Pan Am qualifier thoughts

[Brady C]

So, I have abided by my 24 hour rule before writing and still have some things on my mind.  On Sunday i was fortunate enough to attend the greco portion of the Pan Am Olympic qualifier in Frisco, TX.  Frisco is only 5 miles from my new hometown and I was pretty excited to attend.  Prior to the tournament, maybe 3 weeks in advance, I searched for information online regarding start times and how to buy tickets. Nothing.  So I waited until USA  wrestling finally posted a schedule about 2 weeks before the event (a week before the pan am games), and tried to shuffle my schedule once I found out exactly when the tournament took place.  I would have liked to attend freestyle, but I had 2 very exciting youth soccer games already on the books for the day.  My youngest ended the day with 3 goals, so nothing to complain about.  
 So Sunday I start my drive and realize I am not sure where the tournament is being held.  I think it's dr. pepper arena (dr. pepper is huge here), but decide to google to verify.  I was certain usa wrestling had the location on the press release, but I can't find anything.  I consider myself a pretty skilled internet user, and if I can't find something, I am pretty sure others won't be able to either.  After driving around a bit, I located dr. pepper arena and what seemed to be appropriate parking, but I couldn't see any signs of a wrestling tournament.  Still determined to watch some wrestling, I entered the arena.
 Once in the arena, I noticed an ice rink full of skaters and several event staff.  I asked the event staff if a wrestling tournament was being held, and to my utmost surprise they directed me to an elevator and stated the tournament was in progress upstairs.  $16.50 and a short elevator ride later, I was finally at the most important wrestling tournament taking place on our continent that day.  I grabbed a dr. pepper and started to soak up the action.
 After sitting and watching for a couple minutes, I started to wonder what round they were in and what the brackets looked like, so I got up out of my seat and searched for brackets.  Nothing.  No problem though, as I was sure Justin Tritz and trackwrestling would have what I needed.  I grabbed my iphone and went to look.  Nothing.  WTH?  usa wrestling? nothing?  UWW? a link to flo.  flo?  pro account required to see a bracket.  
 Still in search of a bracket ( I eventually borrowed one from a competitor from Educador), my eyes started to scan around me.  I saw wrestlers and coaches, girlfriends and wifes, referees and table workers.  What I did not see were fans.  I actually eventually did find one, a guy from Allen, TX that came to watch, but that's it.  I can verify for certain that 2 fans were in attendance for the greco morning session of the pan am Olympic qualifier.
2 fans.  Honestly, maybe 10 tops.  And every HS in the area has a team.  Wrestling isn't huge here, but that's not the issue.  The issue is that the people charged with promoting this sport, UWW and USA wrestling, continue to fail at promoting the sport.  If the best we can do for the continental Olympic qualifier is hold a tournament in an unmarked undisclosed building without promoting it to the public, without posting event details in a timely manner, and without providing brackets so one can follow along at the tournament, we don't desire to have an Olympic sport.  And we won't after 2024 because nothing has changed.  

[Ghetto]

Totally agree that we don't promote our sport one bit. And all sports get bumps in participation from the Olympics but us.

Flowrestling is the best advertisement for wrestling out there, and they do it for themselves as well as wrestling. They've tied their business to it, so they have a vested interest in it.

[Handles II]

I attended the 1999 Pan Am games in Winnepeg. I was there for the FS quarters, semi's and finals. It was held in a venue about the size of a small high school gym (2 mats) and auditorium seating was on one side. My assistant coach and I, along with one of my wrestlers parents sat right behind Lincoln Mcilravy and his family. To our right was Gable, his wife, and Joe Williams, to our left Eric Akin. All of these guys were wrestling (well, not Gable) in the tournament. Giving Lincoln a high-five after a victory as he returned sweaty to sit by his wife was a pretty cool thing.
As a whole there were probably 250 people in attendance, almost all had a direct connection to the wrestlers. They served beer. It was without a doubt the coolest wrestling event I've ever attended. Hearing almost all the people in attendance cheering against the wrestlers from the USA was certainly an eye opener.

[littleguy301]

Brady, there will be more fans with you at the trials!!!! I know one of those fans will probably have all the info you need!!!!!!!!!