Thoughts on the state

[tnlonghorn]

Now that its over and done here are some of my overall thoughts and those from a lot of people I spoke with. We felt that the Williamson County people did a great job getting ready for the tournament. I didn't see but I heard the hospitality room was great also. On the other hand it was as we (Chattanooga people) feared. The atmosphere was not the same. I sure would like to see some #'s but it looked like there were half the number of fans there as usual. We kind of expected the #'s to be down and were obviously correct in that opinion. Until the rest of the state other than a handful of teams get serious about wrestling then Chattanooga is where it should be. The biggest complaint about the venue though was the way the two mats were separated for public /private finals. What was the thought process on that? I heard at least 50 people complain about that and not one person defend that idea. It made no sense what so ever. Put the mats in the middle or more towards the middle so everyone can watch all matches. Other than that the venue was nice and the tournament was ran very well. No doubt a lot of people put a lot of hard work into this and their efforts should be commended. My only parting advice would be to do whats best for wrestling and the majority of the fans not what makes the most money. Last time I checked it is supposed to be about the kids.

[HSDAD]

Great Location PERIOD! I heard only a few complaints this week. (The length of time we had to wait outside (day 1) was - one, the temp. inside was a little cool - two, no warm up mats - three, and mat seperation in finals - four.)

 

I loved the venue. Plenty of room for everyone, kids ate what they wanted,

and I believe that most of the coaches would agree that it worked great!

[KingGreene]

Positives:

More central location

Less expensive

Fans were allowed to bring in their own food

Plenty of space on the floor

During the first rounds, you could easily see any mat wherever you were sitting

 

Negatives

Because it's no longer at a college, there was nothing to do during the breaks. You could either go back to the hotel, or drive about 10 miles down the road and go to the mall. It made the breaks seem much too long.... I loved how during the breaks (or once you were out), the kids could go to the student center and have plenty options for food, and could play pool and ping pong! I probably have as many good memories there as I do at the actual state tournament!

 

The lighting was bad in there... it started to mess with my head after sitting in there for so long.

 

Why were the scoreboards on the floor?! That was so aggravating at times! Surely that is an easy fix.

 

I'm sure the stands would have been much more crowded if it were near the normal schools like Baylor, McCallie, and Bradley that always bring their entire towns to the state tournament. (I was worried that there was not going to be enough seating for the finals, but that didn't turn out to be a problem)

 

During the state finals, you basically had to pick wether you wanted to watch the DI or the DII finals. At UTC when you heard those Baylor or McCallie fans yelling all of a sudden, you could just look a few feet to your right and see what it was they were cheering (or yelling) about... This year you would hear the stir going on over there, but it was so far away that it was hard to tell what was going on. I was more interested in the DI finals, but there's always good wrestling in the DII finals and I was disappointed that I missed out on some of those matches... as well as the DII drama!

 

 

Overall, it was a good venue for it, but it's just out in the middle of no where..... it's just not the same "atmosphere" as UTC!

[VeniVidiVici24]

I am so disgusted with the criminal organization that is known as the TSSAA. From what I understand, they didn't have to pay a cent to have this tourney at the Ag Expo, and yet they have the nerve to pay $5 PER DAY for parking and $10 PER DAY for admittance. To bring my family of 7 to watch our neighbor (and 3x champ) in the finals would have cost $75...$150 if we had wanted to see him pin his way to the finals the day before! No excuse for this type of thievery.

[tnlonghorn]

Positives:

More central location

Less expensive

Fans were allowed to bring in their own food

Plenty of space on the floor

During the first rounds, you could easily see any mat wherever you were sitting

 

Negatives

Because it's no longer at a college, there was nothing to do during the breaks. You could either go back to the hotel, or drive about 10 miles down the road and go to the mall. It made the breaks seem much too long.... I loved how during the breaks (or once you were out), the kids could go to the student center and have plenty options for food, and could play pool and ping pong! I probably have as many good memories there as I do at the actual state tournament!

 

The lighting was bad in there... it started to mess with my head after sitting in there for so long.

 

Why were the scoreboards on the floor?! That was so aggravating at times! Surely that is an easy fix.

