Fans cheer during the finals of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)There is little denying that the 2016 NCAA Championships were a showcase of talent. The wrestlers who qualified seemed to perform well in the big city, with no noticeable impact coming from the multitude of distractions available to them outside their hotel door.
Arrests in NYC seemed down as compared to Des Moines in 2013, a sign that the wrestling community was likely not the only rowdy ticket in town.
All factors combined it would be tough to say that the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships were anything but an overall success. Some areas of the competition were stronger than others and responses to the lifestyle surrounding the event depends almost primarily on one's appetite for expensive drinks and food.
Here are some grades from a variety of aspects of the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships:
Venue
The Garden is one of the nation's most iconic buildings, a fact that wasn't lost on event organizers. Although the venue was recently refurbished there was limited space on the arena floor. That might not have been an issue, but the 3x2 configuration for the blood round as opposed to the 2-1-1-2 format seemed to take away from the grandeur of the semifinals.
Also, whoever was working the scoreboard for MSG promoted the mats 1-4 and 5-8 left to right and top to bottom on the screen. Meanwhile, the mats were 1-3-5-7 and 2-4-6-8, which made following the scoring action extremely difficult.
The workers at MSG were not charming, but entry to the event was orderly and fast. Exiting seemed congested.
Grade: B-
Transportation
The NYC Subway is one of the largest and most sophisticated transportation system in the world, but that in no way makes it easy for a newcomer to understand.
However, assuming a solid Google Maps and a little initiative the NYC Subway was a great outlet for fans to transport themselves to various parts of the city. For anecdotal evidence of success, I saw a wrestling fan from California at my favorite dim sum place in Chinatown on Sunday! On the other side wrestling has the oldest fan base in the country and walking even three city blocks can be a challenge for many -- a fact that was relayed several times by fans. This isn't too different from St. Louis, but I suppose that it's all relative to the comfort one feels in their surroundings.
The airport options were also plentiful, but construction on the ACE line of the subway caused some to miss their flights on Sunday morning. Cabs to and from the airport ranged from $40-$60, which probably seemed like a heavy additional cost when already covering $250-$400/night hotel rooms.
The big redeeming quality of NYC was that it was accessible by rails and cars for many of the East Coast's wrestling fans. A personal anecdote, but I saw more friends at this NCAA Championships than I have in the last five combined. However, I can only imagine the opposite is true for those who live in the Midwest.
Grade: B
Media Coverage
I don't know that I read too many additional stories this year. In past seasons there may have been more marketable stars and matchups, but that seems disingenuous since Kyle Snyder is an easy bottom-of-the-fold piece.
One huge rub of the event was the treatment of the media. Almost nobody seemed to have a positive interaction with the NCAA during the accreditation process, and the media seating for 90 percent of the journalists in attendance was in the rafters above the highest seats.
While that might seem like no issue to fans, the lack of accessibility to the field of play and the mixed zone meant that journalists who wanted a post-match quote were essentially out-of-luck. Accessibility is a huge contributor to a reduction in media coverage.
The NCAA generated nice short films each day for social media, which certainly helped the online presence of the sport. A lot of the feedback I've received from those on the fringes of wrestling is that they were excited to see the finals on ESPN and were happy that they were able to tune-in or DVR without going online.
Grade: B
Nightlife
View from media workroom (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)The $9 beer is not a real thing. Beers in NYC can certainly cost this much, but most are $6-$7 and that's typically for non-Bud Light. I can see that many in the community would prefer the simplicity of the Bud Light and that those can be markedly more expensive (still not $9), and again when added together with the other costs for the weekend a refreshing beer can feel like a dagger to the wallet.
The real heavy costs came down on schools looking to host alumni events. Most bars, especially those in/around MSG will charge a room rental fee usually above and beyond the cost of booze and food. For example, a three-hour party for 150 people would range between $3,000 and $10,000 depending on the space. The lesser schools would certainly have trouble affording these types of get-togethers, and those that could were limited on options.
Still, for many NYC was a once-in-a-lifetime trip that wrestling forced them to make. The city remains one of the world's most influential centers for arts, culture and nightlife, making the experience of the wrestling fan here truly unique.
Grade: A-
Overall Experience
There are plenty of experiences and insights that don't fit comfortably into a gradable headline. One of the brightest spots of the tournament was the first-year announcing job performed by Jason Bryant and Bryan Hazard. While we celebrated Sandy Stevens' career, it would be remiss of me not to point out how many compliments Bryant and Hazard received. They were an important part of the fan experience and did an outstanding job for the sport.
Bryant, who has been calling these events for years, will also be at work in Rio de Janeiro at the 2016 Olympic Games, an honor befitting his skill and a note on how fortunate we were to hear him on the call in NYC.
The finals weigh-in/face off took place on Saturday before the finals (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)However awkward and disappointing the "weigh-ins" seem to be, the finals themselves were among the best in history. The heavyweight bout is already being named the greatest of all-time, a distinction it would be difficult for any wrestling fan to counter. Upsets, Cinderellas, and a shifting team standings all contributed to the drama of the event's final moment.
There is no question that NYC was a unique host for the NCAA Championships, providing fans a new experience far away from home. Though not the highest-attended event, the Garden did crack the top five.
Though it's yet to be known how much the NCAA made from the event and what the viewership numbers were at home, there is confidence among many that both numbers will be extremely positive.
Final Grade: B+
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