O’Brien: IHSA wants Peoria, fans want Champaign

SHARE O’Brien: IHSA wants Peoria, fans want Champaign
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PEORIA — There is a large disconnect between the Illinois High School Association and high school basketball fans statewide.

The IHSA announced Saturday that Peoria won the bid to host the boys basketball tournament for the next five years. Social media lit up with anger. The newly refurbished State Farm Center at the University of Illinois in Champaign was clearly the choice of the masses.

The coaches leaned toward Champaign, too. A January survey of more than 100 coaches from across the state revealed that a majority of coaches in the sampling (61 to 42) wanted the state tournament to return to Champaign.

“I get that,” IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman said. “We have seen the plans (for the State Farm Center). It’s going to be spectacular. It’s going to be the best venue in the midwest and maybe one of the best in the country.”

The State Farm Center was the runner-up in the bidding process. The Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, which only bid on the Class 3A and 4A weekend, was a distant third.

Tom Magrady of Bolingbrook has attended every boys basketball state tournament since 1963. He was sitting in his fourth row seat at Carver Arena when he learned the tournament was staying in Peoria.

“I’m extremely disappointed,” Magrady said. “We were hoping it would move anywhere else. [Carver Arena] is substandard. Broken seats and poor washroom facilities.”

Hickman makes a recommendation to the board, which then votes on the bids. Peoria won by a unanimous vote. IHSA board president Dan Klett doesn’t think the venue has anything to do with the tournament’s declining attendance.

“Attendance is based on the schools that are there,” Klett said. “The venue itself isn’t the reason people are going.”

Hickman seems to think the venue matters.

“I grew up going to the state tournament in Champaign,” Hickman said. “If I had a chance as a player to walk out and play at that new venue at the University of Illinois I’d think that was terrific.”

Peoria took the tournament from Champaign 20 years ago amidst fan anger about price gouging by Champaign hotels. Peoria promised to stop that and offered a volunteer army to help things run smoothly. Two thousand volunteers have helped make the tournament go every year in Peoria.

“[Price gouging] reasoning doesn’t hold anymore,” Magrady said. “I’m paying more for a hotel and at restaurants in Peoria than I ever was in Champaign, and that’s accounting for inflation.”

Klett said that it’s important to the IHSA board that the tournament remains in the center of the state. That appears to be another reason the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates didn’t have a legitimate shot at the tournament. And it’s the main reason the new DePaul Arena may have trouble winning the bid five years from now.

Klett’s central state argument, which is supported by Hickman, is shaky. It’s based only on staring at a map. Champaign and Peoria are not conveniently located for most of the millions of people that live in Illinois. Is it really worth keeping the tournament close to several hundred thousand people in southern and central Illinois that aren’t attending it anyway?

That’s an argument for another day. A northern Illinois venue is clearly going to have to bid for both the big school and small school tournaments before the IHSA will consider a move.

The paltry attendance at this weekend’s state tournament and the palpable fan anger on twitter and Facebook after the announcement shows there was a real hunger for a change of venue. Fans from all over the state were ready for a return to Champaign and the new State Farm Center.

That’s an opportunity lost for the IHSA. It would have been an easy way to breathe some life into the tournament. Instead we are likely faced with five more years of declining attendance in Peoria.

There is one bright side. Three communities in the state desperately wanted to host the tournament. Eventually the IHSA should be able to figure this out. The state basketball tournament is a valuable, attractive product. The Sears Centre’s Ben Gibbs guaranteed a sellout if the tournament was moved to Hoffman Estates.

“We have a real passion for high school sports in Illinois,” Hickman said. “I think that’s why people feel so strongly about where the tournament takes place.”

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