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We are now more than one month past the final whistle of the 2025 NCAA Championships, which I think has been enough time to recover from the festivities and digest the events and experiences Philadelphia had to offer. So, in this quick article, I’ll give my thoughts and critiques of this year’s host city based on a few usual criteria: Hotels Even though you might spend a couple hours awake in one, you still need somewhere to put your bags. With the amount of people coming into the host city, hotels (and ones within a reasonable budget) can disappear fast. Air Fare/Travel - To and From Being that the tourney was happening on my home mat, I didn't have to fly out of the beautiful PHL. Still had to get into the city though…. Food and Drink The fuel to keep you going all day and night. Walkability Getting around to and from the venue as well as getting to restaurants, attractions, and stores when not watching wrestling. Wrestling Venue Seats, Food, and WiFi signal. The holy trinity of a venue. On to the evaluation: Hotels: Maybe because it’s Pennsylvania, but once the calendar opened up to start booking it seemed like every hotel jumped up their prices per night by 75%.As will be talked about in another part of this evaluation, Philly is set up differently than most other sports cities. The sports complexes sit way south with really nowhere to stay except for the oddest-looking Holiday Inn you could ever imagine. Live! Casino is also a short walk away from the stadiums, but those prices jumped to ridiculous rates (something like $750+/night for a standard room) as well. I was lucky to find the Cambria Hotel near City Hall for about $200/night on average (a Choice Hotel property). Good hotel with, a nice bed and pillows, a very nice stay. “B+.” The room itself was better than the one I had in Kansas City a year prior. Lots of hotels to choose from, but unless you got in early they weren't necessarily budget-friendly. Airfare/Travel For me, I live about 40 min outside the city (30 depending on traffic and if no cops are on Rt 95). I got a ride into Philly and got a ride out from Philly. Very low cost for me. I am interested to hear from others and their experience flying to one of America's top airports (annually rated as one of the worst airports in America) For me, Travel was an “A+”, but I'm going to assume for others it was more of a “C”. Food and Drink If you attended NCAAs in 2011, the last time Philadelphia hosted, you might remember there being basically nothing outside the stadium for food and refreshments.. Well, now there's Xfinity Live! and Live! Casino…. And a Chickie’s and Pete’s if you’re ok with walking 15 minutes. But other than that, still basically nothing. If you were willing to brave the packed bars in Xfinity or at the Casino, good on you. For others looking to savor all the culinary treats Philly had to offer, there were plenty of options for any palate. Even though it was a 10-15 min rideshare or subway ride back to center city, it was close enough to find a place, sit and eat, and get back in time for the next session. From the Reading Terminal Market, the tourist traps that are Geno’s and Pat’s, or for the real ones who knew better and went to Angelo’s and/or John’s Roast Pork, to those who hit up one of the many bars splattered around the city. No one should have gone hungry this year. On top of the number of options, unlike in the Midwest, things stayed open until at least 2am… like a normal functioning city does. We don't operate like Detroit where bars close at 10pm on St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Put me down for an “A-”. Philadelphia had a cuisine and budget for everyone, but the (-) hit comes with location. A city gets a big bump from me when there's food and drink readily available outside the venue, whereas in Philly it requires a short trip from the stadiums (costing money with rideshare or subway) to get to the wide array that was available. Walkability Going hand-in-hand with the Food review above, you could basically copy-paste it. Even with the Hotel section comes into play. It wasn’t terrible, and if your goal was to drink and get something to fill your belly (like a $20 Super Pretzel), then Xfinity Live was your place and you could walk there quicker than saying “I can’t believe Gable Steveson lost that match.” But if you wanted to hit the best bars, restaurants, and other notable food/attractions spots (which would probably be most of you), then at least four times a day you had to get some sort of transportation. The subway was a close walk to the arena, rideshares were easy to get, and if you had in-and-out privileges with your hotel’s valet or garage, you could also get free parking at the Casino (a slightly longer walk, but still not bad). I can't speak for the coaches and athletes, but I would assume they may not have liked the accessibility. I’ll give walkability a “B” even with needing to take some sort of costly transportation. Wrestling Venue This is always a little difficult to judge. There were seats in an arena that pointed to the floor where eight mats were rolled out. We as fans are very simple creatures when it comes to the wants and needs of a wrestling venue. That said, Wells Fargo Center seemed to provide a very good experience when it came to entering through security checks and exiting from the end of a session. Even on Saturday night with the President in attendance, security checks seemed to go quickly and smoothly. As for the food and drink selection, it was varied… and expensive ($20ish for a domestic pounder). Pizza, shack burger, cheesesteaks, ice cream, and all the other usual suspects marked up 2-3X normal pricing. WiFi signal is also an important feature to have for the fans, and unlike last year where phones checking Trackwrestling or Twitter were lagging hard, the Wells Fargo Center had very little if any issues with connectivity. As previously noted, Philly has its sports stadiums away from the heart of the city, which was one downside. Overall though, it did the job. Venue I will give an “A.” No complaints from me. ***************** Maybe it's hometown bias, but I thought Philly was a great host city. Aside from the location of the arena to hotels, there were bars, restaurants, and entertainment available throughout the whole day and nights when you were not occupied by watching wrestling. Hopefully, it doesn't take another 15ish years before Philly hosts again.