>>232488
>>232845
>We already have sumo without the traditional trappings and bizarre, monastic daily life. It's embarrassing and nobody cares about it.
>Tradition is like half the reason many people watch it.
Something I don't think most people here are aware of is that the long wait times between bouts is neither traditional nor essential. It was created to fill a radio block, and then a television block, and is maintained by the timekeeper shinpan. If a bout has 2 torinaoshi and lasts 15 minutes, everyone after that point is given much less shikiri to do before he calls time.
So, if the dead air inhibits growth of the sport, it's something that could be easily cast off - for example, give everybody in makuuchi ~45 seconds to do two rounds of shikiri. It's hard to imagine viewers responding negatively to a tightened-up bout schedule.

You'd keep all the shiko, the salt, the sweeping, the banners, all of the things people actually identify as tradition, while broadening your prospective audience. It isn't like Japanese people have different attention spans; the reason sumo is unpopular there is the reason it's unpopular everywhere: the downtime is really boring.