At the bag checks I didn't see a huge pile of stuff removed cause it was not allowed.. I also didn't see anyone turning away to return things to cars so either we are getting sneakier or they we're pretty lax.

I think the main thing that bothered me was the security guard that was standing at the door Saturday morning at the exhibition hall entrance. He was yelling as loud as he could. "don’t even try to bring food, or drink in here"... "look to your left and you will see what we have taken from others"... "We will be throwing all of this in the trash". He was laughing about this, and acting like it was a game for him.

On Saturday morning the security guards were much more professional then that guy was.

Overall the stair guards appeard to be more polite then in years past.(at least some of them)

I agree that some measures need to be taken to ensure safety, but it was obvious that the door guards were there only looking for food, and drink.

So just to be clear, as long as you don't save them over night on Fri/Sat it is allowed to rope off an entire section first thing in the morning the day of wrestling.

Thanks that makes it way easier for next year.

So Scott City could have gotten up at 4am and waited fo the doors to open and reserved their section....

Although they are very generous in their bidding and it goes for a great cause, those should be advertised as "The only OVERNIGHT, ALL WEEKEND, GUARANTEED seats in Landon Arena".

Now that you made people more aware that seats are allowed to be saved the day o the event, it will be game on next year.

Sure are getting "Mixed Messages" from what was said by the Tournament Director and the Head of Security. I imagine it appears as to what entry you went thru.

On "choosing the battle" the security team did not have the numbers yet increased the # on Sunday. The Battle was reported to chill on the apples & oranges & water & to confiscate the sacks of McDonald's & Burger King. The word was NOT TO WORRY about the 45+ SAVED SEATS & MORE! Heck, they seat savers were Not allowing people to sit in the seat 1 match ahead of your own kidsematch when the seats were open 10' plus!!!

To be FAIR to Maize & Scott City whom were really in it on the bidding perhaps some acknowledgement of the seats being reserved esp. on the entrance of the section & a GINORMOUS THANK YOU SIGN from the Wrestling Foundation.

It's CRAY when everybody gets there at 6:30 yep like Black Friday (not into it) but come on with the king size, huge blankets & saving tons of seats?!!! MO is allowed to save 3 seats a person and that 1 person better be sitting in a seat.

Solution: purchase seat tickets to help fund KS WRESTLING!!!
JUST my $0.02.

Heck ya go online pre-sell the seats, for Sat and Sunday charge an exta dollar for the lower bowl and what deosn't sell by Friday is GA.

This way someone can say hey that is my seat can show the the ticket. It will also decrease the huge line to buy ticket at the window.

I know our club would just got ahead and so many per qualifier.

Also if clubs are going to keep shelling out big bucks like Maize and Scott City there should be some support to help keep people out of their section.

The caution tape didn't caution very many people.

FYI not sure about Maize but Scott City did let people come and sit there to watch a match or two or to tape a match. The people asked polite and stayed till match was done. We had people from Kansas City there people from Columbus. If you were polite we were. It was the people that thought we were lying about why we could save seats. The one guy in purple who had a copy of the by laws that said we couldn't save seats. He screamed at us. The man who was polite told why he couldn't sit there and started calling names. Some people were cool aboutit we explained why told them what the money went for. Explained the forum and they were like cool and went some where else. As in life not everyone is icckky but there are some very ugly spirts in this world.

I thought the bag checks were a lot better than last year. It was very perfunctory, and they didn't root around in there like they did last year.

About saving seats....When you have almost 30 wrestlers and around 10 coaches on the floor warming up in the morning, you will have a LOT of empty seats around just a few parents. We got some nasty looks when we said people were sitting in them. They were! And when they got done warming up, they almost all came back and filled them up. I want my son and husband to be able to sit next to me when they get a break, so I keep their 2 seats open. People might remember that fact when they are looking for a seat and getting pissed off at us for saving them. I realize that some went overboard and saved way too many. But some had what they needed.

