Given that I am fortunate enough to travel to many of the away venues... I would place the RAC in the same category as several other venerable institutions that house wrestling... such as Minnesota’s “Barn” & our own “Rec Hall”.
These venues are fine, and in some cases “preferred” for duals which is appropriate given the “environment” generated and the time limit (approx 2hrs) of the event.
Difference is the appropriateness of these venues for a conference tournament... next year we’ll be in BJC, not Rec Hall.... last year it would have been nice to not be in the Barn (I had good seats with backs), but the folks in the rafters (mostly Iowa folks) hated it because it was bench seating and hot as Hades up there. I believe there were also some sight obstruction issues, but mostly due to posts, not entire platform blocking out half of one of the mats.
The RAC was less than ideal for a setting of such great wrestling, not so much for sight line issue as I think had been discussed here for if there had not been 4 mats, things would have been fine, as they were with 3... the real issues as I felt them:
1) bench seating... not bench seating alone... heck all the on-campus venues have them to some degree... even the brand new beautiful arena in Nebraska has benches in the second level (and our beloved Rec Hall)... but unfortunately, the RAC had benches with hard plastic “form-fitting” butt holders....now, I’m not sure whose butt was used for the original mold, but the 12yo boy beside me seemed to fit just fine... me on the other hand (I’m more “full figured” or “big boned”
)... there was no way the holder could fit me... plus, as we all know, when you are in a bench row with a mix of 12yos and husky sized... some times you slide out, robbing Peter to pay Paul, all along the bench... that does not work with theses seats and my tailbone still hurts to prove it
2) the facility was a “U-shape”, not a ring, so all foot traffic settled/met at the bottom of the “U”... ordinarily for a simple dual or bb/vb game, no issue... you are in & out in 2 hours... but for 7k people all day, over two days, with hours to kill between sessions... this made things challenging at time...getting around, especially to the bathrooms... all 2 of them...
3) the two bathrooms were more than sufficient for a dual/bb game, but a full 2 day event with session breaks for 7k folks put a strain on the facilities, and by the break between sessions III & IV, the RACs plumbing could no longer keep up, literally “topping off” all 10 stall toilets in one of the men’s rooms.
now that was the “red meat” some of you wanted to hear... but I encourage you to read on for the positives:
1) concessions I thought were terrific (expensive, but it’s NJ)...with tons of selections and very few wicked long lines to deal with
2) lots of parking (but expensive) and very organized getting us out... I thought I be trapped 45+ min, but we literally pulled out the lot in less than 5 minutes... and it’s right next to the arena... kudos on their traffic flow. (I think the expense might have been related to all the police directing traffic, but they made a huge difference!)
3) lastly, and frankly, most importantly... the wrestling which was the real reason we were all there... terrific quality as only the B1G can provide, and while a little disappointing from a PSU perspective, we can look forward to getting past this difficult year of injuries... and continue on our “Dynasty of World Domination”
