Once again Wichita had a great wrestling tournament on the mat, yet the hospitality was horrible. It is really sad that kids and coaches that work for months are treated the way they are. The state tournament should be a celebration for all who have been directly involved with those who do the entertaining. I witnessed again this year harrassment with coliseum staff towards cheerleaders, coaches and wrestlers. One thing that was aweful was the "hospitality room". The room this year was set off in a dark, cold, small corner of the coliseum. Coaches were treated to free pop, popcorn and pretzels. If they wanted to eat, they had cold cut sandwiches, nachos and soup. It was $6 per trip and no variety. that is a shame that coaches who work so hard get nothing in return. Table workers and administration eat free. Why? Anyway, I hope that Wichita has run it's course. Congrats on making it a sour experience in many ways again this year. Wrestling was awesome. Congrats to all the kids, parents and coaches for a job well done.

Although I agree with you on some of your arguements, I want to thank those that worked this weekend to make our experience the best it could be. Yeah, the security is a bit rough and they make up new rules the whole weekend, and the noone seems to know how to clean a bathroom, the workers did a superb job. I absolutely agree with trying to keep anyone off the floor that doesn't belong there. I paid my $6 for the "hospitality room" and if I could go somewhere else to eat I would, but the people who ran this should be thanked. I thought the table workers were excellent I must commend them on putting in such long hours and being pleasant the whole time. I also appreciated the kids who cleaned the mats often.

I thought that the security was much nicer this year with women guarding the stairs that lead to the mats instead of macho men. I also thought that the security working the mats area was better this year. They did a good job of keeping everyone but coaches and wrestlers out of the warm up and wrestling area. Nice job. Yes the hospitality room was awful but thats not enough of a reason to give up on Wichita.

I've never seen bathrooms as nasty as i saw this weekend at the colosium. The floor covered with urine and who knows what else. Just think, all the wrestlers that walk into the bathroom, then step on to the mat. All that wonderful stuff all over the mats we wrestle on. Yum.

That is an absolute barn in Wichita. For what the state pays them you would think they could run the team scores across the scoreboard once in a while instead of those stupid adds. But then again with half the light bulbs out in the scoreboard who could read them anyway. Bathrooms, hospitality rooms, prices, dingy unpainted walls, dark, you name it that place just sucks. Makes Topeka Expo look pretty good doesn't it?

No it doesn't!

Topeka Expo in my mind is way nicer than the colosium. One more thing I'll say about the colosium is the locker room in which all the wrestlers were allowed to change and stuff, was abosolutly awful. For one thing, there were 6 shower heads in about a four foot by 10 foot little shower room, of which we had to share with two huge tubs that were sittin in the showers. The toilets were also not kept clean in there.. which as you can imagine with hundreds of wrestlers goin' in there got real gross.

Ok Sportsfan where would you like to go? How bout an opinion unless you think where it is now is a gem of a place.

I want it to go to the big arena in Overland Park!

You mean the one that is not yet built or even started yet? That one?

Was the attendance down this year? It looked like it to me. Is this a result of the barn? I don't know that either but I think it is a factor. Why in the world have it in that place? If there is any other place that can meet our needs it ought to be looked at. They obviously don't value the tourney as an event or they would work a little harder to keep it.

Is Salina's Bicentennial Center big enough? Or is it time to split up the classes like they do in basketball? I'd hate to see that happen, but if a smaller arena that would cater to the event better would be better than what has been happening in Wichita.

the topeka building is at least as big as the wichita barn. I remember when the national aau was there and it was great. I think it would be a marvelous place to have it.

Unless a person has experienced both the 321A and 4-5-6A tournaments, it is impossible for them to believe and understand the difference between the two tournaments--Just one example, the hospitaltity room at Hays (for which there was no charge) served for Lunch on Friday pasta and spaghetti with meat sauce or alfredo sauce, hot gralic bread, corn, green beans, tossed lettuce salad, and cookies.

I have been to many farm sales on very cold days that were better than that place in wichita. No doubt Hays is much better than that.

I would continue to put up with a lot before I'd want to see 4A, 5A and 6A split up. How many of us were there watching one class and one class only? I'll bet not many. It would be great to have a better facility, but not at the expense of splitting up the tournament. Lets hope this can be accomplished soon.

For those in favor of splitting the tournament up, don't think if this happens the individual classes will be in arenas. They will be back in high school gyms.

This thread has nothing to do with splitting them up. It was not a question here, just somewhere else besides that rediculous barrel in Wichita.

Sounds to me like Overtime has unknown issues with this subject.

I agree w/ everyone that the state tourny needs to be moved. The colusieum (sp) really stinks. Over priced food, rude staff, dark, dirty,...disgusting, especially the comment made in an earlier post about wrestlers usin the restrooms then having to walk out on the mats and roll around in that stuff. But I have also wrestled in the expocenter up in Topeka. Yes, it is a much nicer facility and the people that work that are much nicer. BUT, the prices for things are just as bad as the colusieum (sp), u can't take food or drink down on the floor at the expocenter like u can at the colusieum (sp) the last time I was at the expocenter all they allowed us to take on the floor was 1 bottle of water, if u had more than one then u had to leave it w/ security. Now maybe it's possible to get that changed for that weekend, cuz lets face it, we wrestlers want our food! Especially after having to cut weight and what not for approx. 4 months, once we make that final weigh-in...we only have two things on our mind, our next match and food. And we have to eat a little something though out the day in order to keep our strength and energy up. I know that there had been work about moving it to Manhattan, I don't know much about that place. But I have heard pros and cons about where ever it was they wanted to have it there. From a wrestlers point of view, I would love to see the state tounry moved, but still be able to keep 4,5,6a all together. But if we really stop and think about it, somebody will have something to say negative about any place. Anywhere u have it there are going to be some bad points, but there are much much better places than that of the colusieum (sp). Just my two cents worth.