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

StateChampion2012 said:
Very false. The only way to way to get there from western Ohio Is route 30. Since I know you've never driven route 30 across the state, it sucks more than Courtney Love in a crackhouse.
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Route 30 should be dubbed the “MAC Highway” since it’s annually filled with MAC-sters heading to Canton.
 
Wile E Coyote No GIF by Looney Tunes
 
LICKING COUNTY FAN said:
I will say after spending time in the pressbox during the finals last year, this has to IMO the way the media and officials are treated. The actual crowd size continues to dwindle to such low numbers that the place looks empty.
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Same material from you for 20 years. You still haven't changed a thing. But I can set my watch by you complaining about Canton. Frankly it's sad at this point.
 
McK93 said:
Same material from you for 20 years. You still haven't changed a thing. But I can set my watch by you complaining about Canton. Frankly it's sad at this point.
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The mini NFL stadium is a great place for a game like many I do not think the finals should be there.
Glad you know of me sadly I have never or remember ever seeing a post from you on here.
 
LICKING COUNTY FAN said:
The mini NFL stadium is a great place for a game like many I do not think the finals should be there.
Glad you know of me sadly I have never or remember ever seeing a post from you on here.
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Yes, we know. From every thread with any relation to finals location will have your post chiming in how you just don't feel they need to be here. Rinse, repeat.
 
McK93 said:
Yes, we know. From every thread with any relation to finals location will have your post chiming in how you just don't feel they need to be here. Rinse, repeat.
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Have a good night and be sure to continue reading my post and telling everyone who says that the games do not need to be held in Canton how wrong they are. You have your work cut out for you.
 
I said 2 things in my long post a few back that bear repeating. 1st, is IF it is in fact true that the Basketball State Finals are being held in SWO each year these days... then there is nothing wrong with having the Football Playoff Title Games in Canton. Everybody gets a long drive once a year, & what Ohioans consider a long drive is totally laughable West of the Mississippi River. (I know, everything is relative...) It'd be nice if Massillon or Kent State or Akron U. would join in with Canton, but I gathered from earlier posts that Tigertown folk are sick of excessive OHSAA demands. As if the OHSAA are the World Olympic Committee or something; the absolute specialists in ridiculous unreasonable demands.) And the colleges seem to be indifferent for whatever reasons they have. I think it'd be a good way to showcase your facilities to prospective recruits & even just potential enrolling students, but I guess I'm the only one. Unless there is some NCAA rule hampering them, which would also figure.

The 2nd point is you have to bid to host the games. So... if someone wants the games in SWO bad enough, then someone down there has to start agitating for some entity to put together an attractive bid for somewhere down South. Nippert? Miami U.? Paul Brown? (Or whatever it's new corporate name is...) Welcome? Even Peden at Ohio U. or even a good-sized HS Stadium (Elder?), because attendance is way down & it probably isn't ever going back to the days of the packed Akron Rubber Bowl Title games. Kids, Hell even Adults (time flies) have too many electronic distractions today. And that doesn't ever figure to change, either.
 
@Calif_Eagle
There are no NCAA rules preventing the colleges from hosting. I have previously listed a plethora of reasons why no D-I colleges or NFL teams are interested or able to host. I can list a bunch of them off again if you are interested.

The colleges aren't indifferent about hosting, they might be interested in hosting if their facilities were cheaper to operate and had less overhead and operating expenses then what is the actual case and if they didn't have conflicts on campus either at, adjacent to or nearby the stadium. Incidentally the week before and week of the championship games is a popular week for events on campus such as career fairs. Contrary to popular belief colleges are first and foremost places of higher learning not sports teams, the career fair or other like activity will always be priority over hosting high school games.
 
simkon said:
@Calif_Eagle
There are no NCAA rules preventing the colleges from hosting. I have previously listed a plethora of reasons why no D-I colleges or NFL teams are interested or able to host. I can list a bunch of them off again if you are interested.

