Oh.

Well then, never mind.

State has been in Topeka since my oldest started wrestling, he is now 21. I say it's time to move it to Wichita! I don't mind the traveling but would love to actually get to have state in Wichita and not have to travel!! Wichita has plenty of hotels in and around the area. Bring it to Wichita PLEASE!!! ;-)

We had 25 rooms reserved at the Fairfield Inn comfirmed 3 times with a credit card cancelled because we could not give them the names of the people staying in the rooms. We found this out on Monday the 24th. We started calling every hotel/motel in Topeka and found rooms at the Super 8 with no pool for $110.00 normaly $49.00. When our people called to put their names on these rooms the were told that the room would cost $150.00 a night with a two nignt min. that sounds like gouging to me. Maybe my definition is wrong let me know if it is. I am the Head Coach of our club and will not be going this weekend because we had such a hard time finding rooms for the kids that made it to STATE. Last weekend we found rooms at the Capital Plaza for $69.00 a night 4 days before District tourn., we were asked what brought us to town and we told them that we were just passing through town. Then we heard that the Turner Club was locked into a price of $94.00 a night and could not get out of them because they had to sign a contract, again how is this not gouging the wrestling family. My vote goes to Wichita!!!!

Price gouging typically only applies when it relates to emergency situations such as Tornadoes, Oil shortages, etc. The market dictates the price of motel rooms just like any other commodity. The same reason why people pay thousands of dollars for Super Bowl tickets. Motels will raise the price of their rooms to the the highest amount they think they can sell them for. If people are willing to pay $150 a night for them they will sell them at that price, if no one bites they will lower it slowly until someone does.

In point of fact most motels have higher rates on the weekend than they normally do during the week because they anticipate more people will be staying during the weekend than other times. The only way you can assure yourself of a decent rate is to book your hotel WAY WAY in advance. You can use services such as Priceline.com and book up to 330 days in advance. You can usually get a room for $50-$70 if you book it nearly a year in advance. Now of course you don't know how many rooms you need that far in advance, but you can always sell them if you don't need them.

Believe me Wichita motels/hotels will do the exact same thing given the same situation, so don't be mislead into believing that. In fact I would venture to say that the larger hotels in Wichita are probably owned by the same investment groups or individuals that own the Topeka hotels.

While there is some truth to Nigel's comments, he is missing some critical facts:

Wichita has over 7,000 hotel rooms available while Topeka has just over 3,000.

When the hotels/motels require clubs to pay with cash or check instead of a credit card they are making 1 to 3 percent more profit. Take that times the $119 per room in the Capital Plaza hotel. It will more than cover the room funds paid to USAWKS.

The Wichita presenters promised control over unfair pricing practices and a better mechanism for controlling the funds that would be paid back to USAWKS for rooms occupied by wrestling families.

Well thank you for you inclusion Will. I was unaware of the details concerning the number of rooms available and what if any kinds of control that a city would take over it's hotels. My post was simply to inform those that may not understand the supply and demand economics, and the reasons for the price fluctuations. I personally don't have any opinion on where Kids State should be held year after year. Its always been in Topeka for my entire wrestling career some 20 years now. If it is time to change locations, then so be it, it won't hurt my feelings one way or another.

To think, some of us didn't believe the Arby's Roast Beef Academy would ever benefit Nigel!

Move it to Wichita, that is all that needs to be said....

I think people need to be aware of the scientific facts before voting on which site's proposal to accept. While not being affected by hosting it in Topeka or Wichit, I agree on moving.

Dear Wrestling families & enthusiasts

I had heard through the grapevine that there was a lot of conversation about the future of your event in Topeka on this site and logged on to find out for myself. Once I read the postings, I felt that I needed to register myself so that i could share the position of the community and Lodging Industry. I am the Director of Operations for Parrish Hotel Corp. here in Topeka, the Past President of the Topeka Lodging Assn and maintain constant contact with Visit Topeka Inc..

I can't possibly express to each of you in a short internet posting how much this community values your business. The Lodging Association membership has had continued conversations about how critical KS Kids Wrestling is to our community and what type of things we can do to make sure you all feel welcome while you are here. You will find local hoteliers (Lodging Association Representatives) in each of the hospitality suites at the Expo Center both on Saturday and Sunday. Please feel free to introduce yourselves and let us know if you have any problems at all with your respective hotel or elsewhere in the community.

On a second note, I appreciate several of the comments from others that recognize that there will be bad apples in whatever community you visit. Their are a very small handful of hotels here that give visitors to Topeka a very sour taste by drastic price inflation during major events in town. These are the same hotels that also don't maintain good relationships with the Visitors Bureau, Lodging Assn. or elsewhere in the community. I am very certain that the majority of you found rooms in the $60 to $100 range which is very standard for our market.

