[sumo] From the Japan Times

["Yuko" <fgmnt@k4.dion.ne.jp>]

Friday, June 3 


FAN BASE, SPONSORS LACKING

RURAL SUMO TOURNEYS GRAPPLE WITH DECLINE
                    
                                                    By Kazuki Enomoto


For sumo officials and wrestlers, summer tours of northern
Japan have long been a must for finding potential wrestlers
and reaching out to rural fans. But this year, the summer program
has been drastically cut due to a fall in viewership and 
cancellations by sponsors. According to a schedule announced by 
Nihon Sumo Kyokai on May 8, its summer tours will be limited
to an event in Kuji,  Iwate Prefecture, on Aug 6 and another
in Kotooka, Akita Prefecture, on Aug 7. There will be no summer
sumo tours in Hokkaido, which has produced eight yokozuna,
or Aomori Prefecture, from which nine active ranking wrestlers hail.

Last August, about 40 percent of the 5,000 seats at one-day summer
tournament in Sapporo were vacant. In the past, the city used to host
a four-day tour. In January, Doshin Cultural Events Co., an affiliate of 
the daily Hokkaido Shinbun, decided not to sponsor this summer's 
tournament.  "We would incur a loss ( by hosting the tour ). The
Waka-Taka boom is over and there is no Japanese yokozuna. 
Wrestlers from Hokkaido are decreasing, " said AKinori Akiba, a
sales official at Doshin Cultural Events.  Waka-Taka refers to the popular 
yokozuna brothers Wakanohana and Takanohana, who helped drive sumo's 
popularity in the 1990's. The brothers are the sons of sumo elders 
Futagoyama, who died this week. 

The daily admission fee for a summer tour tournament in rural areas is 
almost the same as the cost of attending one of the six grand sumo
tournaments offered each year. Sponsors of the summer tournaments
shoulder food and accommodation costs off the wrestlers. If fewer
customers come to the events, the organizers face losses. Some
officials at the sumo association suggested calling off the local tours
altogether this summer. But the association executives eventually
decided to hold the two one-day events in the Tohoku region.
"We will have to hold the events as long as sponsors come forward,"
said sumo elder Oguruma, who wrestled as an azeki under the name
of Kotokaze and is now an official at the association's local 
tournament department. 

Each sumo stable used to arrange local tours separately. But the sumo
association started organizing tournaments in which wrestlers from
all stables participate, backed by local businesses who sponsored the
events. In the midst of the Waka-Taka boom,  the association began 
organizing tours at its own expense in 1995, instead of relying on
local sponsorship. In fact, sumo association saw a record of 666 
consecutive days of sellout crowds at its grand sumo tournaments
until summer 1997. 

As the popularity of sumo began to decline, the number of spectators
at rural tournaments fell, and the association revived the local 
sponsorship system in spring 2003. Given the economy and the 
sport's problems, however, the task of finding tour sponsors has become
quite difficult. "We approach local businesses, but none seems to be 
willing" to back up the events, said sumo elder Musashigawa, a former
yokozuna known as Mienoumi who now heads the association's local
tournament department. "I think the ( weak local ) economy is one
factor ( for this situation ), "  said Kitanoumi, another former yokozuna
and heads of the sumo association. "We cannot stay this and that 
about it. "

To reduce the costs of the tours, some sumo stables jointly carry out
training camps. "We don't like to stay in Tokyo just because the
summer local tournaments have been cut short, " said sumo elder
Naruto, formerly known as yokozuna Takanosato. "Although ( holding
local tours ) costs a lot, we would like to continue them. " 

                

[EndPost by "Yuko" <fgmnt@k4.dion.ne.jp>]