Wrestling a ratings boom?
- Thread starter dunkej01
- Start date
This re-enforces Cael's belief that if you could quantify PSU wrestling's TV ratings on BTN into dollars, the wrestling program would make a profit.
I think wrestling is booming in PA. These kids are hilarious. For a few years I saw them go from Zain's bow and arrow, to Nolf's anklet placement, and now a lot of the kids are trying Spencer's chicken wing tilt.
The kids now have opportunity to watch high level wrestling on demand and they are watching and learning.
No doubt. I can remember back in the late 70's early 80's watching Lehigh wrestling on PA Public Television on Sunday's after church. That and the NCAA's finals on Wide World of Sports was it for live wrestling.
Ah the memories! What you mention plus having to wait a month for the next issue of the "National Mat News" and "Amateur Wrestling News" to catch up on all of the "latest results".
So assuming this is ahead of men’s hockey, women’s basketball and behind football and men’s basketball. Some people get tired of Shane Sparks, I think he’s awesome for the sport with his natural enthusiasm and energy. Let’s face it, he’s a little crazy and wired differently, but that represents most of wrestling community. Quad Box, baby. I made sure to keep repeating that to my wife on Saturday without her knowing what it means.
I think Shane is great
Yep. Loved when that was on after mass
the Pete Yozzo years.
Used to love listening to Shel Sigel and Larry Sheridan (also doing PIAA finals)
Cable is down so much that a couple hundred thousand eyeballs a week will keep a show on for years.
That’s interesting since I thought I had read a year or two ago that the number of kids wrestling in the commonwealth was down. Hope you are right and I am wrong.
I don't know numbers and stuff. I do know enthusiasm. These kids are enjoying our sport. I only ref elementary. The kids that I have been around are going after it. They will wrestle a 3 min match and ask to go again.
Just last week, I had a 12u kid get pinned in the 2nd. He asked his opponent to go again, then asked me. He got pinned again. Asked for another, his coach said no, he wanted to get back home to watch Big finals.
and then came puberty and the opposite sex....
I do as well. A few years ago when he was doing mostly sideline stuff and interviewing wrestlers right as they come off the mat (not a fan of that), I thought he was over the top and loud for the sake of being loud. But now I think i t is pure enthusiasm and passion and he has toned it down some. Like anyone new at something, if you have a passion for what you are doing, you'll work to improve your craft and Shane has done so.
In fact, watching the whole NCAA Selection Show online, I thought he was really impressive. To cover that much information as the brackets were released, showed his passion to know details about guys across the country, that he had to do a ton of research and he delivered it well, with few if any mistakes, at a high pace. VERY well done, IMO
Shane's knowledge and passion for the sport blows Gibbons and Johnson out of the water. He makes those guys look ancient. Plus he's good for the sport and makes non viewers engaged. BTN needs to hang onto him.
If you have Rokfin check out the Bashimania podcast with Shane. Cenzo and Bash interview him about how he got into wrestling. Tells about sleeping in his car for several hundred nights because he wasnt making anything but he loved it. The guy is just passionate about life.
I'm a Shane Sparks fan too. To me, he's toned it down a smidgen over the last 10 years or so, enough that he's still the highest energy guy in the room, but easier to listen to, at least for me. It's a struggle keeping up if a guy is bouncing off the walls, which he no longer is.
You know his given (family) name isn't Sparks -- that's a radio name given to him years ago -- and it stuck. His given name is Nebl, but Sparks is fitting his high energy.
I met Shane at a home Penn State match years ago, can't remember the dual, but it was beforehand and he was wandering around the competition level at Rec Hall looking to catch a couple of the wrestlers. Interestingly, he was as calm and collected as could be when I was talking with him. When we found a few of the wrestlers, I introduced them and left. When I departed, the energy in his voice picked up, as if a switch was turned on!
You know his given (family) name isn't Sparks -- that's a radio name given to him years ago -- and it stuck. His given name is Nebl, but Sparks is fitting his high energy.
I met Shane at a home Penn State match years ago, can't remember the dual, but it was beforehand and he was wandering around the competition level at Rec Hall looking to catch a couple of the wrestlers. Interestingly, he was as calm and collected as could be when I was talking with him. When we found a few of the wrestlers, I introduced them and left. When I departed, the energy in his voice picked up, as if a switch was turned on!
I have always felt there is pent-up demand in wrestling viewership. For the Big10 network to be just figuring this out in their market, they are ‘blind.’
Also, the more you showcase college wrestling, the more advocates exist. It’s super-exciting, easy rules, a greek Olympic foundation and takes a special person to master it (although they come in all forms and demeanors).
Bet anyone, dollars-to-donuts, take XYZ person to one NCAA wrestling tournament, 100% chance of fandom for life.
His LinkedIn page says "Trackwrestling Media Sales Executive", plus the play-by-play thing.
There’s a fun youth wrestling series on YouTube called “The Grind!” that features a group of kids from Long Island who travel all over the country to different wrestling tournaments. It’s really well produced. Anyways, I’m watching an episode and this kid - he couldn’t be more than 5 or 6 - wins his bout and proceeds to the center for the Nolf anklet placement. I roared with laughter.
Just because they had non-talking roles in Jurassic Park ...