The colleges aren't indifferent about hosting, they might be interested in hosting if their facilities were cheaper to operate and had less overhead and operating expenses then what is the actual case and if they didn't have conflicts on campus either at, adjacent to or nearby the stadium. Incidentally the week before and week of the championship games is a popular week for events on campus such as career fairs. Contrary to popular belief colleges are first and foremost places of higher learning not sports teams, the career fair or other like activity will always be priority over hosting high school games.
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No need to list them, I am sure they have their reasons. I think they would get a nice showcase myself, but if they don't think so, well... I am not in charge of what they do. I don't suggest that any school prioritize football over education, although I am sure we all know that plenty do.

It's funny though, for years when I lived in Ohio, Kent State hosted the NEO Regional Basketball Tournament to send our rep to Columbus for the State Finals. Which was played for years at St. John Arena, the then-home of Ohio State basketball. If I were the head football coach at Akron or KSU or Ohio or even the other D-1 schools I would want my school to do this. Perhaps there are contact issues with the players, and the schools don't want to risk accusations of unfair recruiting practices or advantages. IDK and it doesn't matter. It's just my opinion, I have no dog in the pit as to what any of them actually do.
 
Not going to happen, with a grass field and the MLS season starting in February. But in my fantasy world, Lower.com Field, just for the ****show over the cost of concessions and Arena District parking.
 
@Calif_Eagle Apparently a lot of event staff is shared and they don't have enough staff to staff multiple events in one night. For instance if the university is hosting another athletic contest or school event they would not have adequate staffing for the football stadium. I was re-reading an email I got some time back from someone in a position of authority with a MAC school who explained that no one in their right mind would want to host if they won't even make a profit. Apparently when larger college stadiums host they usually do so without making a profit and actually losing a considerable amount of money at the end of the day. The OHSAA's flat fee and policy regarding what money the OHSAA takes and what the host gets and what and how much can be charged for any given thing (ie parking, concessions, admission etc).
 
I asked a former athletics administrator at a Division III college why they didn't offer to host a district or regional basketball tournament.
Basically, his response was 1) they have difficulty finding people to work THEIR games and 2) more importantly, the gym is booked nearly every night for intercollegiate games and practices and intramurals.
 
simkon said:
@Calif_Eagle Apparently a lot of event staff is shared and they don't have enough staff to staff multiple events in one night. For instance if the university is hosting another athletic contest or school event they would not have adequate staffing for the football stadium. I was re-reading an email I got some time back from someone in a position of authority with a MAC school who explained that no one in their right mind would want to host if they won't even make a profit. Apparently when larger college stadiums host they usually do so without making a profit and actually losing a considerable amount of money at the end of the day. The OHSAA's flat fee and policy regarding what money the OHSAA takes and what the host gets and what and how much can be charged for any given thing (ie parking, concessions, admission etc).
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I guess the OHSAA is lucky that Canton wants to host the games, then. Because it appears that no one else even wants to, which would leave OHSAA up the creek that stinks, with no paddle, and a sinking ship. If Canton dropped out, OHSAA would either have to suddenly be a lot more reasonable (just as an aside, like the Olympics are going to have to be with their excessive site demands.) or else switch to a model where the games are played at the participants own Stadium. Higher seed / Harbins host or at least get to select a site if they are going to rent another field like Byers Field in Parma, just as an example, in order to get adequate seating. (I guess that's called something else these days too according to OhioStadiums.com)

It also makes this whole thread's premise moot. What's the debate about if SWO SEO NWO or Central Ohio can't even come up with a bidder?

EDIT: Btw... I gave what I thought was a pretty good reason for a college to host. Regardless if they lose money, or not, as long as it's not a horrendous amount. I think there is a benefit there, but then again, the Presidents and AD's are willing to totally wreck college football with Conference realignment in pursuit of more TV money. So I guess they have the mind set of Hollywood studio executives these days. "It's all about the Benjamins."
 
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Is attendance dropping at these games, sure. But you have to look at other items. While ticket sales are done, the OHSAA gets money from Spectrum to televise the games. ON top of that the OHSAA gets money from games that are streamed from non spectrum customers. Games streamed make up for the loss of ticket revenue. Also remember the extra week of games is free money to the OHSAA.

Now hosting games. People have to take into consideration more than just attendance. You need the infrastructure of the stadium press box to accommodate the media covering the game. Not just writers but other broadcast outlets. do they have the capacity and infrastructure to do this.
While many gripe about Canton's location, remember its a Mini NFL stadium that checks off the requirements needed to put a game on.
 
