OHSAA Wants To Continue To Play State Football Title Games In Canton...WHY?

I am an Akron Alumnus and the one thing I could always count on was the football team having a losing season, and despite all their recruiting efforts they are almost always one of the worst teams in the MAC if not the worst any given season. So it is safe to say that them hosting high school games is not helping on that front. I don't think there is much for the MAC/mid-major and I-AA teams to gain from hosting. It was already known that OSU was not benefitting, since they couldn't be bothered to host anymore. Maybe it would help sway decisions for D-II and D-III schools, but that remains to be seen.
 
Stirred not Shaken said:
I agree with you, but Central Ohio is booming as is SW Ohio (not as much) whereas NEO growth is stagnant at best, and attd. has not been good at Canton. Maybe play the games where the people are.
Click to expand...
I understand what you are saying. At the same time as others mentioned, someone in Central Ohio needs to make a bid.

Also we are only talking about 1 game a year that a team HAS to travel across the state. The reason to travel for that 1 game is to play for the state championship. If that is the cross fans need to carry, so be it as that is not bad proposition at all.

Like I said in an earlier post, WPIAL and D10/9 teams travel 4+ hours to go to the location of the PA State Championships. The W PA team and fans have it rougher than their Ohio counterparts as they have to travel through mountain ranges in mid-December and PennDot is worse than ODot at clearing roads. Outside of the Marietta and Cincy area, the rest of Ohio is flat as can be.
 
serpico said:
Are bids publicly acknowledged by the OHSAA? Do we KNOW who has put bids in?
Click to expand...
Yes it is published in the newspspers I know for sure.
Pretty recently the following entities put in a bid: Ohio State, Columbus Crew, Dublin Coffman, Canton/Tom Benson, PBTS/Massillon, Cincinnati both Bengals and University of Cincinnati, Cleveland Browns, the University of Akron and the University of Toledo.
This was the reply from the OHSAA:
“All of the larger venues had a significant rental fee on their bid for the stadium,” Stried said. “We had two bids that had no rental fee, that actually gave us a financial guarantee. The larger venues also had a clause in their bid that would have taken a percentage of each ticket sale. That’s pretty unfavorable financially.”
The article was implying that Canton and Massillon charged no facility rental fees or the like, while all the others were charging fees and wanted a cut of the ticket sales.
 
goshengophers said:
Considering Kent State's stadium is a mile from campus I'm not sure what part of it prospective students might see without binoculars.
Click to expand...
That's a very good point! I remember when the old stadium was right near the big cafeteria in the center of campus, maybe even on the very same site. Dix IS out there, when I attended KSU for a year as a dorm student I had a spectacular view of Dix Stadium and the surrounding farmland from my room on 9th floor of Leebrick Hall in the Tri-Towers, especially in Fall when the leaves were turning. (Farmland back then, anyway, may be developed today : ( Their attendance might be better than it was (Is?) had they put it closer to campus. Having a winning team would help too. (With Akron U. and KSU both being close to Cleveland, Canton, Youngstown-Warren area, and actually within, or just 8 miles from, the Akron city limits, one would think they would both have better football teams and traditions than they do. Topic for another thread, in another forum, it just came to mind.)
 
simkon said:
Yes, it is published in the newspapers I know for sure.
Pretty recently the following entities put in a bid: Ohio State, Columbus Crew, Dublin Coffman, Canton/Tom Benson, PBTS/Massillon, Cincinnati both Bengals and University of Cincinnati, Cleveland Browns, the University of Akron and the University of Toledo.
This was the reply from the OHSAA:
“All of the larger venues had a significant rental fee on their bid for the stadium,” Stried said. “We had two bids that had no rental fee, that actually gave us a financial guarantee. The larger venues also had a clause in their bid that would have taken a percentage of each ticket sale. That’s pretty unfavorable financially.”
The article was implying that Canton and Massillon charged no facility rental fees or the like, while all the others were charging fees and wanted a cut of the ticket sales.
Click to expand...
I wonder what Dublin Coffman's bid was like? Does anyone know? I looked up their stadium and it seats 8500 which is probably adequate for at least the bottom 5 Divisions. IDK what the press facilities would be like, or if they have any partner schools helping them with the bid. Doesn't look any VIP facilities so I suppose the OHSAA rejected them out of hand.
 
