It's pretty clear from the TSSAA end of things that cost is always going to be a priority. If they have a free facility with free labor you are going to be hard pressed to get them to go anywhere that doesn't offer that. However, if we are talking just straight up facilities and not location itself, East TN has 3 high schools and 2 colleges large enough to possibly hold it. DB has the Indian Classic and two rather large AAU tournaments there every year with as many as 10 mats on their floor. Science Hill has access to 2 gymnasiums and Freedom Hall where you easily could do Girls and Division 2 in the old Gym, A/AA in the New Gym, and AAA in Freedom Hall with all Medal matches the last day at Freedom Hall. TN High has Viking Hall that if they utilized the stage could possibly squeeze 10 mats in there if they used a couple of the smaller mats butted next to each other but they definitely could utilize 8. Then you have the ETSU mini Dome in Johnson City and Thompson Bowling Arena at UT Knoxville as viable options.
The only solutions I see for the 8 mat problem would be to move girls wrestling to the weekend of the State Duals at the same venue as the duals (since their Regions are the weekend before it currently), shrink the AAA bracket (I personally feel it should be left alone), or start wrestling earlier in the day on Thursday with AAA beginning at the same time on Thursday morning they do on Friday and Saturday and have A/AA (especially if they expand the bracket to include 15-16 wrestlers depending on which proposal would get adopted if that happens) and Division 2 start later in the afternoon on Thursday with Girls only wrestling Friday and Saturday. Considering currently we have two very large breaks built into the tournament we could easily shorten those by at least an hour each and also alleviate some of the concerns of only having 8 mats.
I personally from an efficiency stand point have enjoyed the AG Center but agree showers and the current way of covering the floor are a serious issue. I personally would like to see the tournament move locations on a 4 year rotation between Upper East (Knoxville moving Eastward), Eastern Middle (West of Knoxville to East of Nashville), Western Middle (Nashville to East of Jackson), and West (Jackson to Memphis). This would give an option for either an upper East TN place like Science Hill, TN High, or DB an opportunity plus a few places in Knoxville as options to host it one year, The following year somewhere like Chattanooga, Cookeville, or Murfreesboro. The next year it opens Nashville, Franklin, or Clarksville up, and finally, that leaves primarily Jackson and Memphis as viable options in the West.
Ultimately we all know this comes down to cost more than anything else and until someone has someone who can match what the AG Center and Williamson Co have to offer from a financial standpoint you will be hard pressed to change their mind. I personally hope it never returns to the Round House as I don’t think it was ever treated fairly there and from concession issues, providing food for your wrestlers, the efficiency of how it was run those years etc… I would argue they had their chance and there was ample reason for it not to be held there. When it was held at the venue after that and before the Ag Center sorry can’t remember the name (sucks to start getting older) it was a decent facility and ran well but it would be hard pressed to fit all of the current divisions as they are now I would think.
Anyway the two cents of a guy who is on his 26th consecutive year of being involved in TN wrestling, but what do I know, that and a couple of quarters can’t even buy you a cup of coffee.