Mary Bradford

The bag checks had nothing to do with safety. You could have had a bomb laying next to a snickers bar & they would have taken the candy bar & let the bomb in. But the expo did loosen up the bag checks & that's a good thing. They just looked in my bags & did not reach in & move things. Food & drink was permitted if bottom of bag & not visible at a glance. Thanks to the expo for that.

Maize did let others sit in their section. My sister can't do stairs very well and they let us sit in their lower sectin with them all weekend long. (as well as others) Thanks Maize Wrestling Club.

On 3/20/14 Mark J. Stanley said "the only seats to be saved in the Arena" were the ones being auctioned off. Then on 3/31 he comes back with "we tried but decided to pick our battles". Spoken like a true politician.

Jerry, I have no problem with you using what I say against me. But I do take exception to you taking what I say out of context or implying that I did not uphold a promise. I believe that I was straight forward in my description of the rules of the auction and the rules concerning saving seats. I also believe that the State Tournament Committee and the Kansas Expocentre enforced the rules that were in place consistently and fairly. If you don't like the rules in regards to saving seats propose an alternative at the State Body meeting when the ticket pricing is approved. I am sure the Expocentre would be willing to sell the lower tier at a higher price. Or we could go to a system where we auction off more sections in the lower tier to clubs. I really do NOT think you will find a majority willing to accept either of those two solutions. Come on Jerry...how about I just haul in a La-Z-Boy for you to sit in all weekend...



Mark Stanley – 3/20/14 7:34am
We are auctioning Box Seating (For 10) in Section 114 at Landon Arena to the highest bidder. We are including lunch and dinner for 10 on Saturday, and lunch for 10 on Sunday. We are also including 3 seats for each wrestler your club has entered in the State tournament, located directly below the box seating. The only seats that will be saved in the Arena, are the seats that are associated with this box.

Bidding will begin now on this post, and it will end March 27th at 6:00 pm on this post.

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Jerry Dale – 3/20/14 9:29pm
Oh I don't think they will be the ONLY seats saved. Have you never went over an hour before tourny starts? I think the box seats up for bid have BOOGERS under the seats you might want to check.

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Mark Stanley – 3/21/14 9:57am
The high bid so far is $355...Thank you Mark Baldwin and Great Bend.

Menu has yet to be determined, but in the past we have done pizza and sub sandwiches. I am considering adding in a pasta dish of some kind for Sunday's noon meal. Soft drinks and water will be the beverage.

Seats are not allowed to be saved overnight; other than those in this auction. Clubs who arrive early on Saturday/Sunday do get choice of seating on a first come first serve basis. Do to the popularity of this event (a good thing), if Jerry chooses to sleep in then sometimes the choice seats are already taken in the arena...unless you bid on this suite deal (pardon the pun!
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Jerry Dale – 3/29/14 11:02am
But according to Mark J. Stanley the only way this happens is if you sleep in. He even said that "the only seats allowed to be saved were the ones being auctioned"

Guess he's not as smart and powerful as he thought. Maybe he shouldn't be in charge of the state tourney if he won't keep his word.

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Mark Stanley – 3/31/14 11:59am
I want to go on record about a couple points raised in this topic. First I would like to thank Maize Wrestling Club and Scott City Wrestling Club for participating in the auction for reserved seating. I am sorry that part of your experience was tainted by some that were rude to any of your club members in your section(s). My hope is that your experience will not deter you from participating in the auction in future years.

Next I would like to address the rule as it is stated in the tournament information sheet regarding SAVED SEATS AT STATE…” No saving of seats on Friday night for Saturday or Saturday night for Sunday will be allowed and all ADA handicapped seating are reserved for its intended purpose. Violation of this will result in a member of staff reminding you of the violation and you will be asked to move. Thank you for your cooperation.” As tournament director, I had the Expocentre security enforce this policy. I also made announcements on both Saturday and Sunday morning, to those clubs arriving to the venue with rope to stake out their spots that they were not following the rules and security made the rounds. However, as the building began to fill I felt we needed to pick our battles. Technically those saving seats after the doors opened on Fry/Sat were not violating any rules. I like many of you didn’t like it, but on the opposite side of the situation these clubs were more prepared and got up earlier than those who made other decisions. Had I sent the “yellow shirts” through the arena to roust these clubs, I would have had countless complaints about overbearing security personnel. What we all need to remember is that we are all part of the same family and to treat each other with respect!

