42,287

[bnicolls]

It was a great event. I saw Brands afterward, and he thought that there were 50K in the stands. Hardly anyone was in the Club seats, so I expect that distorts our perspective on how many people were there.

I had seats from the foundation for myself and wife. sec 123 row 37 seats 21 and 22. With the renumbering of seats, those seats DID NOT exist. It caused a gigantic mass in the ramp and rows in sections 122-24. The ushers were clueless and of zero help. Fights etc. I'll scan these to our contact to make sure that does not happen again.

We went straight up to open seats in row 65 until the 157 match, then went over to the south end zone where our company had 30 seats to finish off the event.

Great to get the win, and I think our guys did well. Meyer almost had it and Cooper fought back hard too. I think Paddock goes in the next varsity match.

 

[WWDMHawkeye]

I, too, thought it looked like more than 42k. We were thinking something between 45k and 50k. The place looked fantastic with all of those Hawk fans piling in. Probably looked a little more full than it actually was due to fans spacing out a little more than packing in with everyone sitting on their number as for football games. Still, it was a beautiful sight to behold.

In case anyone cares, I was officially excited about the attendance.

 

[Krupnyakov]

Did anyone else see the worker standing in the window on the top floor of the hospital construction watching the meet? Very Wrigley-esque.

I saw him

 

[theIowaHawk]

Great time fellas, long and exhausting day, but will likely remember forever.

Sammy, thank you! (Everyone else of course as well)

 

[sloehawk]

If your seats are on the east side, you should use an east gate. Sorry about your troubles.

The gate had little to do with it. We were in the damn tunnel for 15 minutes. To move 20 feet.

 

[brucefan]

In case anyone cares, I was officially excited about the attendance.

Whew! Thanks for the update. I was having trouble sleeping, wondering what the official WWDM judgment was going to be. I'm glad we were able to agree in the end.

 

[bravehawks1]

Complaints about getting to your seats is mostly on the fans. The University said many times to buy tickets in advance and to come early. I talked to facility people after the event and they were disappointed that fans waited until the last minute. Its not like it was cold or rainy. However, given the number of people who were attending Kinnick for the first time, it looked like lots of people who had trouble understanding how to read their tickets for the correct seat and part of that is the signs and seating labels at Kinnick are not great. There were several people in our section who didn't know how to read their ticket or find their seat and then just stood in the aisles like a deer in headlights. This just backed things up big time.

However, it was an incredibly well planned and well run event. Props to the Iowa Athletic Dept for their hard work and creativity in pulling this off and to the 40,000+ weather people who took care of the weather.

 

[artradley]

I, too, thought it looked like more than 42k. We were thinking something between 45k and 50k. The place looked fantastic with all of those Hawk fans piling in. Probably looked a little more full than it actually was due to fans spacing out a little more than packing in with everyone sitting on their number as for football games. Still, it was a beautiful sight to behold.

In case anyone cares, I was officially excited about the attendance.

Yes, 40k was the target "excitement" number!

 

[sloehawk]

The gate had little to do with it. We were in the damn tunnel for 15 minutes. To move 20 feet.

I want to make this PERFECTLY CLEAR. This post was in response to another one that I took exception to. I am NOT complaining in the least, it was what it was. My group of 6 had a great time and it was smiles all around, all day long (I wasn't smiling much when Meyer got taken down late, or when Cooper was flailing around a bit, or when Iowa's Defense couldn't stop a pee-wee club team, but all in all it was a great time......................).

When you sign up for events of this size and the mass of humanity that ensues, you can take it to the bank it isn't going to be a seamless day. Just like the athletes and Coaches, you have to mentally prepare and be ready for some highlights and some disappointments. We arrived to our tailgate spot about 9:30 A.M., and got out of town about midnight. A long, beautiful day........

 

[SansSouci]

Could have been a few extra.
My goofy wife, that knows better, had 22 of 24 tickets snatched from the side of her purse pocket that were hanging out. Got new tickets at the gate and they said they would cancel the lost ones, but we had two people running late that used cancelled tickets from the group and got in. Csb

 

[Vallholl]

I, too, thought it looked like more than 42k. We were thinking something between 45k and 50k. The place looked fantastic with all of those Hawk fans piling in. Probably looked a little more full than it actually was due to fans spacing out a little more than packing in with everyone sitting on their number as for football games. Still, it was a beautiful sight to behold.

