Utah Wrestling:

I posted the following on The Mats message board and would like to make sure it gets to someone at Utah wrestling. If you have any questions or would like to discuss, please contact me with a phone number.

Thanks,

John

 

Utah & USA Wrestling:

Some things that should be considered in planning the National Freestyle/Greco tournament for 2009:

• Try planning the tournament on a weekend other than July 4. I flew with my son and the total cost for us to do the Nationals was over $2000. Airlines had blackout dates for the holiday weekend. All the hotels in the area had inflated prices because of the holiday weekend. With those kinds of costs you will never draw large crowds. People would rather be with there families on the holiday instead of traveling for wrestling.
• We traveled to many national tournaments last year, their was no reason Freestyle had to be two days, Friday’s session ended early and Saturday’s was over with about two hours of wrestling. By cutting one day of the traveling, we would of saved one night hotel, rental car and food about $300.
• If you run this even July 1st to the 4th I don’t believe a lot of people will stay for the 4th festivities, most will drive or fly home to save money.
• I tried to book rooms when USA Wrestling posted in the beginning of May that the room blocks were ending. Only the most expensive hotels had rooms with double beds left. Thinking if people stay a fourth night they will get a better deal is wrong. With all the events happening around Provo on July 4th the hotels know they can jack up the rates and still fill to capacity.
• The smaller brackets need to be run and finished early. A child should not have to wait four hours to wrestle their first match or between matches.