SAVING SEATS AT STATE MY

LUDICRIS! Overzealous, JERKS if you want to blanket off 30, SERIOUSLY. Deaf ears falling on IDIOTS.

But according to Mark J. Stanley the only way this happens is if you sleep in. He even said that "the only seats allowed to be saved were the ones being auctioned"

Guess he's not as smart and powerful as he thought. Maybe he shouldn't be in charge of the state tourney if he won't keep his word.

Happens every year.

Some people feel "entitled" and a lot of the times they feel this way because they have a friend in a position of authority not because they earned it. I would think that a good tourney director would get with the facility and have security worry about things like this instead of worrying if someone sneaks a bottle of water in. Oh wait, sorry my mistake. Saving seats has nothing to do with money so I guess security and Mark are on the same page. Carry on

Saving 45 seats + is totally ridiculous. Plus multiple others were getting by with it! Secirity chose their battles this year. 30 people busted for entering side doors
without a tickets!! Confiscation also included a half pint of scotch!!!! What the heck? This is a KIDS tournament!

My favorite is making sure you don't go down the wrong set of stairs..

Ricki your right, it was definitely a bourbon kind of day

If you really need to take a bottle of liquor in to a kids tournament you are either the dumbest most classless person I have ever heard of and need to be banned for life or you might want to seek help because you have a problem. I wonder 2 things, first is was this a coach and second is would the people or person in charge of this tournament have the right and the spine to kick this fool out forever.

I know if I was tournament director of an event with over 1400 wrestlers my number 1 priority would be to make sure nobody was allowed to save a seat.

Or we can talk about the "real classy" people who after being told polite that we had saved seats because we had purchased them in a auction. They got anger and began to call names. The names we were called today something that starts with a B and another that starts with a C. We were not lying to you. You can check all you want you can find mr. Stanley it won't change anything. After sub district we started talking to our wrestlers and their families about the auction we got some money together we made a plan and we got some seats. I am so sorry you didn't know about it I am sorry your club wasnt in it, very sorry you are so anger. Next time keep the names to your self there was children around.

Publius, I know that if you were the tournament director of this event you would really care less about making sure the people that busted their butts all year getting kids to practice and tournaments and spending their hard earned money getting in the door were shown any respect especially when the event has been in the same venue for 30 years, what with all the research it would take to find out how to track down the people in charge of security. Such a hassle to make a five minute phone call when the only time you've had to prepare is like what, 365 days and all. I don't know maybe one of the people making sure those hooligan coaches that try to go up the down stairs could maybe say something. My phrase below is for people like you.

Jule-- I can certainly assure you 100% that what I'm talking about pertained to neither Scott City or Maize. Too bad you had to deal with low life's calling your team foul names! This is a Kids event! & to bring Scotch in come on! They whomever tried getting into the area at the closest gate to the Crown Center plaza.

Absurd!
And YES Patrick it was a Great day for a BBQ & BREW!

Big seat savers of day 2 .......Great Bend another 45 plus seats

I think that's a great idea to post who's doing it. The people that do these things though might think its a competition and see who can save the most seats.

This ain't highschool sit where you want tell people to nicely to kiss off. Stand up for yourselves for god sake. No seat is worth an ass whippin we been doing for years lol just stand ur ground

Try that with a coaches pass on the floor. Ha! A lot of excuse me today.

One guy did try that to a greater gold and they were about to start the fists flying!
Where Was Security? Especially when 3 of the 2nd level doors broke their frames with not enough security and people going in/out!

Still wondering WHO brought the 1/2 pint of Scotch in. So lame!!!! Then the weedsmoker in the parking lot certainly was stinky & didn't appear to have a medical card! Come on Folks!

I was personally told by the security a couple different times that they were told by the directors to not worry about people saving seats. It is either allowed or it is not allowed. Getting in fist fights in the stands just trying to find somewhere to sit down is crazy when you are there for kids. Rows and rows of empty seats being saved all over the expo center, and not allowing people to sit down is ridiculous. I saw to many grand parents and women with babies having to sit on the floor or stand up on the first day. Way too many. Other than that I thought the tournament ran great and was a great event.

