Getty Image / Evert Nelson
March Madness steals the show in the American sports world during the final few weeks of March and early April every year. But, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships have exploded in popularity recently in terms of ticket demand, and have become one of the marquee events of the college sports calendar.
Sold-out crowds flock to whatever city is hosting the event each year, with this year’s event set to be in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Wells Fargo Center, home of the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers. The issue is that the event’s ticket demand is outgrowing NBA and NHL arenas, and there simply aren’t a lot of 35,000 seat indoor venues, so the NCAA is having to look elsewhere.
That place is Minneapolis, Minnesota and US Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings. The NCAA announced on Wednesday that the football stadium would host the 2028 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. With a capacity of around 67,000 for football games and upwards of 75,000 for other events, that will give them a huge boost in the amount of tickets that can be sold.
This isn’t the first time that the NCAA has tried to host the Division I Wrestling Championships at a football stadium, but it never came to fruition. The tournament was set to be held there in 2020. But, the COVID-19 Pandemic canceled the event. Over 240,000 total tickets were sold for the six sessions of the tournament. That’s roughly more than twice as many tickets they can normally sell with a sold-out venue.
Right now, Penn State, under the direction of legendary wrestler Cael Sanderson, is the dominant force in college wrestling. They’ve won eleven of the last thirteen national championships, including the last three. Four-peats in 2011-2014 and 2016-2019 were broken up by an Ohio State national title in 2015 and an Iowa championship in 2021.
The tournament features 33 wrestlers at ten weight classes, and is modified double-elimination. Wrestlers who lose in the winners’ bracket can only place as high as third-place. Team points are handed out based on placement, winning matches in the winners’ or losers’ bracket, and via bonus points handed out to wins via pin, techincal fall (a margin of 15 points or more at any point during a match), or major decision (margin of 8 points at end of match).
The NCAA also announced that the 2027 NCAA Wrestling Championships will be held in St. Louis, Missouri, at the Enterprise Center, home of the St. Louis Blues.