Chief, those numbers are miss leading. Even you have to admit wrestling was more popular in the 80s. Back in the good old days whole towns would show up to watch a tournament or meet.
Steve, The numbers are what they are. The sport is growing. The top tournaments have awesome crowds. One issue that is hurting our fan participation is the limit of scheduling points inposed by KSHSAA. This has led to the decline of individual duals. They need to add points specifically for duals to bring together the local fans.
Speak for yourself! Many of the schools in south central Kansas have as many or more duals as they ever did. In addition, the duals I attend are, more often than not, well attended with enthusiastic crowds.
While attendance at "top tournaments", that's only about 4 tournaments may be up, the attendance at the rest of the tournaments continues to decline. I attribute that decline to two main factors. 1. The thought of youth coaches and parents that their kids need to be wrestling somewhere EVERY Saturday of the season and the further from home the better. In years past, even when kids were wrestling the same day as their high school they often could make it home in time to watch, what should be their mentors, wrestle. If your youth wrestler is wrestling in BFE every Saturday then he isn't going to see much high school wrestling. 2. The first and foremost reason IMO for tournament attendance decline is tournaments are not run in such a manner so as to encourage attendance by fans. How many tournaments receive advance advertising or publicity today? Even if they do, are firm session start times, particularly for the finals, posted or adhered to? With today's computer programs high school tournaments run much more predictably so session times should be publicized and barring weather should be run per that schedule. Also, if you are going to have real time results online don't expect people to show up in greater numbers.
As usual, people are asking KSHAA to force them to do what is best for the sport as a whole. If you want more duals, then simply schedule more duals!
There are many good points in this stream. Since I started it I hope it is ok for me to post my opinion even though no one asked me for it
1. Wrestling is for the kids. The more opportunities we create the more kids we get. I don't agree with having to create opportunities for success just to facilitate growth. Success comes from making the right choices and I think that is what we have to teach.
2. Ask EVERY high school wrestler what their goal is and I guarantee a landslide majority will have a "STATE" goal of some type (going, winning matches, placing, being a champion). NO ARGUMENT HERE.
3. State is a two day event. FACT
4. How do you prepare for State? Go to as many two day events allowed! DUALS do not get you ready for state and we don't have a dual state which is the ONLY real way to determine the best team in the state.
5. I LOVE duals and I want more. So I DO ADVOCATE a mission to get KSHSAA to add 5 points to be used ONLY for a single dual on a Mon, Tue, Wed, or Thur after school schedule. Kansas wrestlers have some of the lowest season match totals in the country. We could stand five more matches. Our kids are not wimps.
6. Our Kids State series is run past the end of the HS season. Yes, this creates conflict. Greg has his opinion and I respectfully disagree with most of it. There are 8000 kids buying cards and maybe 80 of them are wrestling outside of the state. Maybe 3000 of them are wrestling EVERY Saturday. Weekday night duals are sorely needed to pump some life into the student body and make it more parent friendly.
7. I do NOT think that the internet or access to real time information is hurting attendance. If you can attend in person you will. Those tools are for those who can't. It is expensive to drive to a tournament. Some people are physically unable to make it. Others have to work. The internet is partially responsible for the growth we have seen the last 20 years.
8. Coach apathy is a problem. Too many times I see teams leave before the finals if their team has no one in them. Too many times I hear coaches complaining about the number of hours they have to put in so they want to get done and leave. This is a problem. Fix this and the bar will be raised in KS. If you are coaching for the check then step down and lets find a passionate coach to take the helm.
9. I totally agree with publicizing and fixed scheduling. I really like it when the order of the finals is switched up to put the marquee match last. I LOVE tournament finals that are run by themselves. Last year's 5A and 6A state finals were a disgrace to KSHSAA. The finalist should not be sharing the crowd with two other placement matches.
In WI the kids tournaments are on Sunday to facilitate the attendance of HS events. Of course this creates other challenges.
I see lots of causes listed by Sport0, how about proposing some solutions...
