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.