The New Jersey state high school wrestling tournament has found a perfect, beautiful home at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City – but the wrestlers, tournament and thousands and thousands of loyal fans just might be evicted, as soon as next year.
That’s right, the state tournament may be forced to find a new home in 2027.
Say it ain’t so!
College basketball’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s men’s and women’s tournaments love their home at Boardwalk Hall, too, and they are held at the exact same time of year – and the MAAC just signed a five-year contract with Boardwalk Hall.
Something has to give – and in this case, it just might be the state wrestling tournament.
The states have grown into a bona-fide monster that attracted 41,000 fans over the three-day event on the Boardwalk last year.
The sport and its tournament’s remarkable growth (both boys and girls) have necessitated that it be housed in a huge arena, not a small one.
Therein lies the problem: The MAAC tournament coincides with the state wrestling. This year, the MAAC Tournament will be held from March 5-10. This year’s state wrestling will take place March 12-14 – one week later than normal.
In past years, the MAAC Tournament would end on the Saturday before the NCAA’s Selection Sunday – one week after the mats were pulled up in Boardwalk Hall.
Pushing the states ahead one week is fine, but should it be pushed up one week every year for the next five years in order to keep it in Atlantic City?
It may have to. There is simply no other venue in New Jersey than can properly host the tournament for the states. And for the fans (read below).
The state tournament has been held in Boardwalk Hall almost every year since 1992. There was one year where it was held at the Atlantic City Convention Center (1999), two years at Continental Airlines Arena (2000-01), and one year at Phillipsburg High School (2021 due to the overreaction from COVID).
Before Boardwalk Hall, the states were held at Jadwin Gym on the campus of Princeton (see chart below). It was a wonderful venue but Princeton no longer wanted to host the states.
Since then, quite frankly, the states have outgrown Jadwin, so returning the states there is not feasible.
So if Boardwalk Hall is no longer a possibility to host, the NJSIAA either has to move the postseason up one week or find another suitable site for the states (see below, there aren’t any outside of Jadwin),
In past seasons, the MAAC Tournament was held one week after the states. But along came the quest for the league to publicize itself and make more money.
The MAAC wanted to host its tournament without competing with such behemoths as the Big East or the Atlantic Coast Conference tournaments.
MAAC chairman Travis Tellitocci said he wanted the MAAC championship to be settled before the major conferences begin their tournaments so that the MAAC can “promote” its champion.
The states, meanwhile, have switched many, many times before, as noted below – but that was when just hundreds of fans attended, and not the many, many thousands of wrestlers and spectators made the annual pilgrimage to Atlantic City.
Believe it or not, the first three New Jersey state tournaments were held at Union High beginning in 1934 with 16 teams attending. Legendary coach Henry Boresch’s Newton team (44 points, 20 more than Freehold) had five champions. The other schools that scored team points were Trenton, Union, Blair, Thomas Jefferson (Elizabeth), Teaneck, Asbury Park, Edison Tech, Millburn, Newark East Side, Newark Central, Newark South Side, Paterson Eastside, Roselle and Weequahic.
A year later, Somerville and Lyndhurst entered teams.
In 1936, along came Bound Brook, Union Hill, and Lodi, among others. St. Cecelia’s (Englewood) also joined the states that year, just three years before a guy named Vince Lombardi began his football coaching career as an assistant there.
The states were moved to Thomas Jefferson Junior High in Elizabeth and then it was on to Roselle Park and Teaneck high schools for two years each and even Belvidere High before moving off a high school campus to the Elizabeth Armory for 11 years.
Then it was back to the high schools (Rahway for one year, Somerville for two). Then it was on to Rutgers for seven years before the Asbury Park Convention Center for four years.
Then, in 1970, it was on to Jadwin Gym at Princeton from 1970-1992.
All along, the states began growing in number of schools, wrestlers and fans.
It is now a monstrous event.
When the states moved from Jadwin to Boardwalk Hall, I was vehemently opposed and wrote about it in a column for the Daily Record. Think back to moving to AC at first. To me, it was laughable and I wrote that the NJSIAA should be ashamed of itself. Here, we had adults (and supposed role models) moving a site from a respected Ivy League college campus to a seedy area of the state loaded with go-go bars, hookers, and other riff-raff.
