The NFL Draft will soon be gone. KC’s next big sports party will come from NCAA ranks
So, what’s after the NFL Draft for a Kansas City sports celebration with national flavor?
Mark the calendar for March 21-23, 2024, for the NCAA Wrestling Championships at T-Mobile Center, hosted by the University of Missouri and the Kansas City Sports Commission.
“I love it,” Mizzou Coach Brian Smith said. “Of course, there is the media attention. It’s a three-day event that takes over a city.”
It will mark the second time Kansas City has held the event. In 2003, the Big 12 basketball tournament moved to Dallas, leaving an opening at Kemper Arena. The NCAA Wrestling Championships played to sold out crowds, and Oklahoma State won the first of four straight national titles.
A study for that event showed more than 90% of fans attending the three days came from out of town.
“You get people in the building who normally wouldn’t be at this,” Smith said. “It brings wrestling to the forefront.”
Smith likened wrestling to the shorter version of the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., where fans flood the city.
“Wrestling fans just take it over,” Smith said. “Our fan base is really fired up for this.”
Adding to the anticipation: Missouri should have an excellent team next season. The Tigers will have plenty of firepower back from a team that finished fifth in this year’s NCAA Championship at Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was the program’s eighth straight top ten finish.
The Tigers return five All-America wrestlers, including Keegan O’Toole, who his second straight NCAA individual championship at 165 pounds.
Also earning All-America honors were brothers Zach and Rocky Elam from Staley High.
Along the way, Missouri won its 12th straight conference championship this year, the most recent pair coming as members of the Big 12. Mizzou returned to the Big 12 after spending the previous nine years in the Mid-American Conference.
“We won the MAC for nine straight years, but our fan base was very vocal about it,” Smith said. “We needed to get back into the Big 12. The excitement for wrestling has never been higher.”
This story was originally published April 27, 2023 at 2:14 PM.