What should the sumo association do to boost the sport's popularity and public trust in it?

Pass the pipe

Use women.

Bishamonten- Good evening in spain,I think they should do more international participation in the sport, via more worlwide promotion of the sport.

Get rid of those big fat smelly men in nappies and get some girls in bikinis wrestling in baked beans.

I think they should do more international participation in the sport, via more worlwide promotion of the sport.

yes, M&A !

What should the sumo association do to boost the sport's popularity and public trust in it?

Close down

Stop fixing the bouts. Stop having such antiquated traditions that mean wrestlers get penalised for throwing the salt in the wrong direction, or smiling inappropriately. Have different weight classes so that not all the wrestlers have to be clinically obese.

I don't think sumo has much of a future anyway. Sure, the six tournaments each year draw crowds but there do not seem to be many young fans (judging from what I can see on TV).

The sport needs color and personalities. Start by letting wrestlers use nicknames, like "Terminator," "Robocop," "Godzilla" or whatever.

The JSA also needs to have younger members, including some from outside the sport.

Jelly moat around the dohyo.

Have really hot chicks in bikinis sweep the dohyo between bouts!

Come clean. There are too many areas in which the administration of Sumo remains unclear. Furthermore, there needs to be something done about the darker side of sumo, specifically match-fixing, links with organized crime, hazing of younger wrestlers, etc. At the moment, there are lots of speeches on these issues, but nothing is really being done. The issue of drugs also has to be confronted. Not just MJ but performance-enhancing drugs as well. People who use either of these categories (or any other similar substances should be shown the door).

Finally, the stench of xenophobia that lies over Sumo like a curse has to be removed. While respecting the traditions of the sport, those who are running it have to realize that we live in the 21st Century. As such, some accomodations will have to be made.

Force retirement from the JSA at age 40.

They need to recognise Sumo will do better with skilled foreign wrestlers like Asa. I'm all for keeping it very Japanese and traditional - but chiding wrestlers for showing a little emotion is over the top.

Legalize it.

masks and funny names

Move all six annual grand sumo tournaments to Ulan Bataar. And transfer NHK headquarters with them.

Mandatory IOC-style drug testing by a 3rd, independent party and mandatory punishments instead of the seemingly arbitrary way they have of doing it now. A creative prosecutor could go after the JSA now for not owning up to the fact that their guy failed 2 drug tests in September until now. That, my friends is aiding and abetting criminal. The JSA is a joke of a "sports" association.

masks, funny names and folding chairs.

Change from wearing a mawashi to wearing a thong. @_@!

They got back!!

S

I love Sumo. It's the only sport I like! Weird, yes. Idiosyncratic, yes. I could care less about that football game over the weekend.. my superbowls are in January, March, April, May, September, November. The simplicity is probably what does it for me.

Sumo and modern Japan are walking on two separate paths. Modern Japan appears to prize pop culture cutesy, wide-eyed anime, cuddly animal mascots, and leading men who are practically dainty and effeminate in many respects. Look at the faces of the leading men in the movies, from the 1950's, 60's and 70's.. and look at today (Seriously, could a Toshiro Mifune or Bunta Sugawara make it today?).

Conversely, Sumo is made up of hulking bruisers. The faces on some of these 25 year olds remind me more of men twice their age. The closest you get to an 'idol' is Kotooshu!

So, a change in the public relations strategy is needed, at home and abroad (where sumo is known to too many people as 'fat guys in diapers'). Take a lesson from the Soccer boom, and take it to the people. Sumo is a populist sport, whether the JSA realizes it or not. Instead of "we are preserving tradition", the new mission should be "we are FOR Japan!"

And then you have the match-fixing allegations: I know Japanese people who, if you say, "Sumo" to them, they will reply, "yaocho". Sumo has to be purged of this completely, no one should be above suspicion and no one should be beyond reproach.

If they're going to have foreigners in the system, accept the fact that foreigners are not Japanese! And if that means allowing Asashoryu's fist pump, then that is what it means. Sumo might be preserving some Edo ideal, but it's not 1850.

Start protecting and grooming the athletes. Train to build strong athletes instead of merely weed out the weak. Someone like Yamamotoyama ought to be on the operating table getting a rubber band around his stomach, NOT held up as a sight gag (supposedly, Konishiki has had this type of life-saving surgery). A human isn't supposed to look like that.

No more of this idiotic "Yukatas-only until you're an Ozeki". If the pay stinks until you're in Juryo, the training conditions are 150-years out of date, you run the risk of blowing out your knees before you're 25 AND you're not even allowed to wear Nikes out on a jog, why the heck would any young man sign up for that.. when he can have more dignity slopping up O-Den at the 7-11?

Disband the Yokozuna deliberation council, which uses intangible aesthetics and uneven logic in making decisions.

Accept the fact that Sumo is preserving a cultural relic.

Have really hot chicks in bikinis sweep the dohyo between bouts!

how about really hot chicks do the sumo instead of the fat blokes.

and have tag team matches. with tables.

nothing. ALL IS LOST which is really too bad. and by the way, they did it to themselves by not getting with the times, turning a blind eye to match fixing, murder (or at the very least manslaughter) ad naseum.

Allow women on the dohyo and stop killing teenage desciples under the guise of "discipline". (ie don't hit them over the head with beer bottles etc. Issue only locally grown and gov't approved hoochi kooch to the trainees.

Easy, just spread the marijuana around to the audience instead of keeping it for the sole use of the wrestlers.

Why would anyone want to watch sweaty fat blokes with their bums hanging out push each other around a ring in a fixed contest?

Ironic, I thought that mantle belonged to the WWE!!!

have hot chicks in short vinyl skirts parade around with score cards and sell beer. works for suzuka right?

Legalize it.

How about really hot chicks in masks and bikinis do the sumo, and have tag team matches with tables and chairs?

Seriously, when a wrestler withdraws due to injury, have his scheduled opponent fight someone else instead of getting a free win.

Hot-boxed diapers.

Not sure about trust but maybe if they introduce chimp wrestling before each bout, it may raise the attendance levels.