Guys hands down 4a venue is incredible, that and the genuine feeling of wrestling excitement in Salina is amazing. I've been to nearly every 4-5-6a state tournament for nearly the past 10 years and the buzz about the Bicentennial Center and the entire community's support for wrestling is something special. I know we will miss some other classifications doing great things, but 4a has done an amazing job!

Aaron
Please keep us 4A fans stuck down here in 5A/6A
country in Wichita update when you can.
Hope to make it to the BI for the 4A Finals
tomorrow night!

please keep things the way they are because without 4a it made things run alot smoother and the batrooms were actually clean all day, god I felt like I was in heaven, and the tourny ran so much quicker hope you guys in 4a are happy making a tiny bit of money in your small venue tourny, but it's all right were all very very happy in wichita.

Our sintements exactly here in 4A, and when its all said and done revenue will probably be about the same due to the lack of support the 5A and 6A programs get. Good luck when you have to move your tourney to a high school!! because the facility there is in such bad shape.

There aren't any cowboys and farms in eastern kansas?? LOL!!!!! It was quite nice getting out of there 2-3 hours earlier than when we were in Wichita. But keep going Spade, you are quite entertaining!!

I think they should combine 4a and 321a in Hays. That would be some great wrestling!! But, no matter what you do. There's great wrestling in all divisions. The wrestling junkies just have to decide where they want to go. I think they need to go back to a grand state. How about a Baker vs. Weatherbee match!!

why dont they combine 5a and 6a into one tourny? then 5a-6a could have some 16 man bracket regionals (or at least the chance of one) like everybody else. then maybe 4a-5a-6a could all fit at one venue.

It was nice to be in clean nice facilities in Salina. It was nice to buy a bottle of water for $1. It was nice to buy a BBQ BEEF sandwich at the concession stand for $1.75, hot dog $1.50, hamburger for $2.00. How much did you folks pay for those items at the Wichita Venue? I used to think the folks at the Wichita venue like to punish you for being a parent. Charge you to watch your kid, forbid you to bring food in, and charge you 3 times the price you can buy the same food item less than 10 miles from the venue. The Bi-Center in Salina was priced inline with the economy within 10 miles of the venue. That is the way it should be.

The Bi-Center is a great place to have a state tournament, and im pretty sure that most people who went to Salina was happy with the venue.

Boy you people from northcentral Kansas have short memories. The Bi-Center, according to the proponents of moving 4A, was going to be packed with fans. Instead it was like a morgue! I hadn't paid for admission to the tournament for years, but someone suggested that the admission price and the cost of the programs had risen this year? I wasn't there 5 minutes when I was verbally assaulted by security. Not for "setting" in the aisles or even standing but rather for stopping long enough to try to find where our fans were located. Where are the free lunch crowd complaining that a fee was charged for the "hospitality" room? Don't think I and others are going to allow you to overlook any of the petty reasons the vocal minority have stated for moving this tournament.

SALINA JOB WELL DONE ON THE 4A STATE TOURNEY, THEY WERE POLITE AND ACTED LIKE THEY CARED YOU WERE THERE, THE MOTELS DID'T RAPE YOU FOR PRICES ON THEIR ROOMS LIKE WICHITA, ALSO THE CONCESSIONS WERE PRICED SO AN AVERAGE PERSON COULD FEED THERE FAMILY, THE BATHROOMS WERE CLEAN. ALSO IT WAS NICE OF THE SALINA JOURNAL TO PROVIDE THERE PAPER FOR BOTH DAYS FREE OF CHARGE, THE P.A. ANNOUNCER WAS POLITE,AND EVEN THANKED THE FANS FOR STAYING OUT THE ISLES,AND KEEPING THERE TRASH PICKED UP. I ALWAYS FOUND IT HARD TO BELEIVE HOW THE PEOPLE IN-CHARGE OF CONCESSIONS IN WITCHITA COULD SLEEP AT NIGHT AFTER THEY RAPED THE FANS ON THERE CONCESSIONS AT THE STATE TOURNEY, SALINA YOU DID GOOD KEEP THE 4A IN YOUR WELCOMING COMMUNITY!!!!!

Wasn't the price of admissions and the cost of the programs determined by the state? It went up in Hays this year, and I attributed it to helping out the 4A move to Salina. Wichita does price gouge on their concessions - and not just for wrestling, but on all events. Salina also sent free papers to Hays, which was awesome!

I doubt it would have been a "morgue" on day 2 if Clay, Abilene, Colby, Goodland, and Concordia landed more in the finals. I still thought it was a pretty good turnout. You should have been there on day 1 when Clay Center filled all the way to the rafters and Abilene did pretty much too. Columbus I believe it was traveled the best with tons of people. I was disappointed that normally loud and proud Mulvane didn't travel too well for a further venue. Overall I give Salina a B+ with a few tweaks to be made.

