Tennessean's article on Format Change

[PHargis]

The Tennessean's Tom Kreager's article on attendance and the State Tournament was very pertinant but this site has been saying the same thing for about three years and the sport has nothing to do with it. State Tournaments are great but need to be changed up ever so often. Just the same as the High School presentation of the same events. The presentation is not something that the TSSAA entirely has something to do with and is the direct responsibility of each school administration but if the article is right, non discussion of the proposal that was made was not the right thing to do and when I read it as it was written the day before, it stuck out like a sore thumb. But why does a school wait until that time frame to make a proposal and why should there not be a standing committee for all State Tournaments take a look at the PRESENTATION. One can blame the attendance on just about anything or anyone but the fact remains the PRESENTATION and the orginality needs to be freshened at every event and what is a little discouraging about the matter, here is the presentations of the STATE TOURNAMENTS being put on by an arm of the Tennessee Schools System, one of the focal points of newness, freshness and orginality in the State and not to have a presentation with some of that sticking out is not only obviously missing but without much thought. For a fact, there are people in the School System who absolutely know how to put on a a presentation to draw a crowd but if in some area's that is not the case, maybe the schools need to look at that aspect to show off what they are doing. Likely their attendance is not only down but there is a reason. There is some great Talent in Tennessee Schools.

[riverdaleman]

OK Phargis you got me on this one WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT what do they mean by a presentation

[PHargis]

OK Phargis you got me on this one WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT what do they mean by a presentation

Presentation means adding things which will make people want to come to the event. halftime fillers. Fillers before and after. And to say thatg MTSU doesnot do a lot of that at their games, come on RD. There's a tremendous gymnastic group out of Portland or Greenbrier that does some of the most amazing presentations pne can imagine. there is some amazing singing talent at Schools that will addto the event and after all, we are in one of the mecca of mucical talent in the United States. Schools in this State have great talent and though their school, to its schedule has a hard time, and its admitted, to have a school close to the Boro in the finals win a State Tournament and not have hardly any students there should have been understood by someone and found a way to get that done. something should have been thoughtful enough about that. And what about some incentive to allow BORO schools to attend thye games, so you sayBlackman was there but what aboutthe other 7AAA schools and a drawing card for them. Whose great Dance team performed at halftime or any other time at the event? And who introduced any celebrities that were at the games? Was players introductions what an event of that magnatude should have? Or was it a High School Game in a bigger building? And what would have been interesting to the Players and fans particularly at the girls tournament would have been the introduction of the MTSU Girls Basketball Team, NCAA participants and full of Tennessee Players and Coached by an ex Tennessee High Coach and Even if other coaches were ther to introduce them, particularly if Pat was there and some of the vols. And it goes on and on, non stop. Having some of the great singing of the national Anthem by some of the great music groups in the state. So what is this, the teams representing the best of Basketball in Tennessee with a lot of other people who represent the best they do in Tennessee.RD, do Ineed to go on any farther or would you like to add something else.

 

AND ADVERTISE IT AND TELL US WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN Every day.

[11sportsfan]

I think the best idea would be hold the boys and girls state tournament at the same time without cutting it to four teams each.

 

 

Instead of staring on Wednesday, start on Monday and play more games each day.

 

Bring back night games.

 

The only problem I can see is when to play the boy's sectional game whick is currently played on Monday night.

 

Maybe play boys and girls sectional games during the week after the regionals then play the combined state tournament the same time that the boys is currently being played.

 

This would increase attendance, allow more fans to see both girls and boys teams in action and cut down overhead expenses for the TSSAA as well!

[PHargis]

I think the best idea would be hold the boys and girls state tournament at the same time without cutting it to four teams each.

 

 

Instead of staring on Wednesday, start on Monday and play more games each day.

 

Bring back night games.

 

The only problem I can see is when to play the boy's sectional game whick is currently played on Monday night.

 

Maybe play boys and girls sectional games during the week after the regionals then play the combined state tournament the same time that the boys is currently being played.

