Below I have listed quite a few sporting organizations and listed their sponsors. I thought you might find this interesting when you try and compare what others are doing to what we aren’t doing.
PGA . . . Fed-Ex, Anheuser-Busch, Mastercard, Charles Schwab, John Deere, Rolex, Avis, United Airlines, plus 44 other nationally recognized brands.
Wrestling . . . I’m not aware of any sponsors we have that are outside of our sport. And, please don’t confuse companies that sell products to the wrestling community as being sponsors. They’re not.
NFL . . . Gatorade, Visa, Campbell Soup, Fed-Ex, Frito-Lay, PepsiCo, Procter-Gamble, Mars Snackfood, Verizon, Anheuser-Busch, Marriott, Microsoft, USAA, Cigna, Subway, Uber Eats, Apple Music, Little Caesars, and 20 other national brands like the PGA has which are equally as well known.
Wrestling . . . Sorry, we don’t have any of the big boys because we can’t explain the rules to those who make the decisions.
NBA . . . adidas, American Express, AT&T, Anheuser-Busch, CarMax, Clorox, DoorDash, DraftKings, Exxon-Mobil, Google, Kia Motors, Louis Vuitton, Microsoft, Puma, Under Armour, and 33 other national brands, equally as well known.
Wrestling . . . Nope, zippo, nada, not a sponsor to be found.
WWE . . . Mars Candy, Toyota, DoorDash, Rocket Mortgage, Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty cosmetics line, Modela, CocaCola, Kay Jewelers, Warner-Brothers, Mattel, Jack in the Box, Hardees, Geico, Applebee’s, hulu, Post, Grubhub, and they surpassed 16 billion social video views in the last quarter of 2023, brought in over 75 million dollars in sponsorships and advertising during that same period and their shows are viewed in over 180 countries.
Wrestling . . . Sadly, we prefer to go it alone in the sponsorship landscape.
Fencing . . . Avis, Nike, bean, THORNE, Genius, naked, BellBank, Avenues Online, Hyperice, Ropes&Gray, Mount Sinai, and 6 more.
Wrestling . . . Who’s in charge of sponsorships? Do we have anyone?
UFC . . . Draft Kings, ESPN, Harley-Davidson, Love Hemp, Modelo, Monster Energy, Nemiroff Vodka, 02 Industries, Oscar Mayer, Stake.com, Tik Tok, Venum, Crypto.com, Migu, Timex, Trojan, VeChain, Prime, KSI, YouTube, Twitter, Bud Light, Origin, and too many more to list.
Wrestling . . . How about a marketing team, do we have one in place that can offset the direction the Rules Committee has taken us?
WNBA . . . AT&T, Deloitte, Google, Nike, American Express, Budweiser, Clorox, DoorDash, ExxonMobile, Gatorade, MGM Resorts, PepsiCo, Puma, SAP, State Farm, Tissot, Wilson, US Bank, CarMax, FanDuel, Kia Motors, LegalZoom, Microsoft, Hennessy, and Ticketmaster.
Wrestling . . . Given our inability to attract sponsors, what message does that send to the nation’s electronic and print media?
MLS Soccer . . . adidas, Allstate, Apple, AT&T, Audi, Avant, BODYARMOR, Campbell Snacks, Captain Morgan, Coco-Cola, Continental, DoorDash, Heineken, Home Depot, Proctor-Gamble, Target, Ticketmaster, TikTok, and RBC Wealth Management.
Wrestling . . . What does our marketing weakness say to our Athletic Directors? That they could drop the sport if they wanted to, and receive minimum blowback.
Auto Racing . . . Nextel, Sprint, Monster Energy, Coco-Cola, Harley-Davidson, Oakley, Lucas Oil, Advanced Auto Parts, Ford, Chevrolet, Goodyear, Heineken, Crypto.com, WeatherTech, DHL, Rolex, and every auto manufacturer in the world.
Wrestling . . . Typing all the sponsors these other organizations have is depressing.