I call B.S. on this Mark. But next year NOBODY BETTER APPROACH Me or My Minions WHEN I ARRIVE BEFORE SUNRISE WITH 40 KING SIZE BLANKETS AND SAVE ALL THE FRONT 3 SEATS IN EACH SECTION! Minions on yoir post .....perhaps tarps are larger than king size blankets. We will be READY! 358 +/- days & counting.

Now onto the next subject why did the fella bring the 1/2 pint of scotch in?
Toooooo funny! Guess it wouldn't fit in his kids shoe or in his pocket! Out of control!

In it, I am disappointed that you find any humor in that, but in that case the bag search served the purpose of preventing contraband inside the arena.

I am really confused on what you are calling BS on??? We stopped the folks from marking out their spot overnight. We even stopped the early risers from saving more than a couple seats for the wrestlers and coaches who were warming up. If you were there you would of heard me make a personal plea not to save seats. Expo security made a round stopping ropes from going up. But after 7:00 I did not send the security to roust people out of their spots. I believe most would consider this a reasonable plan of action. I am sorry that you and Jerry disagree.

Honestly, I thought the young men and women on the mat this weekend could teach all of us a little about how to treat each other. I call BS on both you and Jerry for using this topic to run down such a great weekend!

Mark, you should not engage in this. Jerry's real issue is that the tournament is in Topeka...That is it. This just happened to be a forum where he could take a shot at the tournament's location by taking an 'un-called for' shot at you. With the time you have put into PROMOTING wrestling in this area of the state, Jerry should be thanking you. Thanks John

MarK, I WAS THERE---- YOUR MESSAGES LANDED ON DEAF EARS! The saving seats with blankets saved >45 seats & MANY MORE WERE saved in other sections. This has No inclusion of Scott City or Maize. When discussed with Security they said it was brought up in the meeting not to deal with it. No worries Mark, plans are allready made for next year.

The Scotchie was STUPID & YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID!

Are you REALLY taking offense to someone expressing an opinion? What kind of tourney director would take offense to someone expressing an opinion? As for John saying I have offense to the tourney being in Topeka, maybe but I understand that they have it cornered and there's nothing that can be done about that. My real problem is that year in and year out a few people think they can do whatever the hell they want and nobody has the balls to say anything to them. I could see saving a few seats for your family but even the best of catholic families don't have 40 kids. There that should get under some feathers.

I won't claim to have seen all of the events being discussed but I would say it's not unrealistic for some clubs to want 30-40 seats together. If a club brought 15 kids they can easily fill them. If you get there when the doors open and save them so be it AS LONG as you fill them and the others don't wait until 5 minutes before the 1st whistle blows. It happens every tournament it seems and not really all that unexpected.

Like I said my biggest peeve is don't wait until 5 minutes before to fill them, if a couple people get there at 7 the majority of everyone else should be there by 8 or you start losing seats.

Ok, guys we need to give Mark a break. He is tournament director for a very big tournament. Is everything he does perfect nope why cause he is just a human, like the rest of us. Until someone steps up and makes changes sets will be saved. So if you don't want anyone saving seats figure out how to stop it and change the rules. Mark don't let them get to you it is what it is. First state tournament I went to was in Salina ( shows how old I am) seats were saved then seats are saved now. Change it or hush up cause mark can't change it by himself so if this is a cause you feel this strongly about step up or...........

Folks,
It was a great tournament and a great weekend. I saw true acts of sportsmanship by coaches, fans, wrestlers, and officials. I saw reluctant adults hugging after matches. I saw an official get bumped and he kept his cool. I saw only one tantrum and one set of headgear thrown by a high school kid. The Dippin' Dots cart did not get ransacked.

Now the real question... should we save seats at sub-districts for those who are not there?