Champaign determined to get IHSA basketball tournaments back

[Da Coach]

The boys IHSA boys and girls basketball tournaments moved from Champaign to Peoria in 1996. The girls tournaments have since moved and are now played in Normal at Redbird Arena, but traditionally the big money-makers, have been the boys tournaments. But could the 2015 March Madness be the last one for Peoria?

The current contract the IHSA has with Peoria expires after the 2015 tournament next March, and the IHSA is now soliciting bids to host the tournament for the next 5 years from 2016-2020. The bids are due by January 1, 2015. There are questions whether Peoria will make as strong an effort to retain the tournaments, and now Champaign is preparing to make a strong bid to win them back. By March of 2016, the ongoing renovations to the Illinois Assembly Hall (now known as the State Farm Center) will be nearly completed and it should be a much nicer venue than it had been.
There is reportedly interest also from Hoffman Estates, DeKalb and Rockford-

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2014-09-13/c-u-wants-ihsa-ball-back-its-court.html

Peoria officials have begun negotiating another 5-year extension of the contract, but there are some concerns on both sides. Peoria is not getting nearly as much benefit from hosting the tournaments as they once did. Attendance at all of the games, as well as the ancillary events, is way down since the tournament changed from 2 classes to 4 classes, and much of the hotel and restaurant money spent by visitors goes to businesses outside of Peoria such as East Peoria and other surrounding communities that have newer, better, and cheaper hotel and restaurant options. Plus, visitors appear to be spending much less and staying for shorter visits. Many Peoria hotels and restaurants now don't seem to notice much, if any, boost to their business during March Madness weekends, according to the article below.
In addition, some of the big-money corporate sponsors, who have supported the Peoria effort to get and maintain the tournaments supposedly now are not willing to commit to another 5 years.

http://www.sj-r.com/article/20140324/Sports/140329712

[Buesch N Chips]

Kids now have no memory of the tournament in Assembly Hall. It's always been at the PCC except for old fogies like us.

Chambana really turned me off with the price gouging. I still get upset thinking about it. However, there is a magic to having the tournament in that arena that no place else can replicate.

[Canton BU fan]

Sounds like Peoria needs to get the surrounding towns or counties together and make this happen.

[AZ BU Fan]

Sounds like Peoria needs to get the surrounding towns or counties together and make this happen.

When hell freezes over... I can't recall any such cooperation in Central Illinois since I moved there in 1976. What could be a very efficient cost effective large metropolis is instead a series of small fiefdoms with enough redundancy and inefficiency to make the Federal Gov jealous.

[tornado]

Chicago people making a serious pitch to get the big school State Finals up there...they do make a strong point and they probably could fill their arena

http://highschoolcubenews.com/2015/01/28/obrien-time-sold-state-title-game/

[Da Coach]

Chicago people making a serious pitch to get the big school State Finals up there...they do make a strong point and they probably could fill their arena
http://highschoolcubenews.com/2015/0...te-title-game/

To clarify, the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates has only applied for the Class 3A and 4A finals, not the Class 1A-2A finals or the girls finals.

[CubbieBear]

I loved going to Chambana for the tourney when I was in HS & college--but Peoria has certainly set a standard that has worked well-- and selfishly it is convenient having it here in our backyard.

Since the tournament has has been watered down to 4 classes---I (and obviously many others) have lost a lot of interest in the attending as the quality has been diminished IMO--and moving it to a larger venue (Chambana) would not make much sense with the lower attendance.

I actually could see some positives for having the 2 small school classes here--and the 2 bigger ones up north. But--my personal preference (and I doubt it ever happens) would be to go back to a 2 class format

[amckillip]

When hell freezes over... I can't recall any such cooperation in Central Illinois since I moved there in 1976. What could be a very efficient cost effective large metropolis is instead a series of small fiefdoms with enough redundancy and inefficiency to make the Federal Gov jealous.

I very much enjoy life in Central IL, but not being raised here, this is very apparent. People who live in Morton, EP, and Dunlap shun downtown and Peoria city limits and almost take pride in not working with them and Peoria doesn't understand that they need these people. We could have had a great riverfront district, instead EP has the back of a Wal-Mart backed up to it!


Don't even get me started on the fact that Bloomingtion, Peoria, and even Springfield have three very small airports instead of a consolidated one.

[Buesch N Chips]

People who live in Morton, EP, and Dunlap shun downtown and Peoria city limits and almost take pride in not working with them and Peoria doesn't understand that they need these people.

It used to be the opposite. Shoe, meet other foot.

[Chico]

You can walk the streets in Morton, Dunlap, etc. so why shouldn't they shun Peoria?

[kds]

I loved going to Chambana for the tourney when I was in HS & college--but Peoria has certainly set a standard that has worked well-- and selfishly it is convenient having it here in our backyard.

Since the tournament has has been watered down to 4 classes---I (and obviously many others) have lost a lot of interest in the attending as the quality has been diminished IMO--and moving it to a larger venue (Chambana) would not make much sense with the lower attendance.

