Post by melquist on Aug 10, 2008 4:07:54 GMT -5
All of this is just my opinion.
I have followed the Duck Wrestling news on the elimination of the program.
I really believe that wrestling nationwide is at a crossroads. Wrestling has been at that crossroads since the early 70's when the college environment became hostile to non revenue male sports.
Lets look at the problem.
1. Male sports have become dominated by revenue generation. Football and Basketball have flourished and made colleges richer in the process through large media deals!
2. Female sports are increasingly being invested into to equal that gender bias.
The result is small sports mainly made up of males are being cut in exchange for either women sports or sports that might generate revenue.
The facts for Oregon Wrestling:
1. The team has been close in the past to the cutting block. The only thing that has saved Oregon Wrestling in the past is Finley and the fact at those times thebOregon Ath. Dept was not really making much money on any team sports.
2. I contend that the vision for the strength of maintaining the team as a Oregon sport should always have been a priority - especially in the last few years with a eye to making a new product.
3. Oregon Wrestling is gone as we have known it.
4. A plan has to be hatched to get it back with in 5 years. Honestly, 5 years is what it will take to get a team back on track.
5. Stop all legal battles. Legal battles with the AD only destroy bridges and close doors to a plan for re-reinstatement. These are suits running the AD not the same ole' sports guy that remembers wrestlers while he was coming up in a Athletic Department.
6. Drive the AD towards a MOU - Mutual Agreement of Organizations between the corporate entity representing Oregon wrestling and the University Oregon.
I know this probably has been planned to an extent, but the AD knows that Oregon Wrestling will just eventually run out of steam and roll along to a stop. This will happen.....a new biz buzzz needs to be created.
That is not what happened with Baseball. It became a club sport to maintain its integrity at the U of O.
Goals
1. Start the club sport of Wresting at Oregon. It is not a nice title and like moving from a mansion into the trailer park but Wrestling is wrestling.
2. You can not invent the same ole' plan that got wrestling kicked out of the U of O and hope 6 million will get it reinstated. 6 million to these suits is a house 3 cars vacation home and golfing money! It is chicken feed and likely Oregon Wrestling would need 3 times that amount officially get noticed as a viable sport.
3. Invent a better product. Yes, wrestling is a product. It needs to generate revenue and have a broader base of support. It also needs a fan base - larger fan base and not mom and dad or your girlfriend yelling at you to get off your back.
4. Invent men and women wrestling at Oregon. A coed team.
This eliminates the first problem of Women being biased in College sports.
It also ties into a trend nationally of wrestling teams starting to add women teams. It is a HOT PRODUCT coming down the pipe for Colleges. These are visionary claims I am making but I see it coming.
Women wrestling is also a Olympic Sport!
My vision is in 2011, wrestling night at the U of O are matches that have both men and women wrestling. Each weight has 2 matches - one women and the other men alternating.
This is entertainment at it's best! It also leaves the public wondering, if the women could beat any of the guys....yes that is sexist but it is selling in pockets of the nation where conservative values would make one think women's wrestling might not work.
I digress.
5. Apply power at the end of the first years club season by means of women support groups at the U of O to get women and mens wrestling back as a NCAA sport and utilize the money donated to do so.
6. Lay the ground work for this by scheduling matches with several of the womens programs in Oregon - pacific etc.
7. Begin to position the coed team as the new Oregon Wrestling and promote the matches.
This all gives a new voice and product to a community that prides itself on being progressive. The city of Eugene area would eat this up. The U of O would eat this up and the AD would gladly come to terms with the club sport provided a MOU was written to this effect.
terms of MOU
1. Club Sport men and women
2. Community support
3. Growing fan base
4. Growing contributions to be a NCAA sport
= U of O pick the sport back up.......
Create a new product by including women and you give life to the future of the U of O program. You give it a new voice for a year and the uniqueness of the product grabs the attention of everyone around.
In 2011 I want to see billboards of a heavy Weight Class Guy in a singlet standing next to a women in a NIKE singlet for women with specially designed shoes for women by NIKE facing off on a mat.....with the title "Come and Get it" Oregon Coed Wresting....that will sell tickets....even though the men and women do not wrestle each other - the imagination will always wonder who could wip who....Billy Jean King anyone.....
This is the product I see in the future. Eventually a few of those women will gold metals.....and then world of NCAA Sports will have one more success story to talk about.
