Ahead of Schedule – No, Behind our Sport

TOM Opinion

Yesterday a prominent wrestling media outlet took wrestling fans to task for their reaction to the Big Ten Network’s programming schedule for this season. The writer refers to the upset fans as “nutty” and makes the case that they are being irrational. Funny how we have written numerous articles begging people to get more “nutty” and be proactive when it comes to supporting our sport. The writer of that article would rather see fans be reactive and wait until after the season to voice our complaints. Well, not these guys. Then we wondered why a wrestling media outlet would support such a poor live schedule. Well, that media outlet is also a partner with the BTN that gets mentions during every broadcast the BTN does. We have to wonder if that has anything to do with it.

So the article implies that fans jumped the gun by being critical of the BTN because the schedule issued was incomplete. Yet the writer fails to ask the question as to why the BTN would release an incomplete schedule in the first place. For us, that is the question that needs to be asked. So here it goes: BTN why did you release an incomplete schedule?

“We are well aware of the wrestling community’s displeasure with the current schedule,” said Mike Vest, Communications Manager at the Chicago-based BTN. “But the schedule released by some of the schools wasn’t really final and I don’t think it tells the whole story.”

So tell us the whole story? We are waiting Mr. Vest. Also, as part of the spin err… I mean story… please tell us how many Men’s and Women’s Basketball games will be shown via tape delay to make things “fair”.

Then the writer believes we are out of line for organizing and trying to demand more coverage. They call USA Wrestling out for trying to get their supporters together and share a common message: “We want more live coverage”. All of this makes the reason Ray and I started TOM clearer. We wanted to help our sport grow, we wanted to try and influence major media into paying more attention to our sport. It appears others do not believe this is a good idea and that fans should be happy with what they get.

We are not a “relentless bunch” as the author suggests, we are dedicated people who will be active in saving, supporting and promoting our sport.

Mr. Vest of the BTN goes on in the article to make it sound like it is a good thing that we will get less live matches and have to PAY for more webcasts. So hey, you rube the fan, thanks for demanding that your local cable company carry the BTN (remember that little campaign and how great it would be for us) so we can now charge you another fee to watch your sport online. Yea that is awesome for us the fans.

Vest says “The BTN likes wrestling and it loves lives events. One of the misunderstandings is that wrestling fans think we somehow like tape delays. We don’t. We love live events; they make more money because they draw more viewers.”

Again, it would be nice to know how many Basketball games will be on tape delay. Mind you Wrestling is the third most viewed sport.

The writer then puts the blame at the feet of Flo and USA wrestling, saying they should pick up the slack and events that the BTN does not. Yet I wonder if this writer looked into the costs that the BTN would charge to those events they hold the rights to and are not covering. I doubt it.

Ok, where I really felt insulted as a fan was when the writer infers that we as wrestling fans love being frustrated and enjoy complaining. Maybe this writer is unaware of all the programs we have lost the past few years, which would explain his brushing off of the frustrations the community has experienced.

He then went on to make the BTN a victim of some sort by telling us we should simply be happy they took such a huge risk offering us any coverage at all. Then again calls out other media outlets. He points out that the BTN is a business and ran as such. As happens in business, money drives our decisions. It skews our views and makes us defend things maybe we should not.

All of us nutty types may be nutty, but we are not stupid.  We understand that you have a business relationship with the BTN and that is fine, but please do not talk down to us like somehow you have a greater insight then us rubes.

Unlike the media outlet that wrote the article, I am going “nutty” anyways and we have our own call to action.

Calling all nuts, unite, write and make your voice heard. Let people know you are not happy with the number of live events. Push that matches they plan to only webcast be free to those that have the BTN as part of their cable and satellite programming. Just get nutty!