#3 tOSU vs #14 NW

B

bdhof

Well-known member
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Shouldn't be close w/ tOSU pretty solid favorites in 7 weights - all but 125, 133 & 157. 2x AA Rivera hasn't wrestled in over a month for NW due to injury. If he doesn't go then tOSU likely takes 8.
 
And if you want to go on a last-minute decision, better act quickly. I glanced at the tickets this morning and saw 2 tickets left. There are SRO (standing room only) tickets available also. And there are about 40 "resale" tickets ranging in price from $40 to $114 available. I think the future of the Covelli Center is gonna be sell out after sell out. I attended the Maryland match last week (the worst dual meet on schedule) and the place was nearly packed. In the St John era, the place would have been empty outside of maybe a few hundred at best - maybe less than 100. This is good for tOSU wrestling, and bad for the casual fan who wants to see a match now and then.
 
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bdhof said:
And if you want to go on a last-minute decision, better act quickly. I glanced at the tickets this morning and saw 2 tickets left. There are SRO (standing room only) tickets available also. And there are about 40 "resale" tickets ranging in price from $40 to $114 available. I think the future of the Covelli Center is gonna be sell out after sell out. I attended the Maryland match last week (the worst dual meet on schedule) and the place was nearly packed. In the St John era, the place would have been empty outside of maybe a few hundred at best - maybe less than 100. This is good for tOSU wrestling, and bad for the casual fan who wants to see a match now and then.
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Even in the first half of the season it would’ve been mostly empty like those duals were. I don’t know if OSU stopped putting blocks on huge sections of seats for whatever reason they were doing it for, or if more people just want to go now, but the second half of the season has been way better crowd wise.
 
DonnieDarko said:
Even in the first half of the season it would’ve been mostly empty like those duals were. I don’t know if OSU stopped putting blocks on huge sections of seats for whatever reason they were doing it for, or if more people just want to go now, but the second half of the season has been way better crowd wise.
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Some of this is a "I think I heard" response so beware, but here goes. I think the number of season tickets went way up, from maybe a few hundred to about 2,000 when Covelli opened. I think I heard tOSU won't let "season tickets only" fill the arena because they want the casual walk-up fan to have tickets available.

The hype of the new arena quickly spread as the season started. A near-sellout against Stanford (near 4K) on opening night set the tempo. Next on the ledger was VT. I read the press release but it doesn't mention the crowd. Then they had a sellout against Cornell, and this wasn't a PSU or IOWA sellout. It was a Cornell sellout. Now Cornell is a good team, but not the type of team that would draw thousands at St Johns. Next up was AZST in a near-sellout (4K+). RUT was next. Again, the presser didn't mention the crowd, but I was there and the place was packed. Next up, ILL, and again no mention of the crowd in the press release. The last match was Maryland, and as mentioned above, a packed house (near-sellout) against the worst team on the schedule. Bottom line is that the crowds were there in the beginning of the season, at least on opening night and Cornell on Dec 1. I'm not sure about VT (11/17) and ILL (1/19), but the other 6 home matches were all near sellouts or sellouts.
 
The funny thing about the big crowds at Covelli is that this is not the NCAA championship team of 2015 or the near title team of 2018. And not even the runner-up teams of 2017 or 2019. This is a rebuilding year team, altho still likely the 3rd best team in the NCAAs.
 
bdhof said:
Some of this is a "I think I heard" response so beware, but here goes. I think the number of season tickets went way up, from maybe a few hundred to about 2,000 when Covelli opened. I think I heard tOSU won't let "season tickets only" fill the arena because they want the casual walk-up fan to have tickets available.

The hype of the new arena quickly spread as the season started. A near-sellout against Stanford (near 4K) on opening night set the tempo. Next on the ledger was VT. I read the press release but it doesn't mention the crowd. Then they had a sellout against Cornell, and this wasn't a PSU or IOWA sellout. It was a Cornell sellout. Now Cornell is a good team, but not the type of team that would draw thousands at St Johns. Next up was AZST in a near-sellout (4K+). RUT was next. Again, the presser didn't mention the crowd, but I was there and the place was packed. Next up, ILL, and again no mention of the crowd in the press release. The last match was Maryland, and as mentioned above, a packed house (near-sellout) against the worst team on the schedule. Bottom line is that the crowds were there in the beginning of the season, at least on opening night and Cornell on Dec 1. I'm not sure about VT (11/17) and ILL (1/19), but the other 6 home matches were all near sellouts or sellouts.
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My ticket guy made no mention of limited sales. I didn’t buy mine until right before the season started and they were very eager to sell me some and there were plenty of options available.

Opening night was not full. Most of the floor seats were empty and some entire sections were almost empty with few people in standing room. Check pics on Instagram to refresh your memory.

Cornell was not a sellout. They kept saying it would be, but it didn’t happen, not even close. Tha’s why the crowd size was never mentioned and they never called it a sell out that night or after. I checked Ticketmaster in the parking lot right before walking in and there were multiple entire rows available. And inside, more empty floor seats and large sections of empty seats. The section across from me had two people in the whole thing. But while there were hundreds of seats open, standing room had the most people up until that point. So it’s fairly clear they were reserving blocks of seats for something that never materialized.

From the AZST match forward, it’s been a completely different place and much more fun. Every match in the 2020 calendar year has had way more people than the fake sold out Cornell crowd. Your “bottom line” is wrong. The crowds were not there before the AZST match, it was quite a pathetic fan experience before that.
 
From the Buckeye website
"The Ohio State University wrestling program hosted its first match inside the Covelli Center, putting on a show for the nearly 4,000 fans in attendance by chopping down the Stanford Cardinal in 29-6 final tally."
"SOLD-OUT CROWD ON TAP FOR SUNDAY DUAL VS. CORNELL"
"The No. 8/5 Ohio State University wrestling team (3-1) supplied a packed house assembled at the Covelli Center with cheering opportunities aplenty, taking seven of 10 bouts to top Cornell (0-2), 23-9, Sunday afternoon."

I'm not saying you're wrong, just showing you where I got my info. Obviously, if you're a season ticket holder, so you know. The only matches I attended, and can attest to, were RUT & Maryland. Regardless, even if Cornell and Stanford weren't sellouts, and hundreds of empty seats were available, I think the crowds were still way greater than what we experienced in St Johns on the vast majority of times. Maybe St Johns could pack 3,000 in and the place would still look empty because it's so big (13K+). Even when they closed off the upper section, it probably holds about 8K. I believe the "AZST match forward" atmosphere you mention will continue in the future.
 
Koontz lost a close one looked good I thought. Deaugustino was skating the whole 3rd surprised he didn’t get hit at least once with stalling.
 
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