Thoughts on the state

[DaisyMay]

Some are listening to what they want to hear or think they hear. I never said a word about the drive or the fact that the tournament wasn't in Chatt. UTC had it and they lost it. No problem. The only argument was with the start time for the finals.

I do find it interesting that someone brought up the Chattanooga kids not getting to sleep in their own beds, not eat mom's cooking, deal with strange surroundings and travel, etc. These are the"advantages" that have been talked about for years regarding Chatt area wrestlers. Well if that's the case, and it's such a huge advantage, why did Chattanooga area schools sweep both gold trophies and both silver trophies this year? All while having to travel and sleep in the dreaded hotel beds and do without all their perceived "advantages" of past years.

[REPH45]

Longhorn, I think the reason the Ag Center "felt like" there were not as many people is because it is much more open and spread out. Yes McKenzie Arena holds more people but most of those seats are in the nose bleed section where hardly anyone would want to sit and if they did they would be further from the mats than at the Ag Center.

[Sommers]

Some are listening to what they want to hear or think they hear. I never said a word about the drive or the fact that the tournament wasn't in Chatt. UTC had it and they lost it. No problem. The only argument was with the start time for the finals.

I do find it interesting that someone brought up the Chattanooga kids not getting to sleep in their own beds, not eat mom's cooking, deal with strange surroundings and travel, etc. These are the"advantages" that have been talked about for years regarding Chatt area wrestlers. Well if that's the case, and it's such a huge advantage, why did Chattanooga area schools sweep both gold trophies and both silver trophies this year? All while having to travel and sleep in the dreaded hotel beds and do without all their perceived "advantages" of past years.

Hey, At least Ryan pulled one out!! Bradley Co. Wrestling continues, business as usual,,, but maybe you can add another 50 points to region 3 teams resulting from mama's cookin , extra comfortable sleep time and less driving, huh? Not to mention the extra mat time you get from not having to do add'l fund raisers.

[2blLeg]

Longhorn, I think the reason the Ag Center "felt like" there were not as many people is because it is much more open and spread out. Yes McKenzie Arena holds more people but most of those seats are in the nose bleed section where hardly anyone would want to sit and if they did they would be further from the mats than at the Ag Center.

 

I think what needs to be done at this point, is to work up a list of things that everyone would like to see added/changed for next year and allow the powers to be to have time to go over things, and add or change what they can.

 

I think everyone agrees that there needs to be more excitement for the finals. Not sure exactly what that would be, but we need to throw out some ideas.

 

- My other thoughts would be to move the time the finals start up in the day.

- Definitely add double elimination for the D1 guys (this is a must, and should be top priority)

- Take advantage of the extra space, and really get more vendors in there

- Bring back the ice cream. Don't care how you do it, just get it there.

- Talk to some lighting specialist, and figure a way to improve that issue (there is year to get that done, so there should be plenty of time)

[ynotme]

TNlonghorn - I can't find it, but if memory serves the cow palace seats 4400. I ran into one of the long time state tourney staff folks who said the 2009 finals attendance at UTC was 4500. My guess is the cow palace had around 70% of the seats occupied for the finals making attendance apx 3000. Neither of those numbers are scientific, but they appear to agree with most everyone's impressions. When I saw the article stating attendance was up by 200, I was certainly surprised. If the TSSAA gets the place for free and gets 80% of the $5 parking, then its staying at the cow palace regardless of attendance. My same attendance source said UTC charged the TSSAA $20,000 last year which probably included the Natzi security and janitors. I assume the cow palace provided nothing in the way of labor services if they gave the weekend away. Also heard that some or all of the official's hotel rooms were comped in Nashville but were not in Chattanooga. Add it all up and heey haaw, we're back at the cow palace again next year.

[MWR]

TNlonghorn - I can't find it, but if memory serves the cow palace seats 4400. I ran into one of the long time state tourney staff folks who said the 2009 finals attendance at UTC was 4500. My guess is the cow palace had around 70% of the seats occupied for the finals making attendance apx 3000. Neither of those numbers are scientific, but they appear to agree with most everyone's impressions. When I saw the article stating attendance was up by 200, I was certainly surprised. If the TSSAA gets the place for free and gets 80% of the $5 parking, then its staying at the cow palace regardless of attendance. My same attendance source said UTC charged the TSSAA $20,000 last year which probably included the Natzi security and janitors. I assume the cow palace provided nothing in the way of labor services if they gave the weekend away. Also heard that some or all of the official's hotel rooms were comped in Nashville but were not in Chattanooga. Add it all up and heey haaw, we're back at the cow palace again next year.

