The Business Of Sumo

Although baseball is, to many people, as American as apple pie and fireworks on the Fourth of July, Japan has made a name for itself in the game, thanks, in part, to legends such as Sadaharu Oh. But the Japanese furor for baseball is superseded by the Pacific island nation’s love for its own creation, sumo wrestling.

This sport, in which extremely large men grapple with each other inside a ring, is part of a deep-rooted tradition in Japan. It’s also a huge business worth millions of yen to the wrestlers and those who train them.

Here, we’ll take a look at how the sport is organized, how much money sumo wrestlers are making, and what corporate sponsors are contributing.

Organization

The governing body of professional sumo wrestling is the Japan Sumo Association, also known as Nihon Sumo Kyokai. Wrestlers of other nationalities are welcome to compete, but professional competitions only take place in Japan.

Association members are former wrestlers and, as such, are the only people allowed to train new wrestlers. All wrestlers are part of a training stable; there are 54 stables in Sumo, for a total of nearly 700 wrestlers. The association provides stables with approximately $550 in monthly training payments for each wrestler who’s not in one of the top two divisions.

There’s plenty of incentive for masters to recruit and train winners: For sumo stables, the cash cows are yokozuna -- or grand champions -- who are worth about $3,000 every two months. Larger stables may receive total payouts that approach $1 million annually.

Sponsors

Big business provides the money that fuels the economies of many sports, and this fact certainly holds true in sumo. Many Japanese corporations sponsor individual top-division matches and contribute nearly $500. The wrestlers get around $250 per sponsor, with the tax man getting whatever is left over.

JCB -- a major player in the Japanese credit card industry with about 56 million card members, 13 million merchants and annual sales of about $56.5 billion -- is a cosponsor of Nihon Sumo Kyokai.

Ticket sales

Japanese Grand Sumo has six tournaments a year that run 15 days each. Three of these tournaments take place at the Sumo Hall in Tokyo, while the others are held in Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka.

In November 2006, the Japan Sumo Association held its tournament in Fukuoka where ringside and A-level box seats were listed as sold out for the last four days of the event. Ringside seats sold for about $120 each and a two-person, A-level box sold for more than $190. Arena seats were a relative bargain, selling for about $26 a piece.

Charges of corruption

With so much money involved, especially for the guys at the top of the sport, it may not surprise you that some people thought everything wasn’t on the up and up.

In 2000, a study on corruption and bout fixing looked at wrestlers who had 7-7 records going into the final day of a tournament. What had drawn suspicion was that about 70% of these heavyweights with .500 records won. However, the study did not find any solid evidence that corruption was taking place. In fact, in a 2006 tournament, six of the seven wrestlers with 7-7 marks lost on the final day and the lone winner gained his victory by default.

Crazy Scott Hall And Comedian Incident

Bill Apter made the following statement regarding the incident last night at the comedy roast:

“First of all I want to thank the people who put this very first “Ring Roast” together. It was handled in a totally professional manner.

With a dias full of wrestlers and comedians there to poke fun at and honor the Iron Sheik, all hell broke loose when comedian “Round Boy” Jimmy Graham made a joke about Owen Hart (and you just do not do that)! Graham is a longtime wrestling fan and I was really shocked at his tasteless remark.

Just a few moments before Graham’s set, Scott Hall had come into the banquet room and was being — Scott Hall — diverting attention and just acting “NWO” cool. When Hall heard the remark about Owen the light attitude was no longer there. He lunged at Graham and pushed him. Amazingly Graham thought Hall must have been “acting” as he appeared to be nearly laughing.

Security was able to calm Hall down and have him leave the room — and everyone at the event was now angered as well by Graham’s crude joke.

Because this was Iron Sheik’s night and it was quickly going down the tubes, Kevin Sullivan, who was a guest,took the microphone and calmed the crowd and told them to please let the program continue.

Hall came back several times but the festivities proceeded.

Another incident took place when Brian Blair offered Sheik his hand and apologized for anything in their past that Sheik found offensive. Sheik went on to tell Blair he accepts the apology but is still better than Blair and then smacked Blair in the face (and none of us were sure it was a “work” or “shoot!”)

Despite these two incidents the fans left (many told me afterwards) very happy with the initial “Ring Roast.” Tomorrow the “Ring Roast” crew hosts the “Legends of the Ring” convention. Check it out at www.legendsofthering.com. I hope to see you there!”