What would happen to tournament prices if the wrestling community decided to protest $25 coaches passes and outrageous entry fees and took the weekend off during one of these big overpriced events? Why does one tournament charge $15 or $18 and the other clubs are charging $25, $32, $45.....and its the same kids wrestling, track is being used.....? Wrestling has turned into a business.

Kids and Parents love Belts, Rings, Eagles, and Large Trophies. They will pay to play.

There are still those 15/18 dollar tournments out there.

Bypass those 25,32,45 dollar ones, you have that right.

Like Beeson said the parents want that bling as bad as the kids do they will pay.

Also some of these places included High school gyms aren't getting cheaper to rent.

I paid almost 1,000 for rental and janitorial almost 6 years ago.

There you have it!

Greed is going to kill our sport! As long as tournament directors are trying to 'one up' each other we will all suffer. You are right though, parents will pay for bling and there are still $15 tournaments out their, for now. I see everyone having belts and backpacks and adding Nationals to their flyer within the next couple years. Getting new parents and kids involved with wrestling will be a thing of the past. Thank you big fancy tournament director with delusions of grandeur.

I will pay for the Nationally ranked tournaments.We went to dodge city. It was a good tournament.There was a kid from CO that was ranked way above one of the 2 ogden boys.The only reason he was ranked higher was National tournaments.The Kansas boys dominated him.But in the ranks he was better. At 14u I do not think the D1 schools look at this.But at some point they will.What I am saying is to be ranked you have to go where you can get ranked.I would rather spend my $100s here in KS than drive out of state.I can say the price of food and drinks was very good at dodge.They also had juice,Gatorade,water all cheaper than POP.

Now with that said,I love the down home tournaments.There is no better than paying $15 times two for my family to set in the bleachers of a HS.Funny how most of the low entry tournaments have food for the coaches,wile the big tournaments charge us and have no food/water at all.

i remember having to pay 5 dollars for a plastic looking medal back in the 80's. thats how old i am. i really didnt know any better. i was just told to wrestle so i did. i look at it this way. love tulsa nationals and joc. i do think it costs too much but the competition there is like no other. many of these clubs that hold the bling tournaments are bringing kids in from out of state. they will not come just for the competition as they feel they have enough competition. we travel just for the simple fact that if we stay in the same district we will wrestle the same kids over and over. heck i can just go to open gym if thats what i want. i take my kids to the competition if they fail to come to us. early on you will find a couple small tournaments in oklahoma that are cheap and find good competition. later on its all about the bigger bling tournaments. thats where all the competition will be. you get to see kids from different states.

Many of these tournaments have to charge more for various reasons.

Price of the facility to use it.
they donate some back.
it is the clubs only fundraiser.
price and size of the awards.
etc, etc, etc.....

I know we have charged in the $20 range the past few years, but we donate at least $1000 of that to the college wrestling fund, and at least $1000 to FHSU wrestling, we also try to donate to the middle schools, and highschools every year as well. So honestly we donate alot of what we make off of our tournament.

$1000 is a drop in the bucket when you are making 20k just with entry fees. How about you donate ALL the money you make from coaches passes to the Make A Wish Foundation. You would have 3000 entries! I would pay $30 every week for a tournament that did that. We pay $10 $20 $25 for a pass and have to stand next to a screaming grandmother without a wristband! We waste our money on these bands anyway. Give it to someone who needs it.

I hear ya about the screaming grandmother. We have never charged for coaches bands at our tournament in the past. We require to be shown the correct coaching credentials, and we will give you band.

I am not sure if $1000 is a drop in the bucket I am guessing both organizations we give to appreciate it, but this is why we don�t only give the $1000 to these organizations. We also give out scholarships to some of our former wrestlers attending college, we have in the past bought new mats for the high schools, we have helped with wrestling equipment for other schools in our town as well. Our club tries to help out others in need around the state at times as well (memorials, medical funds, etc....)

I guess what I am trying to say is that just because a club charges $20, $25, $45, etc.... for a tournament does not mean they are trying to rip people off or pad their pockets. Many times these clubs give right back to the wrestling community.

Overall, "National Tournaments" need to be held in some type of check to balance other extremely highly competitive tournament.

To clarify, <300 wrestlers =National Tournament? Not to bash a state here or there but there is CornCob Nationals, Gopher Nationals, Badgerland Nationals and many others.....what's the sense?