 

This would increase attendance, allow more fans to see both girls and boys teams in action and cut down overhead expenses for the TSSAA as well!

Good Thought

[BigBobcatMCHS]

Good Thought

 

 

 

Girls sectionals should be on Friday and boys on Saturday. Then On Wednesday through Saturday the first round of the tournament should be played with both boys and girls teams playing and with AAA playing on Wednesday and Thursday nad then AA on Thursday and Friday and A on Friday and Saturday with 6 games a day just like now. We then come back the following Wednesday with AAA semis boys and girls along with AA girls for 6 games, Thursday is AA boys and A girls and boys. Then on Friday you play at 2, 4, & 6 with AAA girls, AAA boys and AA girls and on Saturday at the same times AA boys, A girls & A boys. This way the boys dont have to wait as long and every team gets a day off during the 2nd week. Currently one of the AA schools get a day off and one doesnt which isnt fair.

 

AA & A should get the Friday and Saturday games because the small towns send alot more people than most of the inner city schools in AAA.

 

The TSSAA has also cut thier own throat by arranging it so that there can only be 2 west tennessee teams including Memphis. If you take out rural west tn then the crowds will be alot smaller, especially if Memphis knocks them all out becasue they bring very few fans. Just look at the crowds that Madison, Givson Co, Humboldt and Bolivar brought the last 2 weeks.

[Guest iamoz]

Article: http://dnj.com/article/20090320/SPORTS08/9...321/1006/SPORTS

 

Going back to Tom's column... The last tournament we should be comparing ours to is Kentucky's.

 

Key differences:

Kentucky has only one classification. Being the state champion is a big deal because there is only one per year. Not five.The girls' tournament is an after-thought. It's held at a different location (and incidently brings in only 25% the revenue to the KHSAA than the boys' tournament).There are fewer games leading up the state tournament. There are approximately 140 more games in Tennessee's post-season tournaments. And, maybe more importantly, teams in Tennessee can lose up to three games in the post-season and still make the state tournament.

 

For all of our wishing and hoping we need to find a better comparison... and we may have to look pretty far. Several other surrounding states have 4-6 basketball classes (to match football). That's doesn't make for a good comparison either since many don't have all their championships at a central location.

 

We should be proud (especially on this forum) that our girls are treated so well. Some states play girls' basketball in the fall and many (if not most) do not treat the girls' tournaments the same as the boys'... pushing them off into smaller venues with fewer resources and attention. The girls' game is well supported here.

 

That's all for now. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

[jimbo44]

Article: http://dnj.com/article/20090320/SPORTS08/9...321/1006/SPORTS

 

Going back to Tom's column... The last tournament we should be comparing ours to is Kentucky's.

 

Key differences:

Kentucky has only one classification. Being the state champion is a big deal because there is only one per year. Not five.The girls' tournament is an after-thought. It's held at a different location (and incidently brings in only 25% the revenue to the KHSAA than the boys' tournament).There are fewer games leading up the state tournament. In Tennessee, there are more than 480 (x2 for girls) games played after the regular season ends and before the state tournament begins. In Kentucky there are only 136 (x2 for girls) in that same time span.

 

For all of our wishing and hoping we need to find a better comparison... and we may have to look pretty far. Several other surrounding states have 4-6 basketball classes (to match football). That's doesn't make for a good comparison either since many don't have all their championships at a central location.

 

We should be proud (especially on this forum) that our girls are treated so well. Some states play girls' basketball in the fall and many (if not most) do not treat the girls' tournaments the same as the boys'... pushing them off into smaller venues with fewer resources and attention. The girls' game here is well supported here.

 

That's all for now. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

 

 

Amen.

