Why have state in Eastern Ky every year?

[colonelcoach2007 0]

Why do we always have state in Eastern Kentucky? Isn

[Apollowrestling 0]

what about freedom hall in louisville. or possibly the sports center in owensboro.  there are deffinatly bigger places you could have it at but i think that frankfort has kinda of become the home of the state tournament i like it there.

[grappler-of-old 44]

I understand your frustration Colonelcoach, but look at where we have come.

When I wrestled in the 80's we had to also wrestle through some tough competition in Nky then go trough one of the Lou. regions. With teams such as Boone Co. (was a power in the 80's), Conner, Campbell, Scott, Simon Kenton, Eastern, Wagganer.

We then had the state tournament in Lou. at ATHERTON HIGH SCHOOL.  Now you think what we have now is bad.  We wrestled the state tourney at a high school when I wrestled.  Not only was it a high school but many of those years they did not have a wrestling team.

I know moving the state tourney to Frankfort has moved it a little farther East, which makes the Western schools travel about 45 minutes longer.  For us in Nky it is about the same distance, maybe 15 minutes closer.  But the possitives have outweighed the negatives.

Moving to Frankfort the facitlity is much bigger, the cost is FREE, parking is FREE, Lodging is above average.  And the travel for MOST schools is minimal.

[colonelcoach2007 0]

I understand your frustration Colonelcoach, but look at where we have come.

When I wrestled in the 80's we had to also wrestle through some tough competition in Nky then go trough one of the Lou. regions. With teams such as Boone Co. (was a power in the 80's), Conner, Campbell, Scott, Simon Kenton, Eastern, Wagganer.

We then had the state tournament in Lou. at ATHERTON HIGH SCHOOL.  Now you think what we have now is bad.  We wrestled the state tourney at a high school when I wrestled.  Not only was it a high school but many of those years they did not have a wrestling team.

I know moving the state tourney to Frankfort has moved it a little farther East, which makes the Western schools travel about 45 minutes longer.  For us in Nky it is about the same distance, maybe 15 minutes closer.  But the possitives have outweighed the negatives.

Moving to Frankfort the facitlity is much bigger, the cost is FREE, parking is FREE, Lodging is above average.  And the travel for MOST schools is minimal.

Funny you say that about the high school. Danny Lovell who wrestled for Union County in the early 80

[bulldog-leader 56]

I wasnt saying anything bad about the facilities. I like them for the most part, but I have heard teams complain about the three day tournament, and having trouble getting the school to pay for it.

I know with a team like i helped coach, the team had to pony up the dough for everything. Three days in a hotel for a team is not cheap.

Oh I know about this first hand.  I walk on egg shells every year when I walk into the AD's office and ask him for the money for the hotel rooms at the state toureny.  It has however become a little easier since we are at least qualifying someone for the state tourney and giving our school district some needed good press.

[Charger Coach 14]

I think Grappler hit the nail on the head about the facility being free.  Since wrestling is not a big revenue maker, the free facility is very appealing to the KHSAA.  Also, I honestly think the only other place you could move the tournament would be either Louisville or Lexington, but it would be difficult to get a venue like Freedom Hall or Rupp Arena at that time of the year with basketball season.  All the other places in those cities would be either equal to or smaller than Frankfort.  Owensboro would be a bad idea.  It would be closer for the western schools in the state, but a majority of the schools with wrestling are in the Louisville area and the eastern and northern part of the state.  A 2 day tournament would be nice and it would eliminate an extra night's hotel stay, but the cost of gas for driving that extra 2 1/2 or 3 hours both ways in a bus to Owensboro would almost negate that.  I know Frankfort is not as big as most people would like, but think of it this way, if we have more mats, then we need more refs at state.  Considering how unhappy some people are with the quality & quantity of officials our state has, imagine how happy they would be with the 2nd tier of officials! :|

[k00kymonster 0]

yeah what about freedom hall, louisville, sportscenter, owensboro. but yes there are bigger better places

[grappler-of-old 44]

yeah what about freedom hall, louisville, sportscenter, owensboro. but yes there are bigger better places

These places may be bigger and better.  But they will cost KHSAA.  I believe when they were researching where to have the state tourney some of these places were mentioned. 

Other than the cost of the venue the KHSAA was concerned with the cost of parking for the spectators.  I may be wrong but each time the spectators left they would have to pay a parking fee, where in Frankfort there is no parking cost. 

Bigger is not always better.  We don't need a venue that can seat 20,000.  There would be an awful lot of empty seats.

[skyoneer 0]

frankfort is the Capitol, that is they state is there every year

[Guest wrestler92]

Grappler, don't forget Fern Creek, J-town as well as Central in that region with NKY...it was tough for sure....I always felt bad for KCD, they stood no chance except for the few years Tendai Charasika was there.

[Josh_Claywell 52]

State will not be moved to Owensboro. Louisville possibly, but not Owensboro. And the Civic Center isn't that bad. You don't have to pay for parking downtown and everything is within a short walking distance of the Civic Center.

[tc125 0]

why all this concern about the state tourney being held in too small of a place? i've gone to state for the past three years and have never had trouble finding a seat. There is no need for a bigger arena, i could understand if the arena was packed every year and there were no seats, but fact is, it's not. wrestling hasn't gotten big enough to need a huge arena like rupp or the one in owensborough. hopefully it will evetually be that big and we will need a bigger arena, but right now we don't.

[Guest wrestler92]

I think the bigger concern is the number of hotel rooms that might be available in a place that has a smaller arena.  Typically there would be less hotels as well and then of course always back to the cost of renting the place as where it is now is a pretty good deal.

why all this concern about the state tourney being held in too small of a place? i've gone to state for the past three years and have never had trouble finding a seat. There is no need for a bigger arena, i could understand if the arena was packed every year and there were no seats, but fact is, it's not. wrestling hasn't gotten big enough to need a huge arena like rupp or the one in owensborough. hopefully it will evetually be that big and we will need a bigger arena, but right now we don't.

[Dutch1873 0]

The KHSAA has a set sight for each sport's state finals with each part of the state hosting a finals (Diddle Arena for girl's basketball, Rupp for boy's, Papa Johns for football and so on). Frankfort is mostly central for everyone, while it takes a bit longer to get there for some. As for the seating, the civic center is great because of the almost 360 degree view and it's just big enough that it won't be hard to find a seat. There was talk of moving it to Alumni Coliseum, which would allow more mats to move things around and slightly better viewing. Because of the sunken floor it would prevent people from being on the floor unless they were in a match. I know that is a huge headache for the officials and medical personnel trying to score matches and watch four mats for injuries. I believe it was a money/scheduling issue on EKU's end that kept it from moving there.