Natty Boh Army

https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/pickleball/ That viewership number was for "PickleBall Slam 2". Your guess is as good as mine as to what that is. https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/little-league-world-series/ It looks like most/all Little League games draw a good number of viewers- for more than I expected.

I haven’t seen this info posted yet, so I figured I would share. I realize this topic deviates a little from the usual banter; however, I thought it to be relevant. The ratings for the tournament are in- the finals drew 703,000 viewers on ESPN. The good news is that this is a solid number for college wrestling, it represents a huge increase over last year, and that it reverses an alarming trend of declining viewership over the last few tournaments. In addition, these finals had some great moments by any objective measurement, and while we only had a few matches that could qualify as barnburners, we also didn’t have any that lasted 20+ minutes. In other words, this large number of viewers was exposed to a quality product. The bad news, of course, is that wrestling is (and will probably always be) a niche sport, and the ~700K viewers seem to be fairly close to the ceiling for this event. For comparisons sake, the finals drew more viewers than: Banana Ball (?) (197K) College basketball slam dunk and 3-point championship (572K) College softball regionals (701K) Cornhole (188K) Crossfit Games (269K) F1 Practice (599K) Hot Dog Eating Contest (491K) The Boston Marathon (369K) MLB Draft (670K) NCAA Lacrosse Finals (437K) Boys Flag Football Championship (212K) NHL Draft (502K) Pickleball (596K) And the finals drew less viewers than: ACC Basketball Finals (3,066K) College Baseball Super Regionals (1,493K) College Softball World Series (2,036K) Heisman Trophy Presentation (2,521K) Little League World Series (1,228K) NBA Draft Lottery (3,240K) Wimbledon Finals (2,212K) WNBA Draft (2,446K) https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/ https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/college-wrestling/ https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/sports-ratings-tracker/

There was also this gem: https://www.hawkcentral.com/embed/video/25082167/

Around 1991, give or take a year, one of my teammates competed at junior nationals. Upon his return, he regaled us with tales of what he saw and experienced, including the following excerpt (forgive me if I take any liberties here, but it has been 30+ years): "This one guy from PA is an absolute freak... a monster... he just destroyed kids all weekend, and he wasn't even trying. His name is Cary Kolat. He was in Slutsky's weight class (Matt Slutsky, a recently-graduated 4-time state champ from our state who was recruited by Syracuse). Slutzy got beat so bad he was crying! He was turning Slutzy and it looked like he was going to rip his arm off his body! Half the kids he wrestled had to be carried off the mat!" I remember him also talking about a dude named Ray Brinzer- another PA guy who apparently looked like a computer scientist and carried a gumby doll with him everywhere he went. So yeah, the hype around Kolat was real.

Exactly. Sure, a tournament like Big 10's would probably sell out in Iowa City or Des Moines; likewise, a host city like Pittsburgh would probably pull hefty attendance numbers. However, college wrestling desperately needs to increase its visibility, and to make inroads outside of its traditional rustbelt and cornbelt roots. If even 1% of the 12,000 fans in attendance on Sunday evening become fans because of the experience... that's money well spent.

This. I brought 2 nephews and a niece (all rec/club wrestlers), plus their dad (who never wrestled), none of whom had ever attended a college match or tournament of any kind. They all had a blast, and walked away with a new level of interest in the sport (along with what I assume will be a lifelong loathing for Penn State, thanks to the fans surrounding us).

Guess I went to the wrong concession stand- the food I got was ice cold and borderline nauseating. I also had to go to three different stations to find a diet soda.

Sorry to necro an old thread, but I don't think this was answered. As per UMD, total attendance for the finals was 12,277. I believe the Xfinity center holds about 18,000, so it was about 2/3's full (which seems about right). A big part of the reason why it looked empty on TV was because of this. The red seats in the picture here were not available for the public; rather, they were reserved for... well, I'm not really sure who they were reserved for. Regardless, these seats were almost 100% vacant for the entire weekend. And by happenstance, most of the TV cameras were set up on the opposite side of these seats. Result = blocks of empty seats directly behind the mats.

The brothers all attended very prestigious schools- UVA, Lehigh, Cornell, Harvard, etc. Pretty sure none are MDs, but I'm willing to bet all four are successful, with high-paying jobs.

Pretty sure there was at least one more after Marshall, maybe even two. I don't believe they were quite as highly regarded as the older brothers were, but still solid. BTW, Walter was the oldest, and the only one to AA (for Harvard in 2008/9ish). Marshall had a superb HS career, but was something of a bust in college.

Growing up wrestling in a neighboring state, we quickly learned to fear and respect PA wrestlers- especially those from the Lehigh Valley. My high school team traditionally competed in a medium-sized tournament in the region (Christmas City). As freshman in the pre-information age, the veteran upperclassmen routinely horrified us with tales of this tournament- how the top guys in our state would struggle just to place, and about the physical style of wrestling in the area, which typically left nearly everyone on the team bruised and battered. We were also told that the local wrestlers in this area were borderline feral, that their only breaks from toil in mines and factories came from wrestling. It sounds quite silly in retrospect. But again, as a young and impressionable 14-year old in the "word of mouth" era, this left a mark, and I will put the D11 area up against any other area in the country in terms of both quality and quantity of output.

North is your prototypical hot/cold wrestler. He'll wrestle lights out against a top-20 guy one week, and then get tossed around by a backup the next. Good match for the Terps. They still have 3 or 4 worrisome holes in the lineup, where they typically hemorrhage points (most acutely at 125, where they've given up bonus point in 8/10 duals this season). But they are improving.

Pinned is actually quite good. Palmer's dad comes across of a bit of a douchebag, but I think that was sort of the filmmakers point. It's still a solid watch, though, if for no other reason than to see the inner working of the St. Eds program. Takedowns and Falls is also really well done.

This. A huge part of generating interest in any type of activity, sports included, is to tie in some type of narrative. Major media outlets know this and have worked these angles for decades in order to generate buzz and increase ratings- to great effect. Recall last year's NCAA Women's basketball tournament, where the national sports media latched onto the LSU-Iowa matchup by framing it through the lens of the team's respective stars (Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark). The media covered these two players exhaustively in the lead up to and following the finals, and created enormous buzz by comparing and contrasting their play style, life experiences, etc. Throw in a touch of racially-based controversy, and the end results speak for themselves: 10 million viewers, an all-time record for any women's basketball event. If Flo wants to occasionally focus on narrative-based coverage of young athletes, and these stories result in any additional interest in our sport, then I am all for it.