Olympics Votes to Drop Wrestling in 2020

[ms maggie]

Yeah, the one sport that draws the most fans and money.

Too bad few want to watch or pay to watch women's sports except the moms and dads.

Re Olympics think women's sports are quite popular--female figure skating, skiing, gymnastics--actually think women's gynmastics is the the most popular event in terms of ratings.

Pro and college team sports in general you're right--we want faster, stronger, bigger. Nice to see girls more into sports at the K-12 level, healthier. My girls competed in gymnastics and horse back riding and swimming, lots of fun though I would lying if I didn't say all those practices and meets didn't get old.

[Daan]

Olympics are a business.

My guess is that a commercial spot during women's beach volley ball was one of the most expensive if not the most expensive.

It's about what brings in the most money!


.

[Calamari]

I didn't see the show...

Then you probably shouldn't have made a statement about it.

[The Eternal White Belt]

You must have seen a different show.

Then you probably shouldn't have made a statement about it.

You're right. What you see on TV is much closer to reality than what I have witnessed in real life.

Since you've never competed in wrestling, or any combat sport, you should not post on this thread.

[Calamari]

Can you prove that?

[The Eternal White Belt]

Nope. Nor am I going to be drawn into one of your idiotic "nah nah na boo boo" childish sidebar arguments you love so much.

[Calamari]

Oh, so time and time again on this thread you have made comments about things it turns out you know nothing about, and are now on to the petulant insult mode.

[slapshot]

Kind of my point. If you are going after all male sports, the
800 lb gorilla is football.

Disagree.

If you're gonna go after a specific program, go after the weakest (in terms of revenue/fan support).

There are two things that matter in collegiate/professional sports - (1) revenue and (2) alumni/fans support.

[ms maggie]

Disagree.

If you're gonna go after a specific program, go after the weakest (in terms of revenue/fan support).

There are two things that matter in collegiate/professional sports - (1) revenue and (2) alumni/fans support.

I thought you were talking re the context of title IX?

Frankly think there is a lot wrong with college football which is allowed to go "unnoticed" for the very reasons you cite. Too bad really.

[slapshot]

Re Olympics think women's sports are quite popular--female figure skating, skiing, gymnastics--actually think women's gynmastics is the the most popular event in terms of ratings.

In the US, that is probably true. In countries that do well in that sport, interest, as with any Olympic event, will be strong. The US traditionally does will in woman's figure skating, gymnastics, and swimming...so, of course, viewership in the US will be strong in these sports.

[The Eternal White Belt]

Disagree.

If you're gonna go after a specific program, go after the weakest (in terms of revenue/fan support).

There are two things that matter in collegiate/professional sports - (1) revenue and (2) alumni/fans support.

I thought you were talking re the context of title IX?

Frankly think there is a lot wrong with college football which is allowed to go "unnoticed" for the very reasons you cite. Too bad really.

I think you are both right - while football generally is the largest revenue-generating sport, some schools still can not afford to have a football team due to Title IX. For instance, smaller schools have a hard time justifying the start up of a football team, partially due to the additional women's sports it would need to add. I know of one school in particular (deep in SEC territory) where the fan base wants and would support a football team, but it likely would not generate enough revenue to justify starting a program. I'm not talking about a rinky-dink school in the middle of nowhere either. The school is a little bit smaller than say, a Towson university.

I am guessing (I haven't done the research) that there are probably schools out there with football programs that do not support themselves and/or the multiple women's sports that had to be added to balance the number of scholarships.

[Fang]

I love synchronized swimming. Glad they eliminated wrestling. Who cares that it was one of the original Olympic sports.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/story/_/...-2020-olympics

Synchronized swimming rocks.

[slapshot]

I thought you were talking re the context of title IX?
.

This is how it works:

(1) Title IX dictates the distribution between the number of men/woman athletes (scholarships) on campus.

(2) If an athletic Dept wants to add a new sport, that usually means adding both men and woman's sport - to remain compliant with Title IX. It costs (approx) about $2mil per team, per year, to sustain. Unless the football program can generate enough revenue to offet, the usual course of action is to elliminate a men's program...which is then (often, not always) replaced with another men's program, thus balancing Title IX. If you look at UMd, something like 7 NCAA programs were recently elliminated, due to declining revenues from their football program....and in that ellimination process, two things were used to determine whether they survived, or not: (1) Title IX and (2) can they sustain themselves...or be close to balance of $0.

So, there are two over-riding considerations on what programs are added/deleted: (1) The financial balance sheet and (2) Title IX requirments....and they are, albeit indirectly, tied together.

The one thing, like soccer, in wrestling's favor is....the operating expenses, beyond scholarships and coaching/staff, is very minimal. Equipment costs are insignificant.

[ms maggie]

This is how it works:

(1) Title IX dictates the distribution between the number of men/woman athletes (scholarships) on campus.

(2) If an athletic Dept wants to add a new sport, that usually means adding both men and woman's sport - to remain compliant with Title IX. It costs (approx) about $2mil per team, per year, to sustain. Unless the football program can generate enough revenue to offet, the usual course of action is to elliminate a men's program...which is then (often, not always) replaced with another men's program, thus balancing Title IX. If you look at UMd, something like 7 NCAA programs were recently elliminated, due to declining revenues from their football program....and in that ellimination process, two things were used to determine whether they survived, or not: (1) Title IX and (2) can they sustain themselves...or be close to balance of $0.

So, there are two over-riding considerations on what programs are added/deleted: (1) The financial balance sheet and (2) Title IX requirments....and they are, albeit indirectly, tied together.

The one thing, like soccer, in wrestling's favor is....the operating expenses, beyond scholarships and coaching/staff, is very minimal. Equipment costs are insignificant.

Got it. Imagine men's basketball pays its own way and then some, at least at the big bb schools.

[bullmikey]

The Spartans are gonna be pissed.

[slapshot]

Got it. Imagine men's basketball pays its own way and then some, at least at the big bb schools.

At schools like Md, it does. I think even the woman's BB program is + cash flow on some years. All depends on how they are doing...

The + revenue generating sports (on average) are (not all schools have some of these sports):

(1) Football - they are king.
(2) Men's BB
(3) Baseball
(4) Men's hockey

....on many campuses, woman's BB is neutral, with attendance between 1K-10K (on average). Surprisingly, even men's lacrosse loses money at UMd.