 

Don't fix it, if it ain't broke. /ph34r.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":ph34r:" border="0" alt="ph34r.gif" />

[riverdaleman]

iamoz brings up a good point blackman got beat 2 times in district and then once in region and still advanced to state...they got beat one time by 40 points and the next week are on their way to state...baseball only 2 teams from each district advance so they could do that in basketball as well....

phargis no one is going to go to the state tournament because someone is singing or the dance team is performing except maybe a few parents of those kids...I did not attend the state tournament because my LADY WARRIORS were not in it ...now if they were in it then it would be nice if some halftimers were there or something like that but i do not believe it would increase the attendance....to improve attendance you need teams with good fan support to make it to state its as simple as that...when we made it and won state we had a lot of fans their but our opponent in the championship game only had about 20-30 fans there it was just a small group the rest of Murphy Center had a lot of LADY WARRIOR fans all over the place...plain and simple

[PHargis]

The other side to it might be holding the Tournament too long in one location may make it stagnent and best be left closer to the fans home so the main cost would not be overnight stay and more fans and STUDENTS can see their own school play without losing so much school time. Holding tournaments together unless you reduce the amount of teams that play will not achieve that. But if you are going to continue holding it in a central location and for goodness sake, there are enough divisions, much more thought needs to be taken to make the event better attended and more of a spectacle in the same time frame to hold the fan. Now it seems there is no interest in staying and no interest in remaining to spend money, with even the short time, so the fans and students are going to have to have a value and a reason to want to stay and by the way a reason to come to start with. It is not made easy with some schools,for them to get to the Tournament. So it might have been easier to get them to the tournament and at least have them in the building than let the seats sit there unused and pay for the building unused. But has been said, there are enough states around that have the same problem that a model of a better way has to be able to be found and a gut feeling of holding as much of the tournament closer to where its fans are and then at the end transfering everything to a central area is the best combination but might not require as big of a central location.

Now one other thing was noticed. The time frame from the District Tournament to the State was so compressed that this year everyone seemed to run out of money and were not even attuned to traveling. The District crowds seemed to be well attended. The substate less attended, much less and logistically all four teams could have played together in one building boys and girls and the state was what the state was. Internet radio did seem to help and more made an effort to listen than you would thought. So translating advertising dollars into money might have helped the downfall in gate revenue.

[PHargis]

iamoz brings up a good point blackman got beat 2 times in district and then once in region and still advanced to state...they got beat one time by 40 points and the next week are on their way to state...baseball only 2 teams from each district advance so they could do that in basketball as well....

phargis no one is going to go to the state tournament because someone is singing or the dance team is performing except maybe a few parents of those kids...I did not attend the state tournament because my LADY WARRIORS were not in it ...now if they were in it then it would be nice if some halftimers were there or something like that but i do not believe it would increase the attendance....to improve attendance you need teams with good fan support to make it to state its as simple as that...when we made it and won state we had a lot of fans their but our opponent in the championship game only had about 20-30 fans there it was just a small group the rest of Murphy Center had a lot of LADY WARRIOR fans all over the place...plain and simple

Then what if you have teams without good fan support. What do you do and WHAT caused to decline in fan support to start with. IMO, it starts developing that with the Schools themselves and remains with the attitude of a couple of posters a few days ago, in that, it always been that way and why do we need to look at things to help it. No, its a larger problem and goes back to providing a product that students and fans enjoy and getting them in the seats. I would say student attendance is down and likely because of the economy but the base school supporter needs to be energized also. This is a great product. Ask yourself why is the attendance down at my school and who is not coming. I think then it will follow itself up to events like the State. If you think the major reason that attendance is down is just the Basketball game, huh, too many on Tv now and you can see them without moving out of the house but there are other attractions and other things to attract fans around the basketball game. Not sure its the same in every location but an obvious place to look is at the empty seat and why the fan is not motivated to be .there.

[sbl0702]

what about fans not liking the venue itself? To me the venue does not seem to be fan friendly! Seats are too far from the court.....too many media tables.....the seats that are close are reserved....which stinks....The atmosphere at the state tourney is nt very good either! Imagine a state tournament that was attended as well as region championship and in the same type of venue.....When we went to sectional tournaments several years ago attendance was way down....the venue wasnt very good! Atmosphere stunk as well! Anyway, dnt know the answer just some observations!

 

sbl