 

I'm sure the stands would have been much more crowded if it were near the normal schools like Baylor, McCallie, and Bradley that always bring their entire towns to the state tournament. (I was worried that there was not going to be enough seating for the finals, but that didn't turn out to be a problem)

 

During the state finals, you basically had to pick wether you wanted to watch the DI or the DII finals. At UTC when you heard those Baylor or McCallie fans yelling all of a sudden, you could just look a few feet to your right and see what it was they were cheering (or yelling) about... This year you would hear the stir going on over there, but it was so far away that it was hard to tell what was going on. I was more interested in the DI finals, but there's always good wrestling in the DII finals and I was disappointed that I missed out on some of those matches... as well as the DII drama!

 

 

Overall, it was a good venue for it, but it's just out in the middle of no where..... it's just not the same "atmosphere" as UTC!

1)More centrally located to what? I think the poor attendance clearly signifies it wasnt centrally located to the majority of the fans that come to the tournament. You would think it would have been packed with the large population of Nashville and it being closer to memphis. Wasnt that one of the arguments for moving it to Nashville? By far the largest crowd there was still Chattanooga. Lets face it , you have Christian brothers from Memphis and thats about all that support wrestling in the west. The majority are Nashville, Chatt and knoxville and then you have Cookeville to the North and on the far eastern corner you have Science Hill to even out the the distance Christian Brothers has to travel. So I would think Chattanooga is more centrally located for the fans as the lack of attendence proved.

2)How was it less expensive?

 

I agree that the atmospehere wasnt the same. In fact it was the least exciting tournament I have seen in 20 + years of attending. I thought it would be packed to the limit with Nashvilles 5 times larger population base. No slight towards the people who ran it and worked hard because they did an excellent job. This is based on the decision to move the tournament in the first place. Lets face it, we have a very wide state so either west or east tennessee is going to have to travel a slightly longer distance to get there. This year east tennessee had to travel further.I say we do it like the Major League baseball all star game. Whoever wins the state gets to hold next years tournament in their region. Lets make the region earn it!

[VeniVidiVici24]

Positives:

Whoever wins the state gets to hold next years tournament in their region. Lets make the region earn it!

 

But what to do about the separate divisions? Split up the individual tournament between two sites? Or, how about this: the week after the individuals, the team winners of each division wrestle each other (i.e., this year it would be Baylor vs. Bradley), and the winner gets to host the state in their region

[mohawke]

A couple other negatives-

1. The floor/mats looked lumpy, as a result of sitting on top of a dirt floor.

2. The roof leaked onto the D-2 mats Sat morn.

3. I missed the closeness/proximity to the mats (they were simply too far away).

4. Line of sight was more impaired due to lower sitting than UTC (reason why clocks were on the floor; had they been raised, line of sight would have been blocked; this was a problem observed in the State Duals, so actually this was a good adjustment from the Duals)

 

Bottom Line-keep the Duals in Franklin; move the Individual back to UTC, with them fixing their scheduling problems.

[rigger101]

I am so disgusted with the criminal organization that is known as the TSSAA. From what I understand, they didn't have to pay a cent to have this tourney at the Ag Expo, and yet they have the nerve to pay $5 PER DAY for parking and $10 PER DAY for admittance. To bring my family of 7 to watch our neighbor (and 3x champ) in the finals would have cost $75...$150 if we had wanted to see him pin his way to the finals the day before! No excuse for this type of thievery.

You would have paid that much for just 1 day of parking and meals at UTC!

First Chattanooga is my fav city in TN. However, IMHO-the powers to be at that Venue had started to take the State Wrestling Championships for granted. This is what I liked.

 

1. PARKING-Paying once for all day.

2. Sleeping in my bed for a change.

3. Price

4. NO UTC Nazi Chicks at the door checking me and my family for dangerous food.

5. Food price seemed fare.

6. I felt like folks wanted us there. They didn't make the grapplers start their wrestling on Wed or check their bags to make sure the venue made a buck at the concessions.

7. Large floor. Enough space to have double elimination. Something we have been screaming for years.

I know this is not an issue for D-II but it's sad to see hard working Grapplers who lose by a point or overtime not get a shot at a medal. On Friday night the D-II side was empting out about 7:30 pm.

That was plenty of time to get in additional matches for Double Elimination.

Heck D-II could be knocked out in 1 day.

 

I do miss going to downtown Chattanooga after the matches. Best City in TN IMHO. Is their another venue in Chattanooga that could hold the State?

Seems like most of the negs are coming from D-II folks in Chattanooga. I'm sure the Father Ryan Folks had plenty of family coming in that couldn't always travel to Choo-Choo town.

The mat distance was a problem.

