Thoughts on the state

[rasslinlite]

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

 

Well if I am not mistaken Middle Tennessee won 8 Championships to the rest of the state 6. I guess they liked sleeping in there beds.

[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

 

Well if I am not mistaken Middle Tennessee won 8 Championships to the rest of the state 6. I guess they liked sleeping in there beds.

 

Not so sure if Cookevile or Tullahoma slept in their own beds. A bit of a drive for Cookevile for sure.

[Sommers]

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.

 

 

Mr. W - you are making sure Jeff Hudgens comes back, right? Your boy would do well @ officiating. You're steady mentoring is invaluable. Some really need your coaching, but you should stay in there too!!

 

These are all good observations above... considering short and long term perspectives. One thing's for sure West TN wrestlers should benefit and bring home some more hardware with 2-3 less hours of travel for state.

 

It appears ynotme and Gordon Connell have some common views here as far as the individual tournament.

[silverpie]

Ah, Mapquest must be assuming people actually obey speed limits

[CoachBlair]

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.

 

Actually, what I was told was for each tournament on their own. The duals paid attendance was up from last year. The individual paid attendance was also up by about 200 or so from last year. When we met with TSSAA at the Ag Center back in the spring to talk about the duals and they were inquiring about bringing the individual there, I was also a little concerned about the seating. However, I was told that the paid attendance at UTC last year on the biggest day (finals) was about 2,200. When you throw in another 900 to 1000 wrestlers, coaches, tournament workers, media, etc. who don't pay, you get a crowd around 3,200.

 

Coach Blair

[sundancer]

Yahoo - It's going back to the AgCenter - For all those calling it the CowPalace, you should see the Arena where the NFR was held in OKC for many years until it moved to Vegas - now that was a COW PALACE! However we could wear our $#!t kickers next year if it makes you feel better. Congrats to Joe Blair and the Williamson County programs that made it all happen. You came together and got it down like the champions you are. Let's get ready for 2011!

 

[rigger101]

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.

Get'em Steven!

[rigger101]

tnko, close your eyes and think about this. It isn't about YOU or your convenience. What I was referring to is the wrestlers perspective. I used the casual fans as an example that many others also recognized this. Of course, I wouldn't expect you to acknowledge this obvious point because of the thin skin regarding any critique of anything regarding the Cow Palace.

If I wanted to be truly critical, I would have mentioned the lack of courtesy regarding the starting time for the finals on Saturday. To be fair, you'd have to admit that by having the Finals at 4:00 EST (in Chatt. for the last couple decades), it got the travellers home at a safer hour. The 6:00 start this year was equivelant to 7:00 Eastern, which got the Saturday night travellers home at an extremely late hour, (well , actually early Sunday morning). The Finals ended at 11:00! I know you guys detest Chattanooga and it's wrestlers, but those guys prob. got in bed around 2:30 or 3:00 AM. The consolation rounds ended very early in the afternoon, around 1:00. Why in the world not start the Finals at 3:00 or 4:00? Certainly never stopped the Roundhouse from rockin' on Saturday afternoon.

DaisyMay-We learned a long time ago not to kill ourselves traveling back home from Chattanooga and the Mean House! We stayed Saturday Night in Chattanooga. If you stay for all the awards and then go out to eat most of the rest of the State was getting home after midnight from Choo-choo town.

So welcome to the discomfort we have felt for years!

This 1st year for the event to be held at the Ag Center. Give it a chance. Spend an extra night in Nashville and have a relaxing drive back home on Sunday. It's scary going over Monteagle at night.

Most if the Middle TN Coaches, Teams and Grapplers love Chattanooga! However the event was starting to be taken for granted by UTC and the powers to be. I remember the days of Maclellan Gym and how we were packed on top of each other in a hot box. The folks at the AG center did a great job and have plenty of room to make it better.

Open the tight Signal, Lookout Mtn and Valley wallets and spend a little cash in your State Capital! We have been dropping our bucks in Chattanooga for years!

[WTFcoach]

1. More room for additional mats is a good thing.

2. Closer to the action is a good thing.

3. No food Nazis is a good thing.

4. All-day parking is a good thing.

5. The central location is a good thing.

 

 

1. No dressing rooms is a negative.

2. Not enough rooms and restaurants at the exit is a negative.

3. The floor being uneven under the mats is a negative.

4. Only one entrance was a negative.

 

Looks to me the positives outwiegh the negatives.

 

I have a few other questions:

1. Why was there no impartial person for the girls weigh-ins, like for the boys?

2. Who thinks it matters when one team has to sleep in a hotel and be supervised vs. sleeping at home and not being supervised. I laughed at the idea that state qualifying wrestlers would not have the self-discipline to watch what they eat, since the most disciplined guys are the ones who make it to the state.

3. When will we ever see a true double-elimination? I hear the TSSAA wants to lower the number of qualifiers to 24. Does that make sense to anybody outside of the TSSAA offices? If they lower it, it needs to be lowered to 16, but add a new level to the entire tournament between Region and State.

4. Does anybody think that the guy who said the traffic problem will improve b'c of construction is off his rocker besides me?

5. The idea to move the mats out and put the scoreboards and scoring tables in the center is a great idea. I bet that gets fixed for next year.

6. If there were rooms to the south of Franklin, traffic would improve. Does anybody know that part of the state well enough to comment?

[eaglewrestling84]

.

6. If there were rooms to the south of Franklin, traffic would improve. Does anybody know that part of the state well enough to comment?

 

Try looking in the Spring Hill area, there may be a few hotels and thats just about a 15 minute drive. But besides that the next town is Columbia and it is somewhat of a drive but it could be managaed.

[Patriotwrestler]

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.

 

 

I couldn't agree more- $10- and no break for students?? I witnessed a father and son enter just before I did and he had to pay $10 for his 6 year old son- come on TSSAA in these hard times why so much?

[alemwildcat160]

yeah thats messed up !!!!!