Philadelphia a big winner in NCAA Wrestling Championships

Wrestling demands a huge investment for the smallest rewards and often leaves even the most dedicated broken.

Wrestling fans, coaches, and Wells Fargo officials said they and Philadelphia got a whole lot out of last week's NCAA Championships, though. The city broke the event's attendance record with 104,260 fans coming to watch the six sessions of wrestling from Thursday to Saturday.

"This whole tournament has been a win-win for the state of Pennsylvania," said Gary Taylor, coach of host team Rider University.

It was such a "win-win" that Philadelphia is already planning to put in another bid for the NCAA Championships for the next available year, 2015.

"The wrestling has been great, the fans have been great. We really want to have it back," said John Page, chief operating officer of Global Spectrum (the division of Comcast-Spectacor that operates the Wells Fargo Center).

Ike Richman, vice president of public relations for the Wells Fargo Center, said 15,000 out-of-town visitors rented 10,000 room nights and pumped $15 million into the local economy.

Next year's NCAA Championships are back in St. Louis, where they've been held multiple times. The Scottrade Center is close to downtown St. Louis, a plus to the thousands of fans who have to leave the building between wrestling intermissions.

The proximity of Lincoln Financial Field, where the NCAA held its Fan Festival, helped but Page said the construction of Philly Live!, with its restaurants, sports bars and retail space on the site of the former Spectrum, will make the Wells Fargo Center an even more popular choice for wrestling fans.

"We're close to starting construction," Page said.

The tournament also will stop in Des Moines and Oklahoma City before a possible return to Philadelphia. Penn State hosted the tournament five times since 1929 and it has also been held in Bethlehem, Lancaster, and Pittsburgh. The last time it was held in the East before last week was in 2002, in Albany, N.Y.

Wrestling diehards couldn't think of too many other big cities in the East that could win a bid or would want to host. Wrestling isn't big in Massachusetts and New York City would be too expensive for fans in the Midwest, they said.

Jason Bryant, of USA Wrestling, said one possibility could be Washington, home to surprising fifth-place finisher American University and close to other top Division I programs like Maryland, Virginia Tech and Virginia.

Bryant said the Wells Fargo Center had a feel other championship venues in the Midwest are often lacking. He has attended 10 finals.

"This is a world-class venue," he said. "It just feels big." *