While in Topeka, please notice how many Restaurants and Hotels with marquee's welcome KS Kids Wrestling. We hope that you patronize those businesses that take the opportunity to welcome you to our community. I am pretty certain that you will recognize that Topeka appreciates your business.

I recognize and appreciate that Ks Kids Wrestling has been in Topeka for many years. The whole community appreciates that as well. There are many pro's & con's to moving your event to Wichita, but please know that the Topeka community values your business and will do what it takes to retain it. We hope to continue to support and host your event for many years to come.

Thank you for reading this lengthy posting.

Travel safely, enjoy your visit, and good luck.

Please feel free to contact me if there is anything I can do to make your visit to Topeka more comfortable.

Bill Michaud
Director of Operations
Parrish Hotel Corporation
bmichaud@parrishhotels.com
785.215.8242 (office)
785.213.7745 (cell)

With it in Topeka, we are requiring KS kids state qualifiers as a whole to travel 54000 more miles (27000 one way) for state than if it was in Wichita. And, it's the western KS wrestlers that are doing it for us. Thank you, western KS wrestlers and parents for bearing this burden.

In fairness, western Kansas folks travel 27000 miles just for dinner out on a Friday night. They are used to travel, but thanks just the same!

So, 10% of the people in western KS will travel to Topeka on a Friday night for dinner??? I'm not buying that one.

_________________________
"A flute without holes, is not a flute. A donut without a hole, is a Danish." - Caddyshack

Why change something that has worked for 8 or so years???
One thing in life that I have come to realize...YOU CAN NEVER PLEASE EVERYONE ALL OF THE TIME...

yea with the gas price's the way they are, alot of us here in western kansas are trying to get greyhound to give us a bus, so we can carpool those 27000 miles on friday just to eat dinner.

it only makes since to find a venue large enough, enough motels, and equal driving distance for all parts of the state.

finding a venue should not be based on money, it should be in the best interest of all kansas wrestling members.

i don't believe in the it's worked for years why change it now theory. i believe wichita is a good idea and plenty of motels, food it just makes sense.

and i am not pro wichita, i like topeka. going to wichita is still a 4 hour drive for us out here in western ks. but like i said the deciding factor where it should be held should be what's in the best interest of our family's.

I am in D1 and I'm not totally oppposed to Wichita, but one good thing I would like to give special thanks to super 8 in Topeka. Very clean and a double queen was 65. Thanks to them for also being so nice to work with over the phone. 10 out of 10

I read this forum often but until this weekend have never felt the need to post. This was my son's second year to make it to state and my second year to "experience" the Expo Center. I just do not feel that neither this venue nor the town of Topeka can handle a tournament of this size in a good fashion. The hotel experiences listed above are only a portion of my concern. Other problems include inadequate parking, high traffic stairs and hallways, long line in bathrooms (my son nearly missed his match due to lines on Sat. morning after the parade), the up and down arrows to get onto the floor ( again even though my son was up next on the mat in front of him, and their was no one coming up the stairs, the man made him go all the way around to the other side,-he ended up running up to his mat and stepping right on for his turn-not mentally prepared due to bathroom and line frustrations), The one stairwell to the exhibition hall was at times extremely crowded, and finally for anyone who is slightly larger than normal like my self, the small seats and lovely metal arm rests were very frustrating (painful)-one grandpa from our club could not sit in the seats and left early because of this problem. I have been to the Kansas Coliseum in Wichita, Salina Bicentennial Center and other venues around and never had this bad of a problem.

It is for these reasons, I wish to request that the board of directors and the powers that be will move this tournament to Wichita.

Julie Scott
Circle Jr. Wrestling
tornadoalley@cox.net

I hear what you are saying about gas prices, but I don't buy it as it's only one weekend...and again...

You can never please everyone all of the time.

I just had to add in the if it's not broken theory...too many times I see people trying to "fix" things and it only makes it worse.

i would agree you can not please every one, and it's not the gas price's that would bother me. it is the 6 and 1/2 hour drive 1 way .

no one in eastern kansas has any where close to that drive time. if it was held in wichita it would equal about the same. still less of a drive for any one out east.

i do not see a downside of having it in wichita. like i said i like topeka, and if it is held there we will be more than happy to go there. but wichita make's sense.

Until now, I have had no complaints with the Expocentre. I have simply argued that a rotation, if possible, to any place other than Salina because it's too small, would be more equitable to the owners of the organization.

Now, I would like to publicly air my first grief.

The USAWKS State Tournament is sufficiently taxing on the facility without adding the "Worst Horse Trailer Parking in the Tri State Area Tournament" on the same weekend.

Anyone who complained about horse dooty? at the Classic should livid over the parking lot Saturday morning. How many coaches and wrestlers walked through the stuff on the way to the parade of athletes Saturday morning? Leaving the parking lot was not an option for many of us for some time on Saturday due to the parking lot insanity. I literally could not move our vehicle 10 feet in any direction when we left Saturday.