 

Can you provide statistics for that number? If not it holds no credibility that a staff member happened to tell you that.

[GRILLZ]

TNlonghorn - I can't find it, but if memory serves the cow palace seats 4400. I ran into one of the long time state tourney staff folks who said the 2009 finals attendance at UTC was 4500. My guess is the cow palace had around 70% of the seats occupied for the finals making attendance apx 3000. Neither of those numbers are scientific, but they appear to agree with most everyone's impressions. When I saw the article stating attendance was up by 200, I was certainly surprised. If the TSSAA gets the place for free and gets 80% of the $5 parking, then its staying at the cow palace regardless of attendance. My same attendance source said UTC charged the TSSAA $20,000 last year which probably included the Natzi security and janitors. I assume the cow palace provided nothing in the way of labor services if they gave the weekend away. Also heard that some or all of the official's hotel rooms were comped in Nashville but were not in Chattanooga. Add it all up and heey haaw, we're back at the cow palace again next year.

 

Can you provide statistics for that number? If not it holds no credibility that a staff member happened to tell you that.

 

 

MWR, do you really think that wrestling can do better in middle TN, haha you wish.

[lbhiii]

Announced today in the Tennessean that the tournaments are going back to the Ag/Expo Center in 2011. Lets hope all of the constructive criticism mentioned on the thread is considered. See you guys next year!

[silverpie]

It's no more than a 3 hour drive for anyone. And again, this is for EVERYONE.

 

Nice try, but according to Mapquest, even you are 3½ hours from the Ag Expo, and Johnson City is 4¾ hours. (That said, I've long supported having the traditionals and the duals in different areas of the state...)

 

As far as attendance being up, I think they may be talking about combined attendance for the two tournaments--in other words, a larger gate for the duals could be balancing out a smaller one for the traditionals.

[StevenMcK]

4.75 hours to go approx 300 miles to Johnson City? I am making the driving today and it is by no means five hours. Its 3.5 to four max.

[oldblazedad]

TNlonghorn - I can't find it, but if memory serves the cow palace seats 4400. I ran into one of the long time state tourney staff folks who said the 2009 finals attendance at UTC was 4500. My guess is the cow palace had around 70% of the seats occupied for the finals making attendance apx 3000. Neither of those numbers are scientific, but they appear to agree with most everyone's impressions. When I saw the article stating attendance was up by 200, I was certainly surprised. If the TSSAA gets the place for free and gets 80% of the $5 parking, then its staying at the cow palace regardless of attendance. My same attendance source said UTC charged the TSSAA $20,000 last year which probably included the Natzi security and janitors. I assume the cow palace provided nothing in the way of labor services if they gave the weekend away. Also heard that some or all of the official's hotel rooms were comped in Nashville but were not in Chattanooga. Add it all up and heey haaw, we're back at the cow palace again next year.

 

I can toss numbers out all day, but the truth is Franklin did a great job. And I hope it is there next year. You like talking numbers, tell us the attendance at State 25 years ago when it was first held at UTC. Compared to the first time it was held in Franklin, Give Franklin 25 years to grow and watch out. How do we expect any respect nationally when we can't respect each other with in the state. Has anyone asked the kids what they thought about the location, I bet they don't care. They all wrestled hard and had fun. Remember Dad's and Mom's it's about the kids not you. Lets grow together and build Tennessee not tear it apart.

[csemary]

Here is a question, when it was first beign discussed about moving the state from UTC to another location there were some who felt that the Chattanooga area wrestlers had an advantage because they got to sleep in their own beds, or something along those lines. Now that the Chattanooga area wrestlers had to sleep in a motel in Franklin how did the medal count change if any from last year? Did Chattanooga area wrestlers come home with less medals? Did Middle Tenn wrestlers win more medals? Just curious if anyone knows the answer to this. Thanks