The bid to host the NCAA wrestling championships in Des Moines has been rejected, NCAA officials announced Thursday.

Instead, the three-day championship event will be held in St. Louis in 2008 and ’09, in Omaha in 2010, and in Philadelphia in 2011.

Officials said the Des Moines bid to host the event at the Wells Fargo Arena failed to meet the NCAA’s preference to have a minimum capacity of 16,000 seats. In addition, officials said construction of the arena hadn’t been completed at the time of the site visit by the NCAA wrestling committee.

“This was a very difficult decision for us among all five of the finalists,” Tom Bold, former chairman of the NCAA wrestling committee and an associate athletic director at Brown University. “Because the building was still under construction, it was difficult for us to envision how the building would look when completed.”

Iowa State University officials offered a $1.1 million guarantee, based on projected ticket revenues of $1.9 million or an average of more than 14,000 fans per session.

In July, NCAA officials named Des Moines as a host site for the first and second rounds of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in 2008. Eight teams will play in Des Moines from March 22-25.

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