The University of Iowa is expected to announce a wrestling dual meet to be held at the school’s outdoor football stadium that will almost certainly shatter the NCAA attendance mark.
Rumors of the meet to be held at Kinnick Stadium before the football team’s 14 November game have reached a fever pitch since Tuesday, when the wrestling team’s official Twitter account posted the date of the prospective dual overlaid on hashmarks.
University spokesperson Chris Brewer told the Guardian on Thursday that an official announcement “with details on all special events” will be made 6 August when the entire schedule will be released.
The current NCAA wrestling attendance record is held by Penn State, which drew 15,996 fans for a 2013 dual against Pittsburgh. That tipped the previous mark of 15,955, set by Iowa in a Cy-Hawk matchup against in-state rival Iowa State in 2008.
An outdoor meet at Kinnick Stadium, the 86-year-old venue on Iowa’s campus with a listed capacity of 70,585, would almost certainly soar beyond those turnouts.
College wrestling routinely draws large crowds in the midwest, particularly at the Big Ten Conference schools that have historically dominated the national landscape. Nowhere is this more true than Iowa, where the 23-time national champions have led the country in attendance for each of the past nine years.
Last year, the Hawkeyes averaged 8,358 fans in six duals and led the nation in total attendance with 55,390 fans attending seven home dates, marking the seventh straight year the program has averaged at least 8,000 fans. That included a high of 11,882 for the Iowa State meet.
The No2, No3 and No4 schools on the leaderboard – Penn State, Minnesota and Ohio State – also hail from the Big Ten.
Other programs have experimented with outdoor meets in the past, most notably Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. But Iowa City’s colder conditions will no doubt pose a challenge to the wrestlers. According to InterMat, the average temperature in Iowa City on 14 November ranges from a high of 50F and low of 31F.