@Calif_Eagle
As an aside when Akron hosted the playoff game last year between Hoban and SV-SM they did so at a huge loss. Apparently there is a minimum number of security, ushers, concessions workers, janitors, groundsmen, parking attendants, and other personnel required for any game or contest held at a University of Akron facility. Not to mention the expense of the stadium lighting for the field and the electricity for everything else, the sewer and water bill. Between the flat fee and what little amount the University could make, it ended losing them a lot of money. It would not be smart to sing up to lose a lot of money in 7 games a year everyyear. Also I don't think very many people paid for parking for the game they hosted last year, but I could be mistaken.
 
fballfan said:
Now hosting games. People have to take into consideration more than just attendance. You need the infrastructure of the stadium press box to accommodate the media covering the game. Not just writers but other broadcast outlets. do they have the capacity and infrastructure to do this.
While many gripe about Canton's location, remember its a Mini NFL stadium that checks off the requirements needed to put a game on.
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Not just press/VIP facilities. What high school would even come close to having the necessary parking? There would be the issues of having adequate locker room facilities for multiple games, and having to shut down school for a couple days.
 
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.
 
Sykotyk said:
Because no one else wants to host?

Ohio State does, the Crew haven't expressed interest in it, and the Canton setup is the only thing going aside from maybe a high school here or there might be interested. So they're going to cater to the one group that still wants them.

This WAS the same setup in PA for a while. Hershey had the games by default as eventually no one else was putting in bids. But then for new bids last time, it was Hershey, Altoona, Penn State and Cumberland Valley HS. And shocker was CVHS won. Most thought they were returning to Altoona after decades in Hershey. And Penn State was a long shot due to the cost.
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The Crew no longer have anything to do with their old home stadium, as far as I am aware--so what difference does it make whether "the Crew haven't expressed interest in it"-- they wouldn't (and SHOULDN'T) be involved in bringing the games to Columbus and the Crew's FORMER stadium, anyway.
 
4GX said:
The Crew no longer have anything to do with their old home stadium, as far as I am aware--so what difference does it make whether "the Crew haven't expressed interest in it"-- they wouldn't (and SHOULDN'T) be involved in bringing the games to Columbus and the Crew's FORMER stadium, anyway.
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They still use the old complex for training. And they still run the facility.
 
eaglesfan216 said:
Such a uniquely Ohio problem. If any other state had the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Tom Benson Stadium they would play the games there. Yes, Ohio Stadium is a legendary venue. But as others said, it's way too big. And an unfortunate truth for the Buckeye fans in the state is your Buckeyes really don't care about the Division 5 state final. They are looking for players in Texas and Florida instead. They are indifferent at best about the title games being there. Canton embraces it.
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As far as being to big so is Benson. Again it is a great place but if size is brought into it then as said it too is to big.
 
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I like Canton for the games. I know crowds have been smaller, but you also can't know the demand ahead of time. I like idea of making sure seats are available
 
EagleFan said:
I like Canton for the games. I know crowds have been smaller, but you also can't know the demand ahead of time. I like idea of making sure seats are available
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There's absolutely no way to predict it. A lot of teams do have increasing attendance (Jackson stunningly is one) and I'm sympathetic to the argument of a neutral site between the two schools playing but it just seems very unrealistic financially. It's basically that or Canton.
 
Ironton alum perspective...
I think there's a definite advantage when one team in a title game has 4-5 hours of travel and the other has - say - 1 hour. I'd like to see a more centrally located site.
Having said that, a few more thoughts come to mind...
*I know a bid must be put in to host.
*A more centrally located site would not have mattered in Ironton's recent title games. They got "out-everythinged".
*We've never won where the games are now. We won in the Rubber Bowl and in the Shoe. Maybe that's weighing on my subconscious.
 
Is Dayton public still under suspension in regards to hosting playoff and tournament games? For some reason I thought that was part of the game throwing debacle. I could see them Putting in a bid in the near future with the remodel of welcome. That would buy some good pr in the area for the remodel.
 
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