Calif_Eagle said:
I wonder what Dublin Coffman's bid was like? Does anyone know? I looked up their stadium and it seats 8500 which is probably adequate for at least the bottom 5 Divisions. IDK what the press facilities would be like, or if they have any partner schools helping them with the bid. Doesn't look any VIP facilities so I suppose the OHSAA rejected them out of hand.
Click to expand...
I think they were initially told the seating capacity was not adequate to host all divisions, so they partnered with the Crew or OSU (can't remember which), and Coffman would only host D-VI & D-VII. The lighting and press box was also determined to be inadequate for TV, and I think they said there was not enough parking. I think the other problem was their partner charged a large facility fee and wanted a cut of the ticket sales.
 
champion said:
I have attended most state finals in both basketball and football for the last 30 years. The games being in Columbus were great for proximity. However, both Canton and Dayton do much better jobs hosting the games and the facilities create a much better environment for the games. Coming from NE Ohio to Dayton kind of stinks but the extra time in the car is absolutely outweighed by the totality of the weekend. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...
I feel the same way coming from SW Ohio to Canton. I've gladly driven the 3.5 hours to the state finals many years. Well worth the drive.
 
simkon said:
I think they were initially told the seating capacity was not adequate to host all divisions, so they partnered with the Crew or OSU (can't remember which), and Coffman would only host D-VI & D-VII. The lighting and press box was also determined to be inadequate for TV, and I think they said there was not enough parking. I think the other problem was their partner charged a large facility fee and wanted a cut of the ticket sales.
Click to expand...
So they got blown out of the water on multiple counts. Thanx for the info, I appreciate it! (y) My surface reaction was that maybe they had something there, except 8500 seats isn't enough for the top 2 (at least) Divisions in my opinion. With a partner like the Crew, I thought it might fly as they would need at least one bigger stadium. If Massillon is there at seasons end, they'd most likely sell more than 8500 tickets the first day they were on sale.
 
AllSports12 said:
Renovations or not, Welcome Stadium is a terrible venue to play in for the teams and the fans.
Click to expand...
It sits smack in the middle of a wind tunnel. It's had a major effect on every game I've worked there over the years.

For the fans, the seats are so far from the field. The rather flat slope of the seats leaves the top seats at the 50 almost 80 yards from the middle of the field. (and the wind ;) )

One final thing to remember, Welcome Stadium is owned by the Dayton Public Schools. UD knows how to put on a tournament (the best in the state). They won't be involved in this.
 
simkon said:
I think they were initially told the seating capacity was not adequate to host all divisions, so they partnered with the Crew or OSU (can't remember which), and Coffman would only host D-VI & D-VII. The lighting and press box was also determined to be inadequate for TV, and I think they said there was not enough parking. I think the other problem was their partner charged a large facility fee and wanted a cut of the ticket sales.
Click to expand...
So much for this fantasy about a high school field hosting the finals. At least one inside or close to 270, anyway.
 
carnholio said:
So much for this fantasy about a high school field hosting the finals. At least one inside or close to 270, anyway.
Click to expand...
The only high school stadiums large enough to host all divisions are Welcome, Byers, PBTS, Mollenkoff, Arlin, Benson (McKinley), and possibly Greenwood (ample room and ideal area for temporary seats if needed). The other stadiums that seat 10,000 or more don't have a good place to set up any temporary seating. Based off several articles from the past the magic number seems to be 11,000 seats minimum. Also from the articles Tim Stried said that all the NFL and Division I-A venues were too large/expensive/cost prohibitive. Historic Crew was not too large by all indications, just cost prohibitive the last time they bid.

There are not too many stadiums with at least 11,000 seats but not larger than Benson.
The problem is also that stadiums larger than about 20,000 capacity are generally exponentially more expensive to operate than high school stadiums.
 
The best place to host the games is Massillon. There is no better choice. Disagree? Give us a stadium that checks more boxes.

Having said that, I'm not advocating for it. Until and unless OHSAA changes their priorities and demands, go elsewhere.
 
Has any thread begun by RadioDave had anything close to the response of this guaranteed repeat of every "argument" endlessly bellowed every year ?
 
simkon said:
All of the larger venues had a significant rental fee on their bid for the stadium,” Stried said. “We had two bids that had no rental fee, that actually gave us a financial guarantee. The larger venues also had a clause in their bid that would have taken a percentage of each ticket sale. That’s pretty unfavorable financially.”
Click to expand...
So decisions aren't made for players or fans, but for OHSAA and their bottom line.
 
I love how the central and SW fans piss and moan about traveling to Canton but they have NO PROBLEM saying we should go to Dayton for everything. At least be consistent.
 
MCGal said:
I love how the central and SW fans piss and moan about traveling to Canton but they have NO PROBLEM saying we should go to Dayton for everything. At least be consistent.
Click to expand...
Uh it's closer to being centrally located than NEO. If it's not going to be centrally located it should be an effort to rotate around the state. (I know I know people in these areas have to bid)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top