I agree on the four mats at each end, and had hoped that would be the format before arriving.But no, so if you had a seat at Mat 1 or 8, you were pretty well assured you weren't going to see much at the other end, with refs, wrestlers, equipment and such between you and the action. Oh well!

I will say it was nice having more room, (4A don't take it personally, the enthusiasm you bring was missed, but the sheer mass of people and the near fistfights with Granny over saving 8 rows of seats was NOT missed).

AS to the wristband thing for non-wrestlers and the control of who is on the floor. I gave this quite a bit of thought from my front row seat in the stands as I watched mothers and fathers, JV wrestlers, girlfriends, and many other "hangers-on" move from the stands to the floor as if they had and reason to be there. Some were not above shinnying down the bleachers underneath some well-placed banners!

I could have made a bundle if there was a bounty for pointing out "unauthorized" individuals to Security. Security has no real way of knowing, so they have to rely on the bands. But who is responsible for distribution of bands? Well, this being a sport that relies heavily on volunteer participation, those very volunteers being family and fans of wrestlers, geeeee, hmmmm? How do you think all the counterfeit/extra/extremely loosely cinched bands made their way onto the wrists of people who didn't need them? And we ALL know that with cell phones, all you need is to have your kid call you after he sees what color band it is, you go off to Party City and buy your own! Geez!

While there was just as much abuse as in the past, it wasn't such an issue for the fact that the sheer size of the crowd, on the floor and in the stands, was not as large. I liked the view from the front row better, and figured that those who HAVE to be down on the floor are just wanting to bask in some of the ambience, because it is really tougher to see from down there anyway, so it can't always be about the view, but more about seeing if you can do something that others are restricted from.

I will say that it does make it hard for the statisticians to do their job, when they are actually working their responsiblity and often elbowed out by someone who "has to be part of the action" at the dasher board. If there are chairs for the middle schoolers to sit in the center strip for blood work, why can't a stat person have a seat there? they wouldn't be matside (as if that was a some problem anyway, it is how they usually work) and they could get a better line of sight to the ref.

Having parents down there, over the shoulder of a coach is just as much a concern, and I saw that from MANY schools, so nobody should single out one parent. If I was a coach, I would be concerned. And I feel bad for the kid who is put in the position of having to listen to both parent and coach.

Don't even get me started on whether this sport needs cheerleaders pounding on the floor matside, much less even in the arena.