Gold rush in the sawdust: wrestlers scramble over the 3 million mark

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It’s a complicated relationship between wrestling and its sponsors. Company logos on thongs or the front page of the festival guide are demonized and penalized by the Federal Wrestling Association (ESV). At the same time, the individual wrestlers are making new record amounts with advertising contracts. The bad guys earned more than 2.9 million francs last year. Four times as many as in 2011, when the ESV first collected the figures.

This amount even surprises Rolf Gasser a little – he is the head of the ESV office. Five to ten top wrestlers share the lion’s share of the nearly three million Swiss francs. These are the greats of the sport, candidates for royalty, the kings themselves. Gasser, who is responsible for the advertising, does not give names or specific figures. They are decent amounts. However, not enough to be able to live “like a Cristiano Ronaldo” after the resignation.

Manager Michael Schiendorfer, who takes care of King Joel Wicki (26), among others, also noticed the growing popularity of the wrestlers. For him, wrestling is now one of the top five sports in Switzerland. How does he explain the increase? “This down-to-earth culture is probably exactly what we need in our hectic world. It’s always quiet at a wrestling festival. There is a piece of home for everyone. If a company wants to advertise Swissness, there is hardly a better advertising medium than a wrestler.”

Tutoring with the Schwinger tax return

The association also benefits from the high advertising revenue of individual wrestlers. Because every active wrestler has to give ten percent of their ad revenue to the ESV. As with the tax return, it is up to the wrestlers to report all advertising revenue to the ESV. According to ESV’s Gasser, this works quite well for most people. Only the younger generation needs some tutoring: “Sometimes I come across new collaborations on Schwinger’s social media. Then there is a short phone call with the message that he should please register the contract with us. » Gasser is sure that there is never any malicious intent behind it.

The largest part of the nearly 300,000 Swiss francs goes to the promotion of young talent at the Swiss wrestling federation. The ESV branch manager is therefore not averse to the ever-increasing advertising income itself. Because everyone involved benefits from the sponsors. The union can train the officials better, there are training camps for the youngsters and the spectators get a better infrastructure. It is only right that the wrestlers themselves also benefit from the current hype. This is where ESV’s goodwill toward sponsors ends. The union will vigorously defend the advertising ban in the sawdust circle “as the holy grail of wrestlers” in the coming years.

Source : Blick