Kempo Chris
12-29-2003, 01:06 PM
WRESTLING'S TOP STORY OF 2003: FREESTYLE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS FINALS SELL OUT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
Submitted by: Eddie Goldman/ADCC Wrestling Editor
Posted On 12/29/2003
from www.adcomabt.com
I am not a big fan of making lists of the top stories of the year. To me that is too often a contrived exercise in quantifying the unquantifiable. But looking over the endless contrivances that are filling up so many newspapers and magazines this last weekend of this year, I must admit that I got both jealous and annoyed. Once again, wrestling was not on the radar screen of the mainstream media in America. Perhaps this means that the mainstream media shouldn't be very much on the radar screen for the millions of people around the world who both presently and formerly participated in, and follow and work in wrestling. Still, someone has to speak up, and despite an early winter cold that has left me hoarse, I am volunteering my services, at least by offering what I believe to be the biggest story of the year in wrestling.
This is a sport that is reviled by the genteel parasites who rule the sports media world. It is a sport which many college administrators would rather do without. It is a sport which the leadership of the International Olympic Committee is scheming to reduce to such a small size by 2012 that the concept of weight classes would almost become meaningless. It is a sport that is on the radar screen of many of the anti-male feminists -- for extinction.
And it is a sport that is not defended by the international organization charged with that task, the hapless and clueless FILA, which is perhaps run by the stupidest set of men in the Olympic sports world. The fact that FILA does not understand the need to hire a media professional alone gives them that dishonor.
Despite all these cards being stacked against it, wrestling around the world continued to thrive and grow. The best example of that is the sell-out crowd that attended the finals of the 2003 World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling on Sunday night, Sept. 14, at New York's Madison Square Garden.
The attendance for the finals was reported to be 12,757, a sell-out. The attendance for all six sessions was reported to be 53,665, said to be a record for a non-Olympic international wrestling event.
In the weeks prior to these World Championships, it was far from clear that they would draw anything even approaching such record numbers. Two-for-one ticket deals were announced, and Garden officials were expecting for a lot of empty seats.
Then the grassroots effort to sell tickets kicked in. A barrage of phone calls, e-mails, and plain old buttonholing people began. The appeals went out for the wrestling community to support its sport. The result was an unusually large late walk-up crowd, and that now historic sell-out for the finals.
There were other important stories of the year, including the triumph of the Republic of Georgia at both the men's freestyle and Greco-Roman World Championships, the growing parity in wrestling with victories in all seven men's freestyle weights by former Soviet Republics, the continued dominance by Japan in women's wrestling, the second-place finish of the U.S. in both men's and women's freestyle with only one World Champion, and the preparations for the debut of women's wrestling in the Olympics in 2004. In the U.S., Oklahoma State dominated the collegiate scene with its 31st team title and two individual champions, while huge crowds flocked to see the NCAA national championships in Kansas City once again. And if CSTV: College Sports Television becomes established as a major cable network, as many believe it will be, wrestling for the first time may have a network in the U.S. committed to broadcasting many of its events on a regular basis.
Everyone can make their own lists, so I am not going to go any further in that direction. The significance of this sell-out crowd at the Worlds' finals is that it demonstrates once again that wrestling has an existing fan base. The difficult tasks may to mobilize it and expand it, but there should be no doubt that it is already there. And there also should be no doubt that once again this proves that despite all the obstacles placed in its way, wrestling remains the world's oldest, and greatest, sport.
It is likely that for wrestling, as for most other sports, 2004 will be dominated by the events of the Athens Olympics. It thus also remains the task of the wrestling community once again to support our own, since in all likelihood we can expect the same snubbing at the hands of the mainstream media we usually receive.
Submitted by: Eddie Goldman/ADCC Wrestling Editor
Posted On 12/29/2003
from www.adcomabt.com
I am not a big fan of making lists of the top stories of the year. To me that is too often a contrived exercise in quantifying the unquantifiable. But looking over the endless contrivances that are filling up so many newspapers and magazines this last weekend of this year, I must admit that I got both jealous and annoyed. Once again, wrestling was not on the radar screen of the mainstream media in America. Perhaps this means that the mainstream media shouldn't be very much on the radar screen for the millions of people around the world who both presently and formerly participated in, and follow and work in wrestling. Still, someone has to speak up, and despite an early winter cold that has left me hoarse, I am volunteering my services, at least by offering what I believe to be the biggest story of the year in wrestling.
This is a sport that is reviled by the genteel parasites who rule the sports media world. It is a sport which many college administrators would rather do without. It is a sport which the leadership of the International Olympic Committee is scheming to reduce to such a small size by 2012 that the concept of weight classes would almost become meaningless. It is a sport that is on the radar screen of many of the anti-male feminists -- for extinction.
And it is a sport that is not defended by the international organization charged with that task, the hapless and clueless FILA, which is perhaps run by the stupidest set of men in the Olympic sports world. The fact that FILA does not understand the need to hire a media professional alone gives them that dishonor.
Despite all these cards being stacked against it, wrestling around the world continued to thrive and grow. The best example of that is the sell-out crowd that attended the finals of the 2003 World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling on Sunday night, Sept. 14, at New York's Madison Square Garden.
The attendance for the finals was reported to be 12,757, a sell-out. The attendance for all six sessions was reported to be 53,665, said to be a record for a non-Olympic international wrestling event.
In the weeks prior to these World Championships, it was far from clear that they would draw anything even approaching such record numbers. Two-for-one ticket deals were announced, and Garden officials were expecting for a lot of empty seats.
Then the grassroots effort to sell tickets kicked in. A barrage of phone calls, e-mails, and plain old buttonholing people began. The appeals went out for the wrestling community to support its sport. The result was an unusually large late walk-up crowd, and that now historic sell-out for the finals.
There were other important stories of the year, including the triumph of the Republic of Georgia at both the men's freestyle and Greco-Roman World Championships, the growing parity in wrestling with victories in all seven men's freestyle weights by former Soviet Republics, the continued dominance by Japan in women's wrestling, the second-place finish of the U.S. in both men's and women's freestyle with only one World Champion, and the preparations for the debut of women's wrestling in the Olympics in 2004. In the U.S., Oklahoma State dominated the collegiate scene with its 31st team title and two individual champions, while huge crowds flocked to see the NCAA national championships in Kansas City once again. And if CSTV: College Sports Television becomes established as a major cable network, as many believe it will be, wrestling for the first time may have a network in the U.S. committed to broadcasting many of its events on a regular basis.
Everyone can make their own lists, so I am not going to go any further in that direction. The significance of this sell-out crowd at the Worlds' finals is that it demonstrates once again that wrestling has an existing fan base. The difficult tasks may to mobilize it and expand it, but there should be no doubt that it is already there. And there also should be no doubt that once again this proves that despite all the obstacles placed in its way, wrestling remains the world's oldest, and greatest, sport.
It is likely that for wrestling, as for most other sports, 2004 will be dominated by the events of the Athens Olympics. It thus also remains the task of the wrestling community once again to support our own, since in all likelihood we can expect the same snubbing at the hands of the mainstream media we usually receive.