I have followed the Duck Wrestling news on the elimination of the program.
I really believe that wrestling nationwide is at a crossroads. Wrestling has been at that crossroads since the early 70's when the college environment became hostile to non revenue male sports.
Lets look at the problem.
1. Male sports have become dominated by revenue generation. Football and Basketball have flourished and made colleges richer in the process through large media deals!
2. Female sports are increasingly being invested into to equal that gender bias.
The result is small sports mainly made up of males are being cut in exchange for either women sports or sports that might generate revenue.
The facts for Oregon Wrestling:
1. The team has been close in the past to the cutting block. The only thing that has saved Oregon Wrestling in the past is Finley and the fact at those times thebOregon Ath. Dept was not really making much money on any team sports.
2. I contend that the vision for the strength of maintaining the team as a Oregon sport should always have been a priority - especially in the last few years with a eye to making a new product.
3. Oregon Wrestling is gone as we have known it.
4. A plan has to be hatched to get it back with in 5 years. Honestly, 5 years is what it will take to get a team back on track.
5. Stop all legal battles. Legal battles with the AD only destroy bridges and close doors to a plan for re-reinstatement. These are suits running the AD not the same ole' sports guy that remembers wrestlers while he was coming up in a Athletic Department.
6. Drive the AD towards a MOU - Mutual Agreement of Organizations between the corporate entity representing Oregon wrestling and the University Oregon.
I know this probably has been planned to an extent, but the AD knows that Oregon Wrestling will just eventually run out of steam and roll along to a stop. This will happen.....a new biz buzzz needs to be created.
That is not what happened with Baseball. It became a club sport to maintain its integrity at the U of O.
Goals
1. Start the club sport of Wresting at Oregon. It is not a nice title and like moving from a mansion into the trailer park but Wrestling is wrestling.
2. You can not invent the same ole' plan that got wrestling kicked out of the U of O and hope 6 million will get it reinstated. 6 million to these suits is a house 3 cars vacation home and golfing money! It is chicken feed and likely Oregon Wrestling would need 3 times that amount officially get noticed as a viable sport.
3. Invent a better product. Yes, wrestling is a product. It needs to generate revenue and have a broader base of support. It also needs a fan base - larger fan base and not mom and dad or your girlfriend yelling at you to get off your back.
4. Invent men and women wrestling at Oregon. A coed team.
This eliminates the first problem of Women being biased in College sports.
It also ties into a trend nationally of wrestling teams starting to add women teams. It is a HOT PRODUCT coming down the pipe for Colleges. These are visionary claims I am making but I see it coming.
Women wrestling is also a Olympic Sport!
My vision is in 2011, wrestling night at the U of O are matches that have both men and women wrestling. Each weight has 2 matches - one women and the other men alternating.
This is entertainment at it's best! It also leaves the public wondering, if the women could beat any of the guys....yes that is sexist but it is selling in pockets of the nation where conservative values would make one think women's wrestling might not work.
I digress.
5. Apply power at the end of the first years club season by means of women support groups at the U of O to get women and mens wrestling back as a NCAA sport and utilize the money donated to do so.
6. Lay the ground work for this by scheduling matches with several of the womens programs in Oregon - pacific etc.
7. Begin to position the coed team as the new Oregon Wrestling and promote the matches.
This all gives a new voice and product to a community that prides itself on being progressive. The city of Eugene area would eat this up. The U of O would eat this up and the AD would gladly come to terms with the club sport provided a MOU was written to this effect.
terms of MOU
1. Club Sport men and women
2. Community support
3. Growing fan base
4. Growing contributions to be a NCAA sport
= U of O pick the sport back up.......
Create a new product by including women and you give life to the future of the U of O program. You give it a new voice for a year and the uniqueness of the product grabs the attention of everyone around.
In 2011 I want to see billboards of a heavy Weight Class Guy in a singlet standing next to a women in a NIKE singlet for women with specially designed shoes for women by NIKE facing off on a mat.....with the title "Come and Get it" Oregon Coed Wresting....that will sell tickets....even though the men and women do not wrestle each other - the imagination will always wonder who could wip who....Billy Jean King anyone.....
This is the product I see in the future. Eventually a few of those women will gold metals.....and then world of NCAA Sports will have one more success story to talk about.
