How about those concession prices? That is INSANE to charge $3.50 for a drink. Barring a cooler is one thing but to EXTORT money from families who sacrifice so much throughout the year to get to State is very sad.

I agree with you. How about what they charged for the ice cream $5.00. My son went and got a little orange jusice and nachos and it cost $4.00. Does USA wrestling get a portions of what was spent at the concession stands? Can USA wrestling talk to the Expo center and see about lowering the prices for next year? I felt like they were ripping off the kids who had work hard all year to get there, and then they had to suffer because people couldn't afford to let the kids eat at the torunament. I know several kids who had to wait until an older brother or sister got done with their match before the parents were able to leave and go and get something to eat, and then they had to eat outside. It was cheaper for the parents to go somewhere else to get something to eat. What can be done about this next year?

Yes yes, I remember the prices being cheaper at the LPGA tour last year. Sad but trueeeeee. 3.50 for a gatorade????? come one people!

Hope everyone filled out a survey for USAWKS - I did and that was one of my points - as well as the search of bags for food and drinks from security. Maybe if we didn't have to pay $3.00 for a medium Pepsi we wouldn't try to sneak in food!

It is my understanding that USA or Kansas wrestling has no control over the concession prices. I wish they did but from past experience at other venues they don't, the venue contracts out those services and will not compromise on them. My primary point of criticism regarding concessions is that for people on strict diets, including people with diabetes they had to either sneak things in or go back and forth to the car. There was nothing available for them at any price.

To say that USA wrestling has "NO CONTROL" over food and pricing is probably a bit of an overstatement. The governing body of the EXPO center bid to host the tournament so this is a business transaction. EVERY business transaction involves negotiations. How much money did the city of Topeka make this weekend? How much did the Expo Center make? To me USA wrestling should have more leverage if armed with this data. One thing that handicaps USA wrestling is the size of the tournament and the limited number of options in the state. It is time to discuss splitting the tournament. The 14 & 16 kids could be held on a different weekend and we could add 6 and under so everyone would be happy. Look at the numbers on the home page, six and under kids are being neglected.

All they did by making concessions so high priced was make me determined not to buy anything and smuggle items in.

I can totally agree - my son and I had two sodas and a granola bar for $7 - that was it for that day!! The next day, we had one soda and one smoothie drink - I was starving, but we waited until 6 p.m. to eat - I wasn't paying those prices for nachos or pretzels or anything else (food items), for that matter!!

Wait a minute Mr. Cokeley, when did this forum move from concession stand prices to Split tournaments? I think your discussion of this has gone too far. Its not going to happen any time soon, so why rehash it? Do you really think that all the people that make this tournament happen want to spend another entire weekend just to make 30% of the peopel involved in Kansas wrestling happy? Furthermore are you going to front the bill to rent out the expocenter for another weekend? Cause it is cheap. Relevance is the key to this discussion. Having a split tournament is not going to make consession prices go down, period.

Now as to the topic at hand. Everyone need to stop about this issue. It's been covered many many times and the fact remains there is nothing than can or will be done about it. Its just like buying gas, no one likes the fact that you have to pay $1.70 a gallon but you do becuase you have to. You don't have to buy consession food, its a convience. You can always leave the expo and go elsewhere if you don't want to pay. I'm sorry if I seem rude but it really gets to me that people want to dictate food prices becuase thats whats suits them. My best suggestion is to keep a cooler in your car filled with all the goodies you want, and go outside and tailgate when you get hungry. ITs a short little walk out there I don't think it will kill you. The expocenter is a business and they have to make as much money as they can, and frankly I don't see any problem with it. I just don't buy food when im there unless im willing to pay the price.

The concession stands are ran by a "private" contractor, not by the Kansas Expocentre. Every year we talk to them about concession prices and as you see, we have gotten no where. The prices at the Kansas Expocentre are no different than what it costs at the High School State Tournament in Wichita. I don't care for the high costs either, but I also know in these type of facilities, that is what it cost for food items. How does it compare to a Royals baseball game or Chief football games? Is it comparable??

