One idea for keeping the area around the mats might be to "rope off" the area within 15 feet of the mat or so, and keep everyone except the wrestlers that are up, and maybe the on deck and "in the hole" wrestlers, behind that rope.

Of course, this venue is so far superior to the old horse barn for viewing, and especially coaching, that I am having a hard time convincing myself that it is a problem. Rest assured, there will be improvements and I think Steve Foster did a great job of organizing the "first crack' at the new venue. My opinion is that Hartman arena is a perfect venue for this tourney, with a few very minor changes.
Doug

I am pretty sure that there is no possible way to please everyone at a tournament. This tourney ran good just needs a few little tweeks to make it one of the best around. It has all the positives needed, great venue and someone that loves and cares about the sport and the people involved, and that will listen to suggestions on how to improve. great first showing at the hartman thanks
mike

I only brought this up because the same thing happens at state...i don't complain about much as I have ran a tournament and it is tough and I'm the first to admit you can't please everyone. My complaint wasn't how the tourney ran, just a few individuals who think that you can see thru them.

On the positive side, yes the facilities were great although for some strange reason I kind of missed the barn and all the unique qualities of that place.

This will likely be our last Classic as our wrestler will move into the high school ranks...thanks for many years of great competition.

I would like to say that I personally thought this tournament was far superior to any other years. There was no issue with congestion and it was much easier keeping track when our wrestlers were coming up on different mats. For those who could not see from the stands all that well I realize that there can be a fix to that, but remember how it use to be sitting in the bleachers at the Pavillion Horse Barn? Good Job to the Classic Organizers and to Steve Foster!

If your wanting or questioning the refs to change their stand it wont work. they will tell you in their "judgement" that is how they see it. They wont kneel down so dont ask or "question" the judgement they have. I agree the refs need to move more...period. lol sry had to go there. great tourny in all aspects ( organization, competition and yes for the most oart officiating).

only other thing is mayb add some extra chairs on the floor. like up against the bleacher area and matside for the coaches. some coaches are unable to take a knee due to knee problems, back problems etc. i carried a chair around the last 30 minutes trying to sit where i could see but gave up and just sat back by the bleachers because i was on my feet all day long and was exhausted. think the jumpy things were good to as that keeps some of those kids off the floor so maybe adding more things for the younger kids like that would be good. just keep the pricing for all those things down. would like to see this and hays split up and can only imagine how big it could be then. may have to do a 2 or 3 day tourney then. I would then attend both tournaments and has there been any more thought on doing a series with these 2 tournaments and adding in sprawl.

I personally have never been to a tourney where people did not block the view by gathering at the matside. I personally thought there was les congestion here than at many other larger venues. The facility was awesome. Results posted to track wrestling within minutes of the match! I truly enjoyed it. Oh and the competition was amazing! Every bracket had several AAA, AA, and A. Finals were good also! Got out at a reasonable time. Same as Salina anyway! Thanks a lot! Honestly we were going to go to Hays and decided to give Wichita one more chance with the new facility, awards, etc. We will be back. And for those of you who left Wichita to go to Hays you otta give them a try next year as it truly was great! Oh did I mention that the kids absolutely loved the trophies. They were Awesome!!!

I also hope you either keep it free admission or at least to a minimum. My kids actually got a chance to see big brother wrestle since I have a large family its hard to pay 10 bucks per kid and parent for the weekend. thank you for that also.

I too thought it was a great tournament! We watched several different matches from the concourse up top and had little problem moving to where we could get a full view of the matches we wanted to see. I agree with bockman, the free admission is a great way to get family to the venues and hope that this trend continues. Thanks for the great tournament

I thought the tournament was pretty good. As far as congestion was concerned. I only thought it got out of hand one time and that was in the finals for the MEGA match. You know the one if you were there. Deshayzer and Dryden. People circled the entire mat. If you were up in the stands you probably couldn't see it unless you were high up in the stands. But who wouldn't want to be down there.

I keep wondering if people think this is Ali-Frazier all over again. LOL And it didn't dissapoint anyone. Those kids are STUDS!!!!. But as usual it didn't end without a little controversy. But at least there weren't any fights.

Overall, I liked the tournament. It was a long day if you were done by 9 in the morning and then didn't wrestle again until 8 at night, like we did. But oh well!!

Good luck to everyone at Subs and we will see you somewhere along side of the mat.

I have heard of nothing that would indicate that they would starting charging gate fees. Not only does it enable people to bring their families, it might get little brother (or sister) to see how cool it is to wrestle, and drag a few more participants in down the road........

just because you will be wrestling HS next year isnt a reason not to wrestle the classic. after my son wrestled I sat down and watched some awesome HS wrestling. Watched 6a state champ Trey Holden in a dog fight with (sorry). Who ever it was, it was a great match.

One eazy fix is to pull out the botom roe of bleachers.Than there would be a good number of seats for kids and coaches ,on the floor.

The most complaints I heard was the prices of food.Come on 3 bucks for every drink.There would be less people sneek in food if it was good food at A good price.

I do think it was a nice place to go. I will make the 2 hour+drive there next year.

It was funny,when I was on a nee with my son I had 2 difrant people ask me if I was ok.

no i think it was 4 dollars for a water.