ANF: Atlanta-based Sumo Championship League (SCL) to begin debuting in October
So let’s see: Atlanta has an MLB team, NBA team, NFL team, and even an MLS team. Scattered throughout the rest of Georgia are all four levels of minor league baseball affiliates of the Braves. USA Soccer has chosen Fayetteville, Georgia as their headquarters. There’s an affiliated minor league hockey team in Duluth, which is as close as Georgia is going to get to the NHL after two previously failed NHL squads that have left for Canada. The University of Georgia and Georgia Tech athletics are both reputable athletic programs in most major sports, and even Georgia State, Kennesaw State and Georgia Southern are D-I programs.
Needless to say, there’s no shortage of athletic competition to imbibe in at any point of the year for anyone who wants to watch competitive sport. So perhaps it might not be a bad idea to start considering using dollars in the state of Georgia for maybe anything that isn’t related to athletics, no?
What’s that you say? What about sumo wrestling? Georgia doesn’t have sumo wrestling? I mean, why wouldn’t Georgia, United States have an association of a sport native to the country of Japan in it? But what’s that? It’s going to have sumo wrestling debuting in Georgia? In October? What say whaaatt??
And here we are. Some new Sumo Championship League is about to embark, and it was founded by a dude who used to be a bigwig at WCW Turner Broadcasting, so it has some sturdy Atlanta ties, and leads to believe that the SCL could be considered Atlanta-based.
Because there appears to be a belief that there is a thirst for some real life sumo wrestling in North America.
Don’t get me wrong, I respect the sport, and the athletes that make up of it. I don’t see a bunch of fat guys crashing into each other (like in futbol americano), I see athletes who just happen to have large mass, who play a human game of chess of trying to knock down their opponents or maneuver them out of a ring. It takes intelligence, adaptability and actual skill in order to achieve victory, and I have seen some live sumo wrestling in my life.
It’s just that it just seems like a complete, nobody-asked-for-this kind of endeavor, where the league is supposedly valued at $25M, which means it has received about as much of that in funding, and it begs me to ask the question on how many other things in this world could $25M have better gone towards other than starting up a sumo league?
I digress though. If the SCL starts running shows in Atlanta, preferably up where I could take my dad to some live events, it seems like something that would be interesting to check out, if the price is right. Now if they start charging $65+ up for a completely unproven commodity from the onset, they’ve got to be diluting themselves, but if they play a smart game and offer up cheap, affordable entertainment until some worth is established, maybe I’ll go check out some actual sumo wrestling. I’m always looking for interesting things to take my dad to go see, and perhaps we can both derive some entertainment out of welcoming some live sumo wrestling to the Metro, after all.
