The St. Louis region will host the 2027 NCAA Division I finals for wrestling, the NCAA announced Wednesday.
It is the 10th time the region will host the wrestling championships, which St. Louis Sports Commission President Marc Schreiber described as “one of the NCAA’s highest profile and most impactful events.”
“The passion and loyalty of college wrestling fans and the intensity and emotion of this tournament, it’s really like no other,” he said.
The wrestling championships will unfold downtown at Enterprise Center, which will host other major NCAA sporting events in the two years prior to 2027. The region is already set to host the finals of the Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship in 2025 and the first and second rounds of the Division I Men's Basketball championship in 2026.
“It all feeds into each other and it feeds into the future,” Schreiber said. “By doing these events and by being successful, you put yourself on the map. And that’s something we’ve established over time with the NCAA: they can trust St. Louis.”
It puts the region in a solid position to vie for other significant NCAA championships, like the Women’s Volleyball National Championship, he said. Schreiber added the three NCAA events between 2025 and 2027 could generate as much as $50 million in local economic impact.
“It’s a really impressive thing to be able to say this activity coming to just Enterprise Center is going to have that return on our community,” he said.
The 2027 wrestling championship is significant for the region because of how competitive the bid process is, said University of Missouri Wrestling Coach Brian Smith. Earlier in his life, he spent four years on the committee that selects where the championship would go and reviewed bids from dozens of cities wanting the wrestling championship.
“By having a national championship in your backyard, young kids go to these events and watch it and say, ‘I want to be there,’” Smith said. “It is special how the community buys into this.”
The University of Missouri and the St. Louis Sports Commission are the hosts of the competition at the Enterprise Center, which recently underwent renovations that Schreiber credits for part of the successful bid.
St. Louis Blues and Enterprise Center President & CEO Chris Zimmerman agrees.
“It’s so many levels of commitment to compete against other cities, new arenas that are beautiful,” he said. “I feel like a proud parent. We’ve got all these great chances where our city, our building and our community (can) come together and shine.”
St. Lous Mayor Tishaura Jones said the NCAA championships give more people exposure to the region’s assets.
“Fans will get to enjoy our incredible art scene, our world class restaurants, our beautiful parks,” she said. “Large events like these are key to the continued revitalization of Downtown St. Louis, which serves as the cultural hub for our region.”
It’s a sentiment Jason Hall, CEO of Greater St. Louis Inc., also expressed. He emphasized their new program of unarmed ambassadors aimed at boosting safety downtown.
“It matters, because when you bring young athletes, when you bring their families, and they're visiting here for this sporting event, the only thing they're going to see is like these three square miles of St Louis,” Hall said.
And that experience can color people’s opinion of the entire region of 2.8 million people for better or for worse, he said.
“If they can’t get past this front door, we can’t sell them on anything else,” Hall said. “This has to be best in class.”
