Step inside as the Wells Fargo Center prepares for the ‘demand’ of the NCAA wrestling championships
With tickets for every day of the three-day event sold out, arena officials say its the highest-demand ticket in the history of the Wells Fargo Center dating back to 1996.
The Wells Fargo Center is no stranger to significant events. Famous musicians and comedians, NBA and NHL playoff games, and big-time matchups in the NCAA basketball tournament have all come through the South Philly arena.
But venue officials are preparing for an event starting Thursday that they say should surpass all of that by way of interest: the NCAA wrestling championships. For the first time since 2011, the best wrestlers in the country will gather in Philadelphia to battle for national championships across 10 weight classes.
It’s a big deal, according to Wells Fargo Center officials. The proof? The demand for tickets.
“The biggest surprise and the thing everyone is most shocked to hear is this the highest-demand ticket we’ve ever had in the history of the Wells Fargo Center dating back to 1996,” said Mike Sulkes, the arena’s general manager. “This championship is a huge deal, it’s completely sold out for each day. The demand for this is unlike anything we have ever seen and that includes other sporting events, concerts, championships.”
The NCAA chose Philadelphia as this year’s host city in 2020, and Sulkes said the planning began almost immediately. The heavier planning, like mat configuration, warmup spaces, media, and broadcasting accommodations, started around this time last year, he said. All three days of the championships will be televised by ESPN or its other networks, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN+.
Philly’s place in wrestling’s landscape
The Philadelphia area has long been a wrestling hotbed, along with the entire state. No other state has had more natives qualify for the tournament, and Penn State’s program is in the middle of one of the greatest dynasties in the history of sports. The Nittany Lions have won 11 of the last 13 team championships and consistently produce a crop of individual champs each year.
More than 40 Pennsylvania natives are wrestling this weekend, many with a Penn State team that is set to bring its entire roster that contains four No. 1 seeds. Penn also had seven qualifiers, and Drexel had three. They will begin their quest for a national championship when the first round begins Thursday morning.
With that in mind, Sulkes and the rest of the staff at the Wells Fargo Center knew this event had to be planned to perfection. For the first time in 14 years, the ice the Flyers play on was melted in the middle of the season to make room for the event. Eight mats, which were rolled out for the first time by a group of volunteers on at 3 p.m. Monday, will be scattered across a carpeted floor above the concrete.
There are six sessions throughout the weekend, with the first starting at 11 a.m. Thursday. In between each session, fans will be ushered out as new mat configurations are constructed and the competition pool shrinks. The event will conclude on Saturday evening with one mat in the center of the floor for the national championship at each weight classification.
“The heavy planning has really taken place over the last year,” Sulkes said. “As far as planning every little detail like signage, room assignments, the seating setup, these last couple of days have just been a mad sprint to get set up. It’s really a major transformation, but we’re rolling.”
Pinning down planning and preparation
The Wells Fargo Center has worked in conjunction with Penn and Drexel, the only two Division I schools in the city with wrestling programs, to plan the event. Penn and Drexel are this year’s “host teams” and have been integral to the success of getting things set up, Sulkes said.
The Wells Fargo Center submitted its bid to host the event in 2019. The NCAA evaluates each city and venue for various factors, such as whether the venue can handle an influx of people and how many people in the area would come out to watch, according to Mark Bedics, the NCAA’s director of championships.
“We have eight mats going at once, and not every arena can physically hold that,” Bedics said Monday during setup for the event. “Philadelphia has been a great partner with the NCAA for a lot of events; whether it’s basketball, lacrosse, wrestling. So we knew the city would embrace the wrestling championships, and when we brought it here in 2011, they did a really good job.”
Bedics said the NCAA is especially excited about returning to Philadelphia because of the fans — whom he referred to as “some of the most passionate college wrestling fans in the country.”
“It’s one of the main things you think about when you’re deciding where to take your championship,” Bedics said. “Everyone knows what wrestling is like in Pennsylvania. The most qualifiers of any state. This is where you grow up wrestling.”
» READ MORE: This week, Philly is home to the biggest event in college wrestling. Here’s how it all works.