St. Louis Wants To Become Home Of NCAA Wrestling Championships

St. Louis in '09 will host its second consecutive NCAA wrestling championships and fifth this decade, and the city "wants to make the event its own," according to R.B. Fallstrom of the AP. Bids for the 2012-2015 events will be accepted next summer, and St. Louis "wants them all, and wants to become the college wrestling mecca." St. Louis Sports Commission President Frank Viverito: "Whatever term they're offering, we'll take them all. We'll shoot to set an attendance mark next year and ask the committee to make this an annual site." About 10,000 hotel rooms in St. Louis were booked last weekend for this year's tournament, and event organizers estimated that about 15,000 visitors were in the city and "injected an economic impact of $10[M]." The wrestling championships will be held in Omaha in 2010 and Philadelphia in 2011, and Des Moines Convention & Visitors Bureau Dir of Sports Al Lorenzen said that there is "no reason for the NCAA to establish a single venue for future national wrestling championship competition." Des Moines officials during the last bidding process "failed to obtain" the event, but "vowed to make a strong case to bring the event to the Wells Fargo Arena." Lorenzen: "We know that the bigger venues can attract larger crowds for the championship event, but we also know that we will sell out all week -- just not one night" (AP, 3/25).