I want to go on record about a couple points raised in this topic. First I would like to thank Maize Wrestling Club and Scott City Wrestling Club for participating in the auction for reserved seating. I am sorry that part of your experience was tainted by some that were rude to any of your club members in your section(s). My hope is that your experience will not deter you from participating in the auction in future years.

Next I would like to address the rule as it is stated in the tournament information sheet regarding SAVED SEATS AT STATE…” No saving of seats on Friday night for Saturday or Saturday night for Sunday will be allowed and all ADA handicapped seating are reserved for its intended purpose. Violation of this will result in a member of staff reminding you of the violation and you will be asked to move. Thank you for your cooperation.” As tournament director, I had the Expocentre security enforce this policy. I also made announcements on both Saturday and Sunday morning, to those clubs arriving to the venue with rope to stake out their spots that they were not following the rules and security made the rounds. However, as the building began to fill I felt we needed to pick our battles. Technically those saving seats after the doors opened on Fry/Sat were not violating any rules. I like many of you didn’t like it, but on the opposite side of the situation these clubs were more prepared and got up earlier than those who made other decisions. Had I sent the “yellow shirts” through the arena to roust these clubs, I would have had countless complaints about overbearing security personnel. What we all need to remember is that we are all part of the same family and to treat each other with respect!

I will address bag checks; a few years ago bag checks were much more stringent than they are today. The Expocentre has loosened the policy to allow the athletes to bring in some items that were not allowed in previous years. However, bag checks are absolutely necessary at any large venue for just the reasons stated in this topic. You may not like to hear this, but it is a safety issue! I believe that the Kansas Expocentre have done a good job the past several years adjusting to our needs. They have found a pretty good line between “being a good host” and “providing for our safe and fair treatment”.

I promise that the State Tournament Committee will weigh any necessary changes that may need to be made in regards to this topic very carefully. Even if things are not exactly as you would like, I want you to know that we are listening to your suggestions.

Mark Stanley
State Tournament Committee

I COMPLETELY disagree with this business that the bag checks were for "safety". That's just absurd! Those checks were NOT in any way done for safety! If one wanted to, one could have brought any number of "unsafe" things in because the bag checks were half-assed, but JUUUUST enough to be annoying and yes, enough to protect us all from menacing outside / unauthorized "consessions"!

Now having said that, I would agree that this year was slightly less "stringent".

Lets be honest here, we ALL know the bag checks are ONLY done in an effort to protect Expocentre concession profits! Don't insult our intelligence! You can say they are done for safety all you want, but it can't possibly be sure.....UNLESS its to "checkmark" the list of legal things to have in place should some tragedy occur in which some nut was able to carry in some "unsafe" item(s) and perhaps caused harm, etc.

As an aside, maybe next year they could take up a collection toward a fund that would serve to resurface the Expocentre Parking lot WHICH, btw, DID have some small areas free of potholes! SOME!

At the bag checks I didn't see a huge pile of stuff removed cause it was not allowed.. I also didn't see anyone turning away to return things to cars so either we are getting sneakier or they we're pretty lax.

I think the main thing that bothered me was the security guard that was standing at the door Saturday morning at the exhibition hall entrance. He was yelling as loud as he could. "don’t even try to bring food, or drink in here"... "look to your left and you will see what we have taken from others"... "We will be throwing all of this in the trash". He was laughing about this, and acting like it was a game for him.

On Saturday morning the security guards were much more professional then that guy was.

Overall the stair guards appeard to be more polite then in years past.(at least some of them)

I agree that some measures need to be taken to ensure safety, but it was obvious that the door guards were there only looking for food, and drink.

So just to be clear, as long as you don't save them over night on Fri/Sat it is allowed to rope off an entire section first thing in the morning the day of wrestling.

Thanks that makes it way easier for next year.

So Scott City could have gotten up at 4am and waited fo the doors to open and reserved their section....

Although they are very generous in their bidding and it goes for a great cause, those should be advertised as "The only OVERNIGHT, ALL WEEKEND, GUARANTEED seats in Landon Arena".

