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. Coaches are not promoting their programs. They are not walking the halls and pulling kids in with a motivating talk. Many coaches are not even employed inside the school so their access is very limited. Tournaments prepare you for state. Duals are for show. 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. [colo What is your solution? Kids and parents are doing what it takes to get better. This is why we need weekday night duals for these kids to attend. If our state series was over then kids would go to HS state like they do in other states. I see you making an observation but not presenting a viable solution or even an alternative. You seem to be telling kids to "not wrestle but to watch". Does that improve KS 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. Again, I see you identifying what you see as causes but you are not making suggestions. How could they publicize them better. How many more people would come if it wasn't online? Do you have data to backup your claim that firm scheduling would entice more attendance? I think having finals at 7pm would as all the kids tournaments would be over then but I don't have any evidence...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! It isn't that simple. You have to make a choice between tournaments and duals. Why are we so limited in match count when other states are not? I presented a solution that requires change. You seem to think that people should just make a choice that might be contrary to their goals just so you get what you want...