I actually could see some positives for having the 2 small school classes here--and the 2 bigger ones up north. But--my personal preference (and I doubt it ever happens) would be to go back to a 2 class format

I would like an explanation as to why 4 classes is watered down. With that line of thinking then High School football is really watered down with 8 classes.

[tornado]

it is and a lot of people don't like the 8 classes..

They didn't like it when it was first proposed almost 2 decades ago

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-02-13/sports/9402130355_1_criteria-state-champs-championship-hardware

and lots still don't like it - as it forces great rivals into fewer regionals that ruin what could be great downstate matchups and creates so many champs that it waters downb the value of winning a trophy

http://www.nwherald.com/2014/11/26/defabo-ihsa-football-watered-down-with-too-many-classes-in-state-tournament/agzufi8/

http://football.dailyherald.com/article/20141030/sports/141039843/

http://www.buglenewspapers.com/bolingbrook/sports/article_cbfe3d5e-4dbe-11e1-a443-001a4bcf6878.html

but some people like it and many think it generates more revenue...
they thought that about the split in basketball, too - and at first it did - but now it does not.

[Vent]

I would like an explanation as to why 4 classes is watered down. With that line of thinking then High School football is really watered down with 8 classes.

Four classes is a joke, but everybody does get a ribbon. Isn't that the way life is? Since the IHSA snuck the vote through it's member schools, to go to four classes, there has not been one sellout of one session for any of the four classes. Hotels no longer sell out, restaurants no longer have lines waiting to get in, and the IHSA no longer allows the attendance to be announced or published in the paper. With the former format, there were 8 schools in town on Friday. Now there are four. Do the math. The teams that won on Friday, played Saturday morning and Saturday night. Thus the teams and their fans stayed in town all day and for the most part Saturday night. While the fans were killing time between sessions on Saturday, they spent money at restaurants and malls. Do the math. After the four final teams got their trophies at the end of Saturday night, a lot of people spent the night in hotels, had breakfast the next morning and then left Peoria on Sunday morning. Do the math. Now with four teams coming to Peoria, on Saturday morning, teams check out of their hotels, before they go to the civic for their games. Once their games are over, they leave town. Do the math. Champaign and Urbana, went in together on the current bid. Once Urbana saw the actual attendance figures and how much money it was costing local communities, as compared to the revenue generated under the new format, they bailed out and left Champaign to bid by themselves. But at least everybody gets a ribbon.

[kds]

Four classes is a joke, but everybody does get a ribbon. Isn't that the way life is? Since the IHSA snuck the vote through it's member schools, to go to four classes, there has not been one sellout of one session for any of the four classes. Hotels no longer sell out, restaurants no longer have lines waiting to get in, and the IHSA no longer allows the attendance to be announced or published in the paper. With the former format, there were 8 schools in town on Friday. Now there are four. Do the math. The teams that won on Friday, played Saturday morning and Saturday night. Thus the teams and their fans stayed in town all day and for the most part Saturday night. While the fans were killing time between sessions on Saturday, they spent money at restaurants and malls. Do the math. After the four final teams got their trophies at the end of Saturday night, a lot of people spent the night in hotels, had breakfast the next morning and then left Peoria on Sunday morning. Do the math. Now with four teams coming to Peoria, on Saturday morning, teams check out of their hotels, before they go to the civic for their games. Once their games are over, they leave town. Do the math. Champaign and Urbana, went in together on the current bid. Once Urbana saw the actual attendance figures and how much money it was costing local communities, as compared to the revenue generated under the new format, they bailed out and left Champaign to bid by themselves. But at least everybody gets a ribbon.

First thanks for the explanation. So it is all about money. Ok, then your fine explanation can be said the same about the football playoffs. One game and done, one night in the hotel. Fact is should the team playing is close to the field no hotel and bring a lunch.

Fact is you missed my whole point. Which is if the 4 class system in High School basketball is watered down. Then the 8 class system in High School football is watered down even worse. You can't have it both ways because with your analogy then both can be said of both. Yes at least everybody gets a ribbon in football also.

Again thanks for your thought out explanation which missed the whole point.

Also if the playoffs are such money losers why would the fine city of Peoria want to keep them? I sure wouldn't/

[Da Coach]

The city loses money hosting the games. They get some revenues directly from the ticket sales, parking, and concessions, but nowhere near the cost of hosting the events, and the cost of the perks they give the IHSA. But cities do these kinds of things hoping to make additional money in the sales tax, hotel and entertainment taxes, etc.
In the end, I still think the city loses money on many of these events, especially since so much of the money spent by visitors goes to East Peoria, Morton, and other cities outside Peoria. Downtown Peoria unfortunately does not offer much for visitors to do.
Peoria was not sad to see the girls tournaments move to Normal, since they were much bigger money losers.
But they do get a lot of free publicity and exposure for the city, which is something they also value.
And one more factor- like all government bodies, in the end, if they lose money they don't really care, because it is not their money anyway! They can always get more from the taxpayers.