Now that you made people more aware that seats are allowed to be saved the day o the event, it will be game on next year.

Sure are getting "Mixed Messages" from what was said by the Tournament Director and the Head of Security. I imagine it appears as to what entry you went thru.

On "choosing the battle" the security team did not have the numbers yet increased the # on Sunday. The Battle was reported to chill on the apples & oranges & water & to confiscate the sacks of McDonald's & Burger King. The word was NOT TO WORRY about the 45+ SAVED SEATS & MORE! Heck, they seat savers were Not allowing people to sit in the seat 1 match ahead of your own kidsematch when the seats were open 10' plus!!!

To be FAIR to Maize & Scott City whom were really in it on the bidding perhaps some acknowledgement of the seats being reserved esp. on the entrance of the section & a GINORMOUS THANK YOU SIGN from the Wrestling Foundation.

It's CRAY when everybody gets there at 6:30 yep like Black Friday (not into it) but come on with the king size, huge blankets & saving tons of seats?!!! MO is allowed to save 3 seats a person and that 1 person better be sitting in a seat.

Solution: purchase seat tickets to help fund KS WRESTLING!!!
JUST my $0.02.

Heck ya go online pre-sell the seats, for Sat and Sunday charge an exta dollar for the lower bowl and what deosn't sell by Friday is GA.

This way someone can say hey that is my seat can show the the ticket. It will also decrease the huge line to buy ticket at the window.

I know our club would just got ahead and so many per qualifier.

Also if clubs are going to keep shelling out big bucks like Maize and Scott City there should be some support to help keep people out of their section.

The caution tape didn't caution very many people.

FYI not sure about Maize but Scott City did let people come and sit there to watch a match or two or to tape a match. The people asked polite and stayed till match was done. We had people from Kansas City there people from Columbus. If you were polite we were. It was the people that thought we were lying about why we could save seats. The one guy in purple who had a copy of the by laws that said we couldn't save seats. He screamed at us. The man who was polite told why he couldn't sit there and started calling names. Some people were cool aboutit we explained why told them what the money went for. Explained the forum and they were like cool and went some where else. As in life not everyone is icckky but there are some very ugly spirts in this world.

I thought the bag checks were a lot better than last year. It was very perfunctory, and they didn't root around in there like they did last year.

About saving seats....When you have almost 30 wrestlers and around 10 coaches on the floor warming up in the morning, you will have a LOT of empty seats around just a few parents. We got some nasty looks when we said people were sitting in them. They were! And when they got done warming up, they almost all came back and filled them up. I want my son and husband to be able to sit next to me when they get a break, so I keep their 2 seats open. People might remember that fact when they are looking for a seat and getting pissed off at us for saving them. I realize that some went overboard and saved way too many. But some had what they needed.

Mary Bradford

The bag checks had nothing to do with safety. You could have had a bomb laying next to a snickers bar & they would have taken the candy bar & let the bomb in. But the expo did loosen up the bag checks & that's a good thing. They just looked in my bags & did not reach in & move things. Food & drink was permitted if bottom of bag & not visible at a glance. Thanks to the expo for that.

Maize did let others sit in their section. My sister can't do stairs very well and they let us sit in their lower sectin with them all weekend long. (as well as others) Thanks Maize Wrestling Club.

On 3/20/14 Mark J. Stanley said "the only seats to be saved in the Arena" were the ones being auctioned off. Then on 3/31 he comes back with "we tried but decided to pick our battles". Spoken like a true politician.

Jerry, I have no problem with you using what I say against me. But I do take exception to you taking what I say out of context or implying that I did not uphold a promise. I believe that I was straight forward in my description of the rules of the auction and the rules concerning saving seats. I also believe that the State Tournament Committee and the Kansas Expocentre enforced the rules that were in place consistently and fairly. If you don't like the rules in regards to saving seats propose an alternative at the State Body meeting when the ticket pricing is approved. I am sure the Expocentre would be willing to sell the lower tier at a higher price. Or we could go to a system where we auction off more sections in the lower tier to clubs. I really do NOT think you will find a majority willing to accept either of those two solutions. Come on Jerry...how about I just haul in a La-Z-Boy for you to sit in all weekend...