On another note, this is one reason we have chosen to leave the admission prices where they are and have been since for MANY YEARS!I believe High School State cost an adult $9 to get in for one day compared to Kansas Kids at $4. However, if costs keep increasing and people want more and more, we may have to change.

We will once again bring up the issue of high food costs in concession stands in our discussions next fall when we meet with them for set up the 2005 State Tournament.

Leanna Grater

Royals Stadium let's you bring in things like sub sandwiches, peanuts, seeds, chips, candy,
whatever. They don't allow canned/bottled items. Don't know about the Chiefs.

I've also been told that at HS State the security is not nearly as bad as at Kids State in regards to bringing in food? Is this correct?

We as everyone else do not like to pay the prices, but we also understand when you rent a facility like this you will have no control over the prices of concessions. Many of you in the Johnson County area that you kids play football out at Heritage know how high the prices are out there. They too are a private contractor, not part of Heritage.
The admission price is at a very reasonable rate for a state tournament. I want to thank all that are involved in making this tournament happen, you do great!!!

The prices are too high so we have always known to pack a huge cooler full of food and drinks, try to park close and just go to the van to eat and drink between matches. Another thing we did was to go next door to their concession stand which had better food and lower prices. Thirdly, Sonic is not too far and is easily within walking distance. We ate there for lunch and were only gone for about 30 minutes. If more and more people would not purchase the high food and drinks at the concession stand, would the vendor's still charge as much or would they lower the price. It is a matter of business that if they can not sell something, they lose money.

Good point Lemon, I completly agree, maybe next year everyone should boycott the concessions. Then again, they might not allow readmitttance then.

Do you not read the previous posts before you comment Nigel?
So obviously they do not have the power to stop readmittance. I think this topic should be revisited next year BEFORE the state tournament, so that those of us that want, can fill our coolers and form a boycott of the concessions.

What happened to all of the confiscated items taken at the gate? They were "disposed of" in less than an hour. Taken away in convenient shopping carts! Wrestlers were told they could come back and get their taken items. When they did, they were informed by security that they were too late. I bet Jim the security guard and all those other security personnel had a feast with our wrestler's gatorades and snacks!

If concessions are ran by a private company then why did the Expo security go through my bag like it was a personal issue of theirs. Maybe I look like a terrorist.

it may be true but i don't think everyone looked like terroists. What was up w/ that security guards were like only 1 bottle of water per wrestler thats majorly bogus. At high school state it doesn't matter wrestlers get to bring whatever they want in. Big ups to them and their concession prices are expenisve too but at least the wrestlers don't suffer. My parents would bring in backpacks full of food for me so it worked out good i don't think the guards worried too much. And i'm still quite sure that the collesium in wichita made a big profit.

Enron is being prosecuted for creating a monopolistic situation and unethically schemeing and exploiting to extract unreasonable prices from the utility customers of California. The same laws the apply there are not restricted to utility monopolies. Anytime, citizens are restricted from free market prices, the same laws are suppose to apply. Monopoly prices are controlled. Price-Fixing schemes are felonies. The sad thing is, the Kansas Coliseum and the Expo center were built with tax-payer revenue, were they not? They are accountable to some level of govenment regarding their policies and business results. They contract out to private companies and extract unfair percentages from these private contractors, who in return agree to the high percentages if they restrict competition from outside sources for food and drink. So, it appears to me that the greed starts with the very people who, on one hand opperate in such a way to insure fiscal solvency at whatever ethical or unethical means to make the venue solvent; and, on the other hand, should be accountable to the citizens of the community to protect them from the very monopolistic and price-fixing extraction they initiated. Their are historical laws to protect citizens from being victomized in this manner. What we need is enforcement of those laws in these particular situations.

Another problem with the "Gastapo" Security Staff at the Expocenter.

Sunday morning we arrived early and one Mom saved three rows of seats for our team. We were told by security staff that this was not allowed. How absurd to think that we as a team want to sit in different sections all over the Expocenter! We wanted to sit together to cheer on our wrestlers. And there is always plenty of room.

If people have issues with seat saving then why don't they get up at 6:00 a.m. and get a spot for THEIR team.

By the way, we still were able to save the three rows!

Gastapo Parents!