In case anyone cares, I was officially excited about the attendance.

So we agreed to not go in unless it was going to be 50K and I miscounted. I thought we were at 49,999 so I went in. And then Clark has his guy on his back, so I had to stay.

Actually, it looked closer to 50,000-55,000 to me. However, my glasses are black and gold colored.

 

[Vallholl]

Heard that Luke Eustice had a goal of 52,000.

 

[theIowaHawk]

Sorry we disappointed him, his efforts deserved more!

 

[pumpdog20]

42K is a big number, but I still hoped for more. It's just hard to stomach that perfect conditions (weather, undefeated football team) could "only" get 42K. I thought we'd get to 50K.

 

[JasonBryant]

By comparison's sake, my alma mater has sold out every home football game in the seven-year history of the program. The antiquated stadium seats 20,118. So when I'm telling my friends back home about the match, I said "there were twice as many people watching wrestling as there were in Norfolk watching ODU play UTEP"

They were blown away.

 

[Old_wrestling_fan]

42K is a big number, but I still hoped for more. It's just hard to stomach that perfect conditions (weather, undefeated football team) could "only" get 42K. I thought we'd get to 50K.

FWIW, as I have now heard/read from various people in attendance and so forth...it seems like that if there were even more than 42k that day that it would have exacerbated the crowding/delays that some experienced and possibly detracted from the overall great day for so many. One factor that I have heard mentioned that I never even thought of was just the logistics/parking for that many people on a football game day.

Of course, for the people that were also attending the football game that night, the "over lappers" if you will, that really wasn't a big issue. But for the "non-football wrestling fans only"...many of them had a heck of a time getting to Kinnick and/or parking that morning. I am told that IC West HS was maxxed out in terms of parking and that there were cars parked there where cars have never been seen before.

So, say, another 8k to get to 50k...that may have gotten pretty ticklish.

 

[theIowaHawk]

42K is a big number, but I still hoped for more. It's just hard to stomach that perfect conditions (weather, undefeated football team) could "only" get 42K. I thought we'd get to 50K.

Can I ask what you base it on? I'm just curious what people's belief is in regards to the popularity of wrestling, even in Iowa.

 

[theIowaHawk]

So, say, another 8k to get to 50k...that may have gotten pretty ticklish.

Think, how many more cars is that? Even generously at 3/car it is 2,500+ more cars!

 

[TNTwrestle]

I know 25-30 people who wanted to go, but various things, such as jobs, prior commitments, etc stopped them. I'm sure other people are in the same boat, so I'm sure 50,000 would be reachable, but what are the chances of getting that weather again in mid-November. Just look at what we had three days before or two days after. It was a great day regardless, I nothing was going to stop me from being there. It was my wife's birthday, and I told her we'd have the afternoon and evening to do something together. When she realized I wasn't kidding, she decided to go, and sghe had a great time (except for the two tall guys in front of her who stood up half the event so she couldn't see).

 

[pumpdog20]

Can I ask what you base it on? I'm just curious what people's belief is in regards to the popularity of wrestling, even in Iowa.

Nothing scientific. I just figured with the near 80k going to the football game, the great marketing job the school did, the best possible weather, the chance to crush and maybe put the record out of reach, and the fact it was in the wrestling capital of the world... 50k seemed like a nice round number.

 

[theIowaHawk]

I know 25-30 people who wanted to go, but various things, such as jobs, prior commitments, etc stopped them. I'm sure other people are in the same boat, so I'm sure 50,000 would be reachable, but what are the chances of getting that weather again in mid-November. Just look at what we had three days before or two days after. It was a great day regardless, I nothing was going to stop me from being there. It was my wife's birthday, and I told her we'd have the afternoon and evening to do something together. When she realized I wasn't kidding, she decided to go, and sghe had a great time (except for the two tall guys in front of her who stood up half the event so she couldn't see).

Your welcome.

 

[bravehawks1]

I would have two suggestions for the next time we do this:
1. Elevate stage and make introductions like nationals
2.move mat closer to center of field. This may help attendance as people may feel like they can see better even those of us I 16th row of section 124 may object

Ps don't forward these secrets to PSU or OSU

 

[icu81222]

I was one of the people who certainly thought we had over 50,000 people there. However,One thing I forgot about when thinking about how many people were actually in the stadium. There was hardly anybody in the club section and the suites.

I'm not sure how many seats that makes up but it has to be quite a few.