Robin Ficker (Photo/Morgan Hennessy)On-the-mat success, networking and an active fan base lead the Terrapins to this rarest of wrestling success stories. However, the fight for amateur wrestling's cultural recognition will not be cemented with the preservation of one program through traditional means. The wrestling world needs to extract broader lessons from the Maryland case and understand that proactive measures had already been taken to make the team more solvent and more salient, but that more will have to be done to protect it for the next decade.
Wrestling has long been dogged as a welfare sport. While I believe colleges and universities should provide athletics to their student body as part of creating a diverse student experience regardless of financial implications, I am very much in the minority. Administrators are trending negative in 2012, having to process depressing bottom lines, pay-for-play scandals and moral battles they never imagined. All this turmoil means there is opportunity for change at the administrative level and for college programs to create capital in conjunction with the rapidly expanding MMA marketplace.
The wrestling community (an idiom loosely fashioned to any of several groups, including coaches, fans, media and influential alumni who converse on internet boards and occasional drink specials) is the most eagerly entrepreneurial of any of the other traditional sports threatened by budget cuts. Any wrestling-focused Facebook user has 30 T-shirt brands to choose from and an equal number of apps, camps, and instructional videos. But when it comes to running our programs like a business, we tend to collapse under administrative pressures and lack of potential financing. We do not do a good job creating vertical monetization of our most unique and valuable commodity: wrestling matches.
Frankie Edgar (Photo/FrankieEdgar.com)Wrestling's key issue with programmatic security has always been its inability to create revenue from ticket sales, clothing sales, and other traditional market-based solutions. To fill the gap we have created a co-opt of funds brought together by independent philanthropic endeavors and individuals to pay our bills in the short term. (Perhaps not shockingly the independent financing of traditional wrestling is not an American problem -- we actually support wrestling better than most countries.)
The financial support of individuals is wonderful to those who can attain it, but wrestling now is positioned to accept increased financial support from its professional sporting cousin, mixed martial arts.
Last weekend's UFC on FOX debut pitted former two-time Arizona State heavyweight All-American Cain Velasquez against undefeated Brazilian striker Junior dos Santos. By now most of you have seen the results in the cage and UFC fans made audible groans at the length of the fight -- all perceived to be major setbacks for the promotion. However, as the numbers became more certain, the media realized two important stats. The first was that the fight, which aired against a BCS-impact game and lead-in to a Manny Pacquiao fight, pulled 5.7 million viewers making it the most-watched UFC fight in history. The fight also captured the second-highest male 18-34 demographic (the most coveted in advertising) of the sporting season, more than baseball, football, or any other single athletic event save the recent No. 1 vs. No. 2 football game between LSU and Alabama.
The target demographic is important to understand; 18-34 has always been recognized as the age when men start to develop brand loyalty which they'll likely retain well into their earning years. For companies it's clear: get 'em now and you'll be paid handsomely for years to come. To own this demographic advertisers pour money into athletic events because viewers tend to watch them live rather than risk having the results ruined by Twitter or a friend with a bent towards schadenfreude. The UFC and FOX have aligned for a 7-year, $700 million deal because the network realized that the UFC held this key demographic and that advertisers would be desperate to seek space during events like this weekend's.
All of the advertising interest makes for a large pot of MMA money, and what sport feeds MMA more than any other? College wrestling. So why is there not more bleed over in terms of dollars? A lack of creativity, community of complacency and the misguided belief that wrestling as a consumer product can't be profitable.
Crossover companies already exist. Clinch Gear and Cradle Gear have wrestling and MMA gear, but its product-only right now -- the cash is not filtering to college teams in any measurable result. One reason is that the content schools could sell (i.e. matches, behind-the-scenes and techniques) are being handed over for free to sites like Flowrestling. Flo's model is based on clicks, so a school's content gets coupled with advertising and that once-free content is now profitable to nobody but Flo. How and why that model still exists without competition is perplexing considering the amount of money they are making from any of their major sponsors, including dominant MMA brand TapouT. In a normal content partnership, like the UFC on FOX, the content is paid for in advance, giving the purchasing party the ability to make revenue from the advertising. No such model currently exists in college wrestling and until it does Flo has every right (as capitalists) to continue to profit from the free content.
Colleges across the country have to improve their revenue streams by promoting their product in a system that allocates advertising dollars back to their programs. Mat decals, short commercials, sponsored segments with athletes and other market-based solutions are all currently available to schools willing to control their content and MMA is the resource connecting the sport to an enormous, culture-changing pot of money. The MMA world has realized the potential of college wrestlers and college wresting, what's sad is that because of misplaced modesty or ineffectual leadership the reverse can't be said.
In addition to the content currently available for sale, the major conference representatives (Big Ten and Big 12) need to influence the rules and regulations governing the advertising capabilities of college wrestling programs. Ideas are needed, but what about teams with sponsored singlets (already do this with Nike, adidas, etc.)? Or matches that are competed in fight shorts and shirts, giving advertisers the incentive to reach out to the 4 million-plus members of the wrestling community with marketable consumer wears? I certainly wouldn't mind an amendment to the current NCAA rules that would allow for on-the-mat decals during the ESPN broadcast of the NCAA finals (maybe the funds could be distributed to at-risk teams?) These are just throw-away, top-of-the-dome ideas, but with the backing of MMA there is no limit to the growth and earning potential for individual programs and business owners.
By creating a marketplace that's attractive to MMA advertisers college wrestling can enjoy financial stability and re-certify itself as a major component of the modern sporting world. We do not have to live in a world where we're waiting for bad news every March, a culling of the first order. We can be leaders if we just believe that we have something to sell and take the initiative to make those moves. If we do not, we will continue to disappear, continue to fail and continue a complete, total and irreparable downward spiral into financial instability and cultural irrelevance. That is unless leaders are willing to recapture their content, sell it and embrace the financial potential of the cage.
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