Lack of attendance at home matches.

[Micah]

Agreed we are ranked higher than Badgers BBall, but yet no press from major news.

I didn't even look at it that way. Good point.

Comparing apples to oranges.  The media is going to cover what they think will sell papers or get views.  Being  ranked 12th - 20th for a second tier sport with only 80 teams is not going to generate excitement.  Do you ever see papers talk about the rankings for the Track, Gymanstics, or even Volleyball if it is not ranked in the top 5?

This is the reality for the sport of wrestling.  If you want to get the casual sports fan excited about the sport you need to be elite.  

[gablesgrip1]

I disagree.  Wrestling is great in Iowa because it is promoted by their coaches and schools, that is the reality.  Newspapers, tv, social media and everything in between.

[Micah]

I disagree.  Wrestling is great in Iowa because it is promoted by their coaches and schools, that is the reality.  Newspapers, tv, social media and everything in between.

And they are a perennial top 3 team lol.  Cael has a much bigger following at PSU than ISU is it because he is doing anything different?  Or because they are winning titles?  Wrestling is a "if you build it they will come sport." 

I do think promotion helps, but it is only going to generate so much of a following.  People like winners plain and simple.  Why do you think attendance goes up at the field house when Iowa and PSU come to town?  Do you think the extra people attending are there to watch the Badgers?

[bman]

Building a successful program is the major contributor to wrestling crowds, but even then the crowds don't always come, or they aren't consistent. Oklahoma State recently had a dual with Iowa. "The Cowboys prevailed, 24-11, in front of a crowd of 7,809, the largest home attendance for OSU since 2007."
Iowa averages 8,358 per dual.  Success, plus promote, promote, promote.  Most in attendance were not wrestlers themselves growing up, and they didn't have kids that wrestled. The success with promotion builds a loyal fan base. 

[MNbadger]

"Most in attendance were not wrestlers themselves growing up, and they didn't have kids that wrestled."

What do you base this on?  I have to respectfully disagree with this statement, not believing it.

[aarons23]

"Most in attendance were not wrestlers themselves growing up, and they didn't have kids that wrestled."

What do you base this on?  I have to respectfully disagree with this statement, not believing it.

I believe this....the surrounding community supports these teams....and  I am pretty sure the majority of them are just fans.  Ive been to a couple of OK State matches.....talked to many locals and I never got the impression they were all ex wrestlers or parents of.

[gablesgrip1]

Iowians promote wrestling.  In the early 2000's I was visiting inlaws in northwestern Iowa, went to the local tavern in a small midsized town and on one of the tvs they had the varsity wrestling match on live.  Guess what they had on the other tv, the junior varsity.  Don't tell me that the way they promote wrestling does not make them the perennial power that they are!

[bigG]

I wonder if Iowa and MN have this gripe about football and continually use the Badgers as the team that "makes it." Our state tends to motivate more for football, whereas MN and IA are better motivated for wrestling (by numbers). No trick, a team that perennially is in the hunt for conference and national championships will gain the fans. Do the Badgers really have to promote their football team? Could promoting the Hawkeye or Gopher football teams put those clubs ahead of UW? No way. Beating LSU is better promo material than any gimmick you can come up with.

[Micah]

Iowians promote wrestling.  In the early 2000's I was visiting inlaws in northwestern Iowa, went to the local tavern in a small midsized town and on one of the tvs they had the varsity wrestling match on live.  Guess what they had on the other tv, the junior varsity.  Don't tell me that the way they promote wrestling does not make them the perennial power that they are!

Why does this not make ISU or UNI perennial powers?  Iowa is a perennial power because Gable built them up and they can top recruits nationwide like Spencer Lee.  Northern Illinois can promote wrestling all they want but until they are top 5 school year in and year out they are not going to draw big attendance. 

I agree that promotion can help create a following but I think success plays a bigger role.  I also think the Badgers could do a better job promoting themselves.  I doubt a single kid on the HS team I help coach right now can name more than 1 badger on the team.  Most probably don't know Barry Davis is the coach.  And I bet none know they will be wrestling PSU.  That is 20 potential fans, which grows exponentially when family members are included that do not know a single thing about Badger wrestling.  Crazy

[Wisconsin Wrestling Fan]

I contacted the fieldhouse, and they got back to me.

Our attendance at the Ohio State dual was 943.

Thank you,

Breanne

943 is not a great number - I wonder if that includes people that got in for free? Seemed like a decent sized crowd to me. (I paid by the way!  )

I would think the goal should be 2000 for Friday matches, and 3000 for Sunday matches - in paid attendance.

