5A Bluecross Championship Game

[cbg]

1 hour ago, osunut2 said:

My thoughts on playing championship games on that Thursday:

Dumb.

Dumb.

Dumb.

I'm sure it's been asked before, but if we're going to be stuck with 9(!) title games, why not play the D2 games the weekend before? D1 plays their semifinal games the day after Thanksgiving, so play the D2 title games the next day and let the following weekend (Friday/Saturday) be D1 only. We should not be playing any of these games on Thursday.

For optimal attendance the D2 championship games should be played on the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Those games need to be played in a central location (Nashville) at a high school stadium such as Montgomery Bell Academy where a crowd of 5000 fans would be an overflow crowd.  At Tennessee Tech you have zero walkup attendance and the stadium looks empty with 5000 fans.  The expenses would be much less and IMO the experience would be better for the players, fans and coaches.  Nothing against Cookeville, TN or Tennessee Tech but Nashville is more of a destination city with many more things to do than Cookeville and the walkup crowd would be much better.  I would even vote for playing the D2 Championship games on Thanksgiving Day.

[AllRegion]

As someone who attends all the games each year, I would be disappointed if I had to miss 66% of them. 

[atrisk]

I attended many playoff  games at Vandy. The walk up sales were great and plenty to do, places to eat on West End. Exciting atmosphere.

[FIREBIRD80]

14 minutes ago, atrisk said:

I attended many playoff  games at Vandy. The walk up sales were great and plenty to do, places to eat on West End. Exciting atmosphere.

I agree!! Championship games should be moved back to Vandy.

[Guest Motorcity1]

2 hours ago, osunut2 said:

My thoughts on playing championship games on that Thursday:

Dumb.

Dumb.

Dumb.

I'm sure it's been asked before, but if we're going to be stuck with 9(!) title games, why not play the D2 games the weekend before? D1 plays their semifinal games the day after Thanksgiving, so play the D2 title games the next day and let the following weekend (Friday/Saturday) be D1 only. We should not be playing any of these games on Thursday.

I Could not agree more. The committee needs to expand their thinking on this issue. Playing on Thursday is ridiculous, primarily for the competing schools. It creates a short week to prepare and plan both the team for the game and the logistics of a long travel schedule. Let us not forget the backbone of football either (fan support: Parents, students and community members). Playing on Thursday conflicts with real attendance, (work conflict:  Take 1 day off, get home late go to work the next day? Or take both days off? Unnecessary). Shall I continue, players don't want to play a Championship game on Thursday win or lose and go to school the next day. I would hope encouraging community members to attend is a priority to TSSAA, I'm sure it's important to Blue Cross Blue Shield. Let's make it more sense-able to maximize attendance. 

D2 only has a 4 week playoff, they should be playing their Championships on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It is a pretty cool and well embraced tradition in the Midwestern states like Michigan, Ohio, PA, IN. That would allow the appropriate scheduling for D1 to use Friday and Saturday in the first week of December. Stop playing on Thursday! Make your system and logistics work with Tenn Tech and Cookville to maximize the experience for the end user. I'm sure Blue Cross would appreciate that too.

[Director]

This whole idea of playing on Thursday had to be some kind of knee jerk reaction to complaints. 

People are not going to drive 2 hours to support a school on a Thursday night and have to work on a Friday unless they are a parent of a player.

Many students won't either having to go to school the next day.

Same thing goes for faculty.

This effectively kills your gate. 

They have driven fan support out for this game, how sad for the kids, community, and school. 

You reap what you sow. I hope they lose their John Brown hind end.

 

[sheppy]

1A, 3A, 5A schools will be playing with 1 less day of practice since they play on Thursday.  Bet the gate $ is way down this year.

[ChardeeMacdennis]

I didn't realize they were playing on a Thursday that is pure trash. Gonna hurt tv too some ppl work during the week lol. So dumb.

[pizzpatriot]

T$$AA doesn’t care as much about the gate proceeds as you might think. They are well in the black now and the bid from Cookeville and Tech make up for gate reciepts there. This is in addition to ALL of the needless playoff game receipts.

Just better hope another BA type lawsuit doesn’t come along again. We’ll be have pre-season playoffs with 0-10 teams in the post season.

[bounder]

20 hours ago, FIREBIRD80 said:

I agree!! Championship games should be moved back to Vandy.

Vandy wanted an arm and a leg plus your first born to rent their stadium. That's one reason they left. Plus Murfreesboro paid TSSAA more money, then Cookeville jumped in ... who's next with the big bucks?

[atrisk]

My question is. If the fans don't come to the games (eating at local restaurants, buying gas, renting rooms, ect.) why are these cities bidding for the games?

[sheppy]

Think Clarksville actually bid more $ than Cookeville.