44th Annual

NYSPHSAA State Championships

Interscholastic Varsity Wrestling Tournament
@ Nassau Coliseum (Uniondale, NY)
Friday & Saturday, February 24-25, 2006

Final Results

Wrestling fans deserved better
Newsday (Melville, NY)
Monday, February 27, 2006

Full Text: Copyright © 2006 Newsday, Inc.
 

Nassau Coliseum management and state officials need to review this weekend's state wrestling championships if they hope to bring the event back to Long Island in 2008.

From the fans' standpoint, not everyone was completely satisfied with the overall experience at the 44th annual state championships.

Sure, the wrestling was exciting; Nassau Coliseum rocked with each of the 30 championship bouts in Division I and II. And the total attendance of 17,755 for the two-day event eclipsed last year's state record of 17,323.

Still, despite all the excitement, many issues left visitors unhappy with Nassau Coliseum management. Fans were not allowed to bring video equipment into the arena and there was no re-entry for each of the three sessions. If you left, you needed a new ticket to get back inside.

"They were not hospitable at all," Marcia Gould of Merrick said. "What an embarrassment to have people from all over this great state come to our Nassau County and get treated so poorly. They were very poor hosts."

"There was a woman from the Buffalo area who came nine hours by car to videotape her son and planned to send the tape to his grandparents in Florida who were too ill to travel," Gould said, "and she was told there would be no videotaping the biggest moment of her son's wrestling career. Those videos are also used for college recruitment. It was just terrible."

Chris Wright, the general manager of SMG, which manages Nassau Coliseum, addressed some of the issues.

"Our general policy is not to allow video cameras into the arena because we have contracts with artists and teams that don't want reproduction without prior approval," Wright said yesterday. "I was fine with the video cameras, but we had an agreement with Cablevision. If the people with the TV rights are OK with it, I'm OK with it."

The worst problem came Friday afternoon when the Coliseum opened the concessions and began selling beer.

Section VIII wrestling chairman Terry Haise of Babylon informed Walter Eaton, the assistant executive director of the New York State Public High Schools Athletic Association. State officials jumped in and negotiated the end of the beer sales within 30 minutes after they began.

"From a spectator point of view, it's a fabulous arena. Every seat is a good one," said Nina Van Erk, the executive director of the NYSPHSAA. "As soon as we discovered that beer was being sold, we took immediate action and negotiated the stoppage of the sales. We're very cognizant that our events are to be alcohol-free."

Said Wright, "I negotiated the event with the state officials and it [beer sales] was never brought up at the meetings."

Food was available at the concession stands, but spectators were not allowed to bring food into the Coliseum.

The event also was the most expensive in the 44 years of the state championships. Tickets were $10 at Pepsi Arena in Albany a year ago. Tickets at the Coliseum were $11 apiece or all three sessions for $30, plus $6 for parking.

The directive given to the Coliseum that there would be no re-entry for each of the sessions created hard feelings.

"People don't want to sit in an arena for 10 straight hours," said Islip coach Joe Patrovich, who crowned two state Division I champions. "So they take a break and go relax at the hotel and then come back. It's been that way at all venues forever. There were people that were forced to buy second tickets for the same session."

The 2007 state wrestling championships are scheduled for Pepsi Arena. As for 2008, the search is on for a site as the state committee continues to move the event around each year.

Will Long Island get another shot? Or will it be another 40 years?

"We have some things to iron out and it has to be a mutual agreement to come back," Van Erk said. "We have to want them and they have to want us."

Said Wright: "It's a lock. We intend to start negotiations right away with the state and I'd love to have them back in 2008 and then again in three to five years after that. The event brings a lot of business into the county for the local hotels and businesses."

That would give the sectional teams from Nassau and Suffolk another opportunity to win a state team title at home. Suffolk, which had won six of the last seven team titles, crowned five individual state champions but finished behind a strong sectional team from the Binghamton-Elmira area, 246-229. Nassau, which had two individual titles, was third with 192 1/2.