Major League Baseball . . . adobe, Booking.com, Budweiser, Capital One, Chevrolet, Corona, DQ, Evan Williams, FANDUEL, Gatorade, GEICO, Google Cloud, Hankook, Hyperice, loanDepot, Mastercard, Mattress Firm, MGM Resorts, new balance, Nike, SiriusXM, T-Mobile, and Zoom.
Wrestling . . . If you were put in charge of marketing for wrestling, how would you light up a company’s interest in our sport? Has anyone given that a thought?
Bowling . . . Snickers, 3G, 900 Global, Brunswick, Coolwick, Dexter, Ebonite, Genesis, Pilgram’s, and Hammer.
Wrestling . . . What message does the general public hear when they never see anything, or read anything about our sport?
Table Tennis . . . Coco-Cola, acer, Atos-Origin, Dow Chemical, General Electric, McDonald’s, Panasonic, Omega, Samsung, Visa, adidas, BMW, bp, British Airways, and Lloyd’s.
Wrestling . . . Damn, even table tennis gets it.
Lacrosse . . . Enovis, Farmers Insurance, Gatorade, Hotel Planner, MedStar Health, NCSA, NCSI, stacksports, new balance, STX, Nike, and stryker.
Wrestling . . . The message I’m trying to share is hope’s eternal. But our sport might not be when we can’t figure out what the words value add means.
Pickle Ball . . . Consumer Financial, BIOFREEZE, Franklin, Skechers, Fortune Tires, Transworld, Hotel Planner, RIA Eyewear, Zelus, tosi snacks, Carvana, Vizzy Seltzer, Deep Eddie Vodka, Humana, Veolia, Holland America, IHG Resorts, Penetrex, TIXR, Southwest Airlines, and adidas.
Wrestling . . . I’ve heard that we’ve had a few major corporations actually reach out to us and our leadership teams have remained consistent.
Rodeo . . . Ford, Miller Lite, Coco-Cola, Mattress Firm, reliant, Crown Royal, Kroger, BP, Hess, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Carnival, Wrangler, HEB, United Airlines, Spotify, John Deere, and 14 others.
Wrestling . . . What is it we have to offer, besides millions of potential customers. Yet, no one knows how to move the needle, then follow up. You have to make two calls a week, every week, then an appointment. You have to get in front of those who make the decisions. People like to be pursued and they love persistence. Arriving at their door with passion works. Unfortunately, what I just wrote could be in Russian for all our leadership knows.
Track and Field . . . Toyota, Hershey, Garden of Life, Nike, Prevagen, Xfinity, NCSA, Gatorade, Hyperice, KTtape, Pilates, and 5 others.
Wrestling . . . Seems to be time we change a few things. Like creating a corporate structure with professionals that are responsible for marketing. The wrestling community, and its fans, do have mouths to feed, bodies to dress, places to go, gas to buy, cars to drive, jewelry to wear, beds to sleep on, planes to catch, spare time to play games, bodies to insure, electronics to use, and motorcycles to ride.
Softball . . . Wilson, Rawlings, NLB, Tucci, new balance, Mizuno, Sports Attack, USSSA, Rapsodo, Easton, PGF, Legacy, Hit Trax, Coaches Directory, and 15 others.
Wrestling . . . If we don’t have sponsors, who’s picking up the sport’s operational costs? The answer might be donors who are probably tired of giving, especially when they know leadership can only speak and understand grappling; man’s oldest language.
As an aside . . . were you aware that Calab Williams, the quarterback from the University of Southern California received over 10 million dollars in NIL money this year! And, the Trojans finished outside of the Top 25. Can you imagine how much money was being handed out to the megastars at Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State, all of which have wrestling programs and finished way ahead of Southern California?
My sincerest hope out of all this is that our wrestling coaches and organizations have redwood sized money trees growing behind their offices.
Because with the NIL, and RTC’s, things are about to get really ugly.