What is the criterion for establishing a "NATIONAL TOURNAMENT"? Is it "just the name?"

And yes, Scott--I can remember when entry fees were $8.00 etc. your kid generally had > 8 man bracket, no such thing as NOVICE entries, & not everyone got a medal for "showing up".

Just my $.02.

If you would like to got through our tournament cost vs earnings I would be glad to pass them on to you. There may be a few creating 20k in revenue but it isn't all going in their pocket. It is never garunteed either, there is always some risk.

Again stay home and quit crying nobody is forcing you to go.

Teams that have tournaments also make it very cheap for their kids, I know Hutch actaully helped pay for some entry fees during the season.

This year my club Team Lightning purchased the finals/dual singlets for the high school team. We are glad they allow us to use their facility free of charge and had no problem giving the money for them. We also sent 4 kids to the team camp that their parents couldn't afford to send them to.

Some team may be greedy, but I have a problem with you throwing them all in the same bucket.

I know like it was said earlier lots of team contriute to the Kansas college funds which is also very good.

So which big tournament ran your little tournament in the ground and pissed you off so bad?

I am not sure what you are trying to point out here, but if you are calling me cool Thanks!

Not cool, just FANCY! Lol

I don't have a problem with paying 45 dollars for my son or daughter to wrestle in a national tournament. Where I draw the line at is when I have to pay to coach my kids at a tournament. Why do the coaches have to pay to coach? This is the main reason I have not entered my kids into a national tournament.

Josh Parker

BAM!! HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD, JOSH!
Didn't we already pay for a coaches card at the beginning of the year?

At Hutch we get a report from Kathy on the amount of coches cards a team has, then we give them that many bands.

After that it is $10, this helps keeo the floor clear of 500 parents.

If you don't have a coaches card, you are paying to be on the floor.

Some do free passes per 5 kids or something like that.

Bottom line is also if I choose to go to Cotton Bowl nationals in Dallas like I did last year. The 25 bucks for coaching is the cheapest thing I did all weekend.

National tournament are drawing national type competition, with that comes other costs. Just the way it is.

I am sure the competition is great. It would make a great road trip for the family to go to one of these events. But I have a hard time stomaching paying to coach. Now if the 25 dollars stops everyone from being on the floor that is not suppose to be like parents and wrestlers who are done wrestling. It may be worth it. For now I am going to pass on this national tournaments until they drop the coaches fee.

Josh Parker

Nationally titled tournaments draw the best competition. With good competition comes the expectation of " fancy" hardware. If you want to wrestle the best you must go to these tournaments. If you have never been I highly suggest you go. You will see some of the best wrestling you can imagine from young competitors. The high prices of entries and coaches bands come with the promotion of a tournament this caliber.
In Dodge this past weekend the Event Center Alone cost $7500.00
that does not include the money spent to feed the table workers in which we had to buy the food and drinks from the event center at a very inflated rate.BuT the price was worth it. All padded seats in the stands ,dasher boards to keep screaming grandmas off the mat ,every coach had to show a USA card to get a band. Plus every 5 wrestlers got the team a coaches band.
Supplies to run the tournament , printing, 14 officials , belts ect..... It was a very very expensive tournament to put together.
WHY should you attend?The 2 best teams from CO.plus nationally ranked Neb teams Attended and, many of the toughest kids in KS. Ask anyone that was at the tournament it was stacked full of great wrestlers. Putting on a tournament of this caliber can only help KS wrestling.
Now with that said, kids that have just started wrestling don't need to attend a tournament like this. There should be smaller home town tourneys that these kids can go to that are less expensive. If your child isn't " ready " for a grind tournament keep taking them to the smaller tournaments. If your kid is winning everything you take them to its time to step up and chase some competition. If you don't you are doing them an injustice. When they get to the state tournament they will not be ready to compete at that level.In Dodge the reason Scott decided to put this together was to bring great wrestling to SW KS so that in years to come we might be able to compete with surrounding states for high level wrestling. Co and Ned already said that they would be back next year. And they are planning on bringing FRIENDS. Next year with the support of more clubs from Iowa and KS this will be double what it was this year.
Thanks to all that supported this year we hope you all had a great time in DC.
Coach Weil

To me it looks like they high jacked one of the best tournaments in Kansas. Everything is the same right down to the Colorado kids and awards. By the way, what happend to all the Oklahoma kids?