Mark Stanley – 3/20/14 7:34am
We are auctioning Box Seating (For 10) in Section 114 at Landon Arena to the highest bidder. We are including lunch and dinner for 10 on Saturday, and lunch for 10 on Sunday. We are also including 3 seats for each wrestler your club has entered in the State tournament, located directly below the box seating. The only seats that will be saved in the Arena, are the seats that are associated with this box.

Bidding will begin now on this post, and it will end March 27th at 6:00 pm on this post.

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Jerry Dale – 3/20/14 9:29pm
Oh I don't think they will be the ONLY seats saved. Have you never went over an hour before tourny starts? I think the box seats up for bid have BOOGERS under the seats you might want to check.

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Mark Stanley – 3/21/14 9:57am
The high bid so far is $355...Thank you Mark Baldwin and Great Bend.

Menu has yet to be determined, but in the past we have done pizza and sub sandwiches. I am considering adding in a pasta dish of some kind for Sunday's noon meal. Soft drinks and water will be the beverage.

Seats are not allowed to be saved overnight; other than those in this auction. Clubs who arrive early on Saturday/Sunday do get choice of seating on a first come first serve basis. Do to the popularity of this event (a good thing), if Jerry chooses to sleep in then sometimes the choice seats are already taken in the arena...unless you bid on this suite deal (pardon the pun!
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Jerry Dale – 3/29/14 11:02am
But according to Mark J. Stanley the only way this happens is if you sleep in. He even said that "the only seats allowed to be saved were the ones being auctioned"

Guess he's not as smart and powerful as he thought. Maybe he shouldn't be in charge of the state tourney if he won't keep his word.

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Mark Stanley – 3/31/14 11:59am
I want to go on record about a couple points raised in this topic. First I would like to thank Maize Wrestling Club and Scott City Wrestling Club for participating in the auction for reserved seating. I am sorry that part of your experience was tainted by some that were rude to any of your club members in your section(s). My hope is that your experience will not deter you from participating in the auction in future years.

Next I would like to address the rule as it is stated in the tournament information sheet regarding SAVED SEATS AT STATE…” No saving of seats on Friday night for Saturday or Saturday night for Sunday will be allowed and all ADA handicapped seating are reserved for its intended purpose. Violation of this will result in a member of staff reminding you of the violation and you will be asked to move. Thank you for your cooperation.” As tournament director, I had the Expocentre security enforce this policy. I also made announcements on both Saturday and Sunday morning, to those clubs arriving to the venue with rope to stake out their spots that they were not following the rules and security made the rounds. However, as the building began to fill I felt we needed to pick our battles. Technically those saving seats after the doors opened on Fry/Sat were not violating any rules. I like many of you didn’t like it, but on the opposite side of the situation these clubs were more prepared and got up earlier than those who made other decisions. Had I sent the “yellow shirts” through the arena to roust these clubs, I would have had countless complaints about overbearing security personnel. What we all need to remember is that we are all part of the same family and to treat each other with respect!

I call B.S. on this Mark. But next year NOBODY BETTER APPROACH Me or My Minions WHEN I ARRIVE BEFORE SUNRISE WITH 40 KING SIZE BLANKETS AND SAVE ALL THE FRONT 3 SEATS IN EACH SECTION! Minions on yoir post .....perhaps tarps are larger than king size blankets. We will be READY! 358 +/- days & counting.

Now onto the next subject why did the fella bring the 1/2 pint of scotch in?
Toooooo funny! Guess it wouldn't fit in his kids shoe or in his pocket! Out of control!

In it, I am disappointed that you find any humor in that, but in that case the bag search served the purpose of preventing contraband inside the arena.

I am really confused on what you are calling BS on??? We stopped the folks from marking out their spot overnight. We even stopped the early risers from saving more than a couple seats for the wrestlers and coaches who were warming up. If you were there you would of heard me make a personal plea not to save seats. Expo security made a round stopping ropes from going up. But after 7:00 I did not send the security to roust people out of their spots. I believe most would consider this a reasonable plan of action. I am sorry that you and Jerry disagree.