[npope]

I wonder if Iowa and MN have this gripe about football and continually use the Badgers as the team that "makes it." Our state tends to motivate more for football, whereas MN and IA are better motivated for wrestling (by numbers). No trick, a team that perennially is in the hunt for conference and national championships will gain the fans. Do the Badgers really have to promote their football team? Could promoting the Hawkeye or Gopher football teams put those clubs ahead of UW? No way. Beating LSU is better promo material than any gimmick you can come up with.

I think that is spot on.

[Barou]

Iowians promote wrestling.  In the early 2000's I was visiting inlaws in northwestern Iowa, went to the local tavern in a small midsized town and on one of the tvs they had the varsity wrestling match on live.  Guess what they had on the other tv, the junior varsity.  Don't tell me that the way they promote wrestling does not make them the perennial power that they are!

Why does this not make ISU or UNI perennial powers?  Iowa is a perennial power because Gable built them up and they can top recruits nationwide like Spencer Lee.  Northern Illinois can promote wrestling all they want but until they are top 5 school year in and year out they are not going to draw big attendance. 

I agree that promotion can help create a following but I think success plays a bigger role.  I also think the Badgers could do a better job promoting themselves.  I doubt a single kid on the HS team I help coach right now can name more than 1 badger on the team.  Most probably don't know Barry Davis is the coach.  And I bet none know they will be wrestling PSU.  That is 20 potential fans, which grows exponentially when family members are included that do not know a single thing about Badger wrestling.  Crazy

Nobody outside of the wrestling community has any idea who Barry Davis is and not a lot of people within the wrestling community know who he is.  

[npope]

I doubt a single kid on the HS team I help coach right now can name more than 1 badger on the team.

Not that you are, Micah, but if you were to be complaining about the lack of awareness of the UW program by the potential fan base, e.g., HS wrestlers, then you should be promoting that awareness among your team. Not that you are, but those that care about the profile level of the UW team can certainly complain about the weak marketing of the team, but if one really cared, he/she could do something on his/her own end to get the job done. That said, that isn't your job as a HS coach...but if you were to be complaining (which you weren't) then you could do something about it.

The point is that the promotion of Badger wrestling isn't reaching down too deep to cultivate fan support. Personally, I don't care whether it is or not - I don't need the Badgers to be competing for a national title in order to be satisfied with the program. But if one did want that level of success for the program and were complaining about no kids on his team knew anything about the Badgers then that person has some means to affect the situation, e.g., promote the Badgers within your realm of influence.

[DocWrestling]

The Big Ten and the universities need to promote the non-revenue sports better to grow fan bases.  Right now they charge for so much and they are basically only making money off the parents of the athletes because they are the only ones paying and watching. 

It is cheap to produce video of matches especially when you use students as part of their curriculum.  It may not be the best quality but BTN needs more programming to fill dead times and people can DVR any times.  It does not have to be live.

Make it free on BTN or via web and have it archived and more people will definitely watch and it will grow fan bases.  After a few years of that maybe you have bigger fan bases and they will pay for it.  More stuff on BTN leads to more exposure nationally and likely will draw even more recruits to the Big Ten teams improving the conferences dominance.

Not sure why just about every non-revenue event is not available even if it fills the midnight to 7am slots on TV rather than re-runs over and over of their pundit shows.

This allows teams to have viewing parties and get a chance to watch Big ten wrestling.

[bman]

"Most in attendance were not wrestlers themselves growing up, and they didn't have kids that wrestled."

What do you base this on?  I have to respectfully disagree with this statement, not believing it.

Prior to moving to Wisconsin as an adult, I lived my entire life in Iowa city. Half the neighborhood were season ticket holders even though nobody in those families (except our family) wrestled (this was prior to Gable becoming head coach). This scenario repeated itself all over town. Back then, Iowa City's population was about 46,000.  I never thought anything was unique about 13,500 people going to a wrestling meet because I didn't know any better, and it seemed half the town was there.  I have been going to Iowa wrestling meets since the early 70s and have been a season ticket holder for 30 years.  Mom still lives there, and believe it or not, I still know a lot of people going to the meets. Take my word on it, most did not wrestle or raise wrestlers.  When your meets (prior to the Big Ten Network) were carried live on tv and you have a national powerhouse program, the crowds follow.  Why is that hard to believe? Wisconsin finally got their high school state finals live in tv. I remember as far back as elementary school (I'm 51) the Iowa finals being on tv with a three way split screen to show 1A, 2A, 3A at the same time and this was before cable. Not intending to brag about Iowa or bash WI, just stating that more exposure with a successful program and great promotion goes a long way.