But I have come around. The Boardwalk Hall venue is second to none. The go-go bars and hookers are still out there, but the good far, far outweighs the bad as the wrestling is concerned. Hotels are plentiful. There are a lot of eateries and things to do in AC between rounds.
So where could the state tournament go now? Wow, that is a good question. There really isn’t a better spot than AC, not by a longshot.
Here are some possibilities (all of these are more flawed than good):
- Rutgers: Eight mats are a must, and the arena can only hold six. And what do fans do between rounds, sit in their cars?
- Prudential Center. Perhaps, but can it hold eight mats? I have no idea. What do the fans do during down time, walk around Newark?
- Asbury Park Convention Center. Love the boardwalk, but it seats 3,000 or so. No sale.
- Jadwin. Jadwin was a great site in its time but only holds seating for about 7,000. Not nearly big enough.
- Atlantic City Convention Center. The place seats about half of what Boardwalk Hall seats, and those old enough to remember recall the booing and chanting (NJSIAA SUCKS … NJSIAA SUCKS!!) because their view of the wrestling was blacked by some pillars.
- Bringing back the Super Regions to cut back on attendance. The Super Regions were the first two rounds of the state tournament that were held at four different high school sites (Wallkill Valley and Union were two of them) for a few years back in the early-to-mid 1990s on the Tuesday night before the states (which were held the following Friday-Saturday … Randolph hosted one Super Region one year and five Rams wrestlers were a combined 10-0 for legendary coach Mike Suk that night … but that’s a story for another time!). If memory serves, what the Super Regions did was eliminate the first-round losers from the state tournament. As it stands now, each weight has 32 wrestlers. In the time of the Super Regions (24 wrestlers in each weight), as I recall it, 16 wrestlers wound up going to Boardwalk Hall.
If the NJSIAA wanted to go the Super Region route (bad idea), I would think less fans would want to attend because many wrestlers would be eliminated, but does Robbinsville want to take that risk?
Boardwalk Hall is almost filled to the brim every year. I don’t think it would be the right move to turn fans away.
This is a fascinating development.
It wouldn’t be the first time the states were moved. Here is a year-by-year look at how far the states have come (many thanks to the great Cliff Sailer for the state history):
1934-Union High School
1935-Union High School
1936-Union High School
1937-Grover Cleveland Junior High (Elizabeth)
1938-Teaneck High School
1939-Teaneck High School
1940-Springfield High School
1941-Grover Cleveland Junior High (Elizabeth)
1942-Thomas Jefferson High School (Elizabeth)
1943-Roselle Park High School
1944-Roselle Park High School
1945-Belvidere High School
1946-Elizabeth Armory
1947-Elizabeth Armory
1948-Elizabeth Armory
1949-Elizabeth Armory
1950-Elizabeth Armory
1951-Elizabeth Armory
1952-Elizabeth Armory
1953-Elizabeth Armory
1954-Elizabeth Armory
1955-Elizabeth Armory
1956-Rahway High School
1957-Somerville High School
1958-Somerville High School
1959-Rutgers University
1960-Rutgers University
1961-Rutgers University
1962-Rutgers University
1963-Rutgers University
1964-Rutgers University
1965-Rutgers University
1966-Asbury Park Convention Hall
1967-Asbury Park Convention Hall
1968-Asbury Park Convention Hall
1969-Asbury Park Convention Hall
1970-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1971-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1972-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1973-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1974-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1975-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1976-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1977-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1978-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1979-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1980-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1981-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1982-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1983-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1984-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1985-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1986-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1987-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1988-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1989-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1990-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1991-Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
1992-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
1993-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
1994-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
1995-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
1996-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
1997-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
1998-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
1999-Convention Center (Atlantic City)
2000-Continental Airlines Arena (East Rutherford)
2001-Continental Airlines Arena (East Rutherford)
2002-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2003-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2004-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2005-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2006-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2007-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2008-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2009-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2010-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2011-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2012-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2013-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2014-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2015-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2016-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2017-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2018-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2019-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2020-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2021-Phillipsburg High School
2022-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2023-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2024-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City)
2025-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City).
2026-Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City).
2027-???