Nashville has Municipal Auditorium, Somet Center or MTSU as options.

[VeniVidiVici24]

4. NO UTC Nazi Chicks at the door checking me and my family for dangerous food.

5. Food price seemed fare.

6. I felt like folks wanted us there. They didn't make the grapplers start their wrestling on Wed or check their bags to make sure the venue made a buck at the concessions.

 

That wasn't changed because of the venue. Quite a few fans made a rather aggressive pitch to some TSSAA officials about how ridiculous it was that wrestlers had to subside on $6 funnel cakes between matches because they weren't allowed to bring in their own food. And if you were spending $150 on food in one day then you need to rethink where you were eating. There was a McDonalds 3 minutes away. Just sayin

[rigger101]

4. NO UTC Nazi Chicks at the door checking me and my family for dangerous food.

5. Food price seemed fare.

6. I felt like folks wanted us there. They didn't make the grapplers start their wrestling on Wed or check their bags to make sure the venue made a buck at the concessions.

 

That wasn't changed because of the venue. Quite a few fans made a rather aggressive pitch to some TSSAA officials about how ridiculous it was that wrestlers had to subside on $6 funnel cakes between matches because they weren't allowed to bring in their own food. And if you were spending $150 on food in one day then you need to rethink where you were eating. There was a McDonalds 3 minutes away. Just sayin

Between high hotel cost, being forced to eat in the round house and parking cost $150 was a low fiqure. You had to pay for parking every time you wanted to leave and return. A one day pass like this year would have made the out of town folks feel better about UTC parking. UTC had a great recket going and then made you feel like a 3rd class citizen!

The heart of TN wrestling is Chattanooga, however UTC was taking advantage of that IMHO. IMHO the changing of the Tourney to a Wed twice having kids miss school and parents missing 3 days of work and the folks working the doors being rude was enough to ask for change. I hope their Funnel Cakes and Food Nazi;s were worth the cash that Chattanooga lost this year.

I attended the State at UTC since the 90's. I always enjoyed the area and the city. Like the UTC campus. However the last 3 years I felt like the UTC folks could care less if we were there.

[barbwire]

I must first say that everyone involved in holding this tournament did an incredible job being their first year for such an event. And as always there are going to be some things that can improve the experience for all, wrestlers as well as fans.

 

I agree with KingGreene that the lighting was horrible, I and many others I spoke to had a headache from our eyes being strained all weekend. I described it as perpetual dusk in there. This is a simple fix for the venue that would improve all the events they hold there.

 

The layout of the mats could be vastly improved. Platforms could be implented to raise the mats off the dirt floor. These do not have to be very high, just a good flat surface.

More importantly the mats could be moved and layed out closer to the seats, the scorers tables and clocks could be moved to the center creating a center aisleway for on deck wrestlers and no blocked views of the mats or clocks. As fans we could then be closer to the action, thus making it easier for the refs to hear us.

 

As far as room, there was plenty of room and empty mats to hold double elimination. Friday afternoon, it was a ghost town over on the DI side. 4 empty mats just begging to have an extra round of consolations wrestled on them. Easily enough time for double elimination.

 

While I would have liked for the finals mats to be closer together to watch both divisions, I am sure they split them to create the maximum amount of seating for each mat. Surrounded on three sides instead of only two. They could improve on this in a couple of ways, wrestle all matches on one mat, alternating DI then DII at each weight class. They could just start an hour earlier. Or TSSAA could do away with the divisions and we could have just one mat and one true state champion. This is an individual sport and classifications/divisions have no business in this sport.

 

Lastly, the TSSAA has missed the boat on this entirely. This is such a marketing hot spot for many companies. You could have people talk to many wrestling companies such as Dollamur mats and we could have wall to wall mats, with room for warming up. Scoreboard companies that would die at a chance to have their scoreboards in a marquee event. Just a couple of many opportunities that were missed and can be improved upon.

[smwwrest]

Great tournament and well run! Congratulations to the organizers, it was fantastic. Yes, a couple of issues (lighting, need binoculars to see the other division's matches, etc.). McKenzie Arena did create a great atmosphere in the past for the finals and the tournament. Unfortunately, UTC just did not care enough about the event. Being able to hold the finals on Saturday and not having the wrestlers searched for nutritous food every time they entered the arena far outweight the McKenzie atmosphere.

 

My vote, remain in Nashville with the tournament until UTC decides it wants to charitably support this event.