know if college athletes can compete in the events. In every domestic weight class, the majority of top contenders are still in college (if not high school). The other problem is that even if college athletes can participate, when would they? These top college athletes are getting paid to wrestle for their school, I don't see any coaches signing off on a RAF side quest. After the college season is WTT and worlds for these guys.

The issues with college athletes leads to the very real issue of the lack of truly competitive athletes to pull from. Just look through domestic rankings and you'll see that most of the guys on the U.S. ladder are still in college. A lot of weights only have 2 or 3 active wrestlers. Pulling guys from RTCs or coaching because they have name appeal won't lead to a good product, they might sign-up and wrestle, but they aren't going to be the best version of themselves. I'm curious if international guys would be interested in signing with RAF. I think it could be really beneficial for more casual fans to watch given the "just root for the USA" concept that would give even the most casual of fans a rooting angle.

What do you guys think? Are there enough active wrestlers that could realistically climb the ranks and challenge for a title to make RAF a long-term success?

I think the plan is to try to get quite a few international guys, but that won't happen until after Worlds.  This helps with that problem, a bit.

[nhs67]

Nomad needs to come here and educate us on how it isn't sustainable.

I say that tongue-in-cheek, but I suppose I really shouldn't.  He has talked about it endlessly since before RAF1 and believes he has the numbers to prove his point.

Meander through his feed, if you want to know some of those specifics.  I can't disagree with him, because I am ignorant on a lot of the details.  He seems to have done the research.

 

[alex1fly]

1 hour ago, nhs67 said:

Nomad needs to come here and educate us on how it isn't sustainable.

I say that tongue-in-cheek, but I suppose I really shouldn't.  He has talked about it endlessly since before RAF1 and believes he has the numbers to prove his point.

Meander through his feed, if you want to know some of those specifics.  I can't disagree with him, because I am ignorant on a lot of the details.  He seems to have done the research.

 

I went there but the tweets are all out of order so I didn't find anything on RAF. However I will say that if he's so knowledgeable on why it won't work, why doesn't he flip the thinking and figure out how TO make it work? It could be a really good thing for our sport if it succeeds.

[nhs67]

7 minutes ago, alex1fly said:

I went there but the tweets are all out of order so I didn't find anything on RAF. However I will say that if he's so knowledgeable on why it won't work, why doesn't he flip the thinking and figure out how TO make it work? It could be a really good thing for our sport if it succeeds.

You need to go back a few days and they're all there.

He essentially believes a few things:
- We need new fans, not the old fans.
- Pumping money in to this instead of things at a more base level seems silly (meaning fund programs rather than these events).
- This will fail because all other versions of it have failed.

[ScottishSteel]

I think their goal is to keep college grads who are fighting to stay on or get on the ladder in wrestling by giving them a financial means to stay on the mat.  This would in theory be their depth and, again in theory, be something college wrestlers move into for their 20s even if realistically they aren't a medal threat at the senior level but can still just be popular and wrestle

[CHROMEBIRD]

What if RAF one day ended up being a feeder into MMA? Dunno if that would piss wrestling fans off, but Dana White has been investing in BJJ development. He could probably concoct something interesting with a combat series facing BJJ and RAF league champs against one another for a shot at the UFC. I really don't know how MMA works, so I'm just spitballing.