Honestly, I thought the young men and women on the mat this weekend could teach all of us a little about how to treat each other. I call BS on both you and Jerry for using this topic to run down such a great weekend!

Mark, you should not engage in this. Jerry's real issue is that the tournament is in Topeka...That is it. This just happened to be a forum where he could take a shot at the tournament's location by taking an 'un-called for' shot at you. With the time you have put into PROMOTING wrestling in this area of the state, Jerry should be thanking you. Thanks John

MarK, I WAS THERE---- YOUR MESSAGES LANDED ON DEAF EARS! The saving seats with blankets saved >45 seats & MANY MORE WERE saved in other sections. This has No inclusion of Scott City or Maize. When discussed with Security they said it was brought up in the meeting not to deal with it. No worries Mark, plans are allready made for next year.

The Scotchie was STUPID & YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID!

Are you REALLY taking offense to someone expressing an opinion? What kind of tourney director would take offense to someone expressing an opinion? As for John saying I have offense to the tourney being in Topeka, maybe but I understand that they have it cornered and there's nothing that can be done about that. My real problem is that year in and year out a few people think they can do whatever the hell they want and nobody has the balls to say anything to them. I could see saving a few seats for your family but even the best of catholic families don't have 40 kids. There that should get under some feathers.

I won't claim to have seen all of the events being discussed but I would say it's not unrealistic for some clubs to want 30-40 seats together. If a club brought 15 kids they can easily fill them. If you get there when the doors open and save them so be it AS LONG as you fill them and the others don't wait until 5 minutes before the 1st whistle blows. It happens every tournament it seems and not really all that unexpected.

Like I said my biggest peeve is don't wait until 5 minutes before to fill them, if a couple people get there at 7 the majority of everyone else should be there by 8 or you start losing seats.

Ok, guys we need to give Mark a break. He is tournament director for a very big tournament. Is everything he does perfect nope why cause he is just a human, like the rest of us. Until someone steps up and makes changes sets will be saved. So if you don't want anyone saving seats figure out how to stop it and change the rules. Mark don't let them get to you it is what it is. First state tournament I went to was in Salina ( shows how old I am) seats were saved then seats are saved now. Change it or hush up cause mark can't change it by himself so if this is a cause you feel this strongly about step up or...........

Folks,
It was a great tournament and a great weekend. I saw true acts of sportsmanship by coaches, fans, wrestlers, and officials. I saw reluctant adults hugging after matches. I saw an official get bumped and he kept his cool. I saw only one tantrum and one set of headgear thrown by a high school kid. The Dippin' Dots cart did not get ransacked.

Now the real question... should we save seats at sub-districts for those who are not there?

Ouch. And I'm the one who took a shot at someone. By the way Mark, I thought this thread was about the saving seats situation at state. Nothing that I have said on this thread has in anyway taken away from the great kids that competed at Topeka. If you can't take someone's opinion or stand behind your own comments then maybe you shouldn't be tournament director or in a position of authority. All I did was point out your comments of "the only seats being saved" please explain how that is taking your words out of context, if you misspoke that's one thing but to try to call me out on YOUR comment is wrong. Sorry if that hurts your feelings.

Last word

Fallacy of quoting out of context

The practice of quoting out of context, sometimes referred to as "contextomy", is a logical fallacy and a type of false attribution in which a passage is removed from its surrounding matter in such a way as to distort its intended meaning.[1] Contextomies are stereotypically intentional, but may also occur accidentally if someone misinterprets the meaning and omits something essential to clarifying it, thinking it non-essential.

Arguments based on this fallacy typically take two forms:
1.As a straw man argument, which is frequently found in politics, it involves quoting an opponent out of context in order to misrepresent their position (typically to make it seem more simplistic or extreme) in order to make it easier to refute.
2.As an appeal to authority, it involves quoting an authority on the subject out of context, in order to misrepresent that authority as supporting some position.[2]

In either case, while quoting a person out of context can be done intentionally to advance an agenda or win an argument, it is also possible to remove essential context without the aim to mislead, through not perceiving a change in meaning or implication that may result from quoting what is perceived as the essential crux of a statement.