I think the best benefit of the venue change was allowing each tournament to operate on four mats. This made the schedule much better for fans, wrestlers, coaches, workers, and all involved.

The later start in the morning and earlier finish in the evening was a big plus. Have you ever attended a state volleyball or basketball event. You aren't in the facility from 6 a.m until 11 p.m., only to turn around and repeat the process the next day. The length of our tournaments can be a negative factor to our efforts to creat a larger fan base. Fans flock to watch their local school play in these tournaments.

I think a more fan-friendly schedule was made possible by moving to four mats per class, which only works with three venues.

The finals only lasted about two-plus hours, as opposed to the 4-5-6A finals in Wichita lasting four hours.

While there may be a few minor adjustments to be made in Salina, I think they are minor and easily fixable. The overall experience was much better, but that is just my opinion. I now know why 321A people have always loved their state tournament and would put up a fight when anyone mentioned moving it.

I doubt overall attendance was lessened, despite the claim that there were too many empty seats in Salina. Maybe this just allowed us to feel more able to spread out comfortably to view the wrestling, which was action-packed as always. I would be interested in seeing overall attendance numbers from Wichita and Salina combined to compare to past years. I bet it adds up to more fans attending the state wrestling tournaments altogether. I will try to check on that.

At any rate, this is great discussion on the topic.

I just know that I personally enjoyed the state tournament this year more than ever before and think the venue change had a lot to do with that.

I was pleased with how the tourney was organized and carried out at Salina. Doug Moore did a great job running the event. I hope this was the first of many 4A State Wrestling Tournaments in Salina.

I must admit that I had reservations about not having the 4-5-6A teams in the same venue. Overall, I thought that Doug Moore and the crew put on an excellent state tournament. These are the negative comments that I heard.
Wrestlers: They missed the traditional "pagentry" of an opening ceremony. They would like to see something more special for the introduction of the finalists. I almost hate to say it, but we need to take a hint from the UFC and professional wrestling guys and do more to make it exciting for the fans if we are going to gain a fan base. Does Newton still do the lazor light show and music with the introduction of finalists? Hire that guy! A comment that I heard from my own guys..."it feels just like another tournament". They hated the wristbands, but I think that they are not that big of a deal. Maybe a new one with a different color for the second weigh in. They seemed to come off with a shower. I know that Rick Bowden is looking for input for next year.
Coaches: The mean lady that made me walk around outside back to the pass gate from the hospitality room because the pass gate was in back! I'm pretty sure that I could have outran her down the hall, though! I also saw a coach that had to do the same thing with boxes of Pizza for his team. The pass gate DOOR should have always been unlocked to allow coaches to bypass the general public area from the hospitality room.
I hated not having a manager with my scorebook somewhere close. A good stat girl is much more important to me matside than a cheerleader! Back the cheerleaders out, put a stat girl in! Just one, somewhere close enough that I can find her to clarify any scoring errors...and it happened! I'm still not sure that a mistake wasn't made.
Fans: Not many complaints at all....they seemed to like being closer to the wrestling, and the concession prices were reasonable.
All in all it was a good venue. A few tweaks by Rick and the boys is all that will be needed to make it a first class deal.
The positive: Allowing wrestlers to check their weight was a good idea and speeded up weigh ins. We were out in 20 minutes or so. It was really nice to have time to feed your kids without rushing around trying to find something, and it was really good to be able to get back to the rooms and get a little rest Friday night. Unlike some, I felt that the officiating was as good as it normally is. It seems like there was one young guy at the tournament that was a little shaky, but over all it was good. (use towell tappers next year, if nothing more than a reminder for the second official to watch the clock) It was nice to see someone clean the bathrooms on a regular basis, and make sure that things like paper towels were re-filled. Salina seemed to want the tournament. I will be glad to make it a permanent location, simply because of the four mats.

As a long time fan of wrestling who has attended many state tournaments in Wichita I have a few thoughts.
I agree with most of the positive thougts by the others. Out early, more rest for wrestlers and fans. Prices very reasonable at concessions and clean bathrooms.
The pagentry of the opening ceremonies was sorely missed. It is a spine tingling event to march out representing your town in front of thousands of people knowing that you are with all the other BEST WRESTLERS in the state. It felt like we were at a regular tourney. Talk up the wrestlers tell their records more often etc. Also missed was getting to see all the other wrestlers that you know from watching and supporting them over the years!
All in all the tourney was run smoothly and efficiently. Remember make it special it is state.

Oh, help the refs watch the clock!!!