No hard feelings on my end Jerry. I am a good listener and will take your suggestions to the tourney committee. Feel free to email any other suggestions you have to usawks.statetournament@gmail.com

simple solution here:

Win the auction for the section of chairs, and your seats will be saved all weekend.

There are actually some small clubs out there that don't have the luxury of a large bank account. So what your simple solution says is, if you don't have money you don't matter? That's kind of the way it sounds.

funny get over it!!!!

sorry funny hehe get over it

you got to think for your self if it was my club hmmm I wouldn't be saying a thing. And you wouldn't. so get over it

Well growing up in SW KS I know that Scot city is not a huge club,but yet they come up with money. So it is simple. Put in the work and raise money for your club.

Please tell me none of them were wearing an Ark City shirt?

They better not have been.

So again, if you don't have money you don't matter. At least be big enough to say it. There are a lot of kids in the wichita area that don't have much. I totally understand that they don't matter to you.

OK J.Dale I am not going to get into a piddy party with you. I simply said if your club doesn't have the numbers or the MONEY. There are ways to earn money. Run a tournament, do fund raisers, ask for donations, etc... I know there are many kids out there that don't have much, every club has these athletes and many times these athletes are your hardest workers because they have had to work for everything they have in life. So once again don't pull the club number or location card for no money because there are ways to earn money in every club no matter location or size. Then after you earn this money you can have your saved seats that you want so bad.

I have said this for years, not on the forum, but talking with multiple coaches. The "auction is cool, money goes to a great fund." But also why don't the defending champs get a section, lower level? Each team be it, Brawlers, Ark City, East Ks, KYG, Derby, etc. have earned it. Each year it will change. Something to look at. Our team sat in the "nose bleed section" with no complaints. But saving seats has ALWAYS been, the way it is. UP WITH THE CHICKENS TO GET A GOOD SEAT.

we dont even bother getting there early anymore. we get there about half hour before the opening parade and find whatever seat we can. we move down right before our kids matches and sit in a saved seat long enough to watch their match. the people saving the seats are usually alright with it.

Silent, TOTALLY AGREE! My wife asked El Dorado if she could sit with them on Sunday, and they were VERY nice, they made room for her and her parents. Sometimes all you have to do is ask. Being rude will get you know where.

When quoting 3 paragraphs from ??? Please place bibliography citation/reference in MLA or APA style. Could just be OTC Mouthwash. You certainly don't believe EVERYTHING YOU READ on the Internet????

Ok Jerry, we got this next year gather the 40 largest tarps you & your minions hit the 1st 3 rows of every section that is not sold at auction. My minions will do the same with their 40 tarps. It's called camping/sleeping whatever as all of the announcements were made on deaf ears and nojody really paid attention to the announcements......It will be Wrestling Matness in KS for sure!!! The plan is sure coming together!

In it. It's on. I've got tons of tarps. By the way, I finally agree with something Spexy said. Defending champs should get a section.

In it, I just found some 40'x50' tarps. If we tied 4 or 5 of those together we would be set. And as long as we didn't try to do it overnight then they won't do anything. We could make people buy our food to sit there. Who's in?

Totally in!

Chirp chirp chirp. Still waiting on the great and powerful Mark J. Stanley to explain how I'm taking what he said out of context. Before you start posting quotes maybe you should take the time to read what I said. Your comment was "the only seats allowed to be save in the Arena are the ones that are associated with this box." My response was " I don't think these will be the only ones saved, have you never went over an hour before the tourney starts" you yourself even highlighted it in red. Now, nowhere in either statement was it mentioned at that point anything about overnight. I don't know what you highlighted it in red with, maybe with your logic it was crayons like I said I don't know, but maybe before the tourney director starts calling people out trying to make them look bad they should look at their own statements or maybe you should look up the definition of what a lie is. Obviously I'm not the only person that feels this way.