Bradley/State Tournament

[tornado]

You hit it on the head, Coach........
The attendance at the Manual Lawndale game was only about 7500

[ph]

I am at the Carver Arena, and the Washington-Marshall game is about to begin. The attendance is a little disappointing. Plenty of good seats available. Despite a lot of Washington fans (maybe 5000+) the total attendance looks around 8000. Maybe there are ticketholders that will arrive for the second game, so the total attendance will probably be more. But the split into 4 classes will result in smaller crowds, and rare sellouts.

And after seeing the facts of less attendance in Indiana, any IHSA official that is suprised by lower attendance should be smacked!

I keep thinking more and more that the expanded class system was to give more Chicago schools more state titles. And Chicago schools do not draw big crowds here.

[tornado]

I went to every session in 2004 when PCS played, and in 2005 when Eureka played, and in 2006 when IVC played,
and every single session was a total sellout, packed to the rafters.

For Manual to be playing and draw only a little over half the arena says something.

By the way....this is a sore subject to some, but undeniable...

the smaller schools, the ones that fell in the Class A bracket when we had 2 classes, always seemed to have larger contingents of loyal fans that would fill the arena....places like Teuopolis and Centralia could fill the arena!
When Lanphier was here with McBride and Iguodala, the place was half empty...go figure.

[beanocookschins]

That has been the case ever since the tournament went two classes in the seventies. The A tournament generally drew larger. Some of it is economical, some of it social, etc.

The Class A's of the world were more community/town oriented while the AA's were city type schools. I don't think the "level" of play has much affect on the attendance of the state tournament.

[ph]

Will there be a rotation about which class gets the prime time games?
This year, 1A and 3A are treated second class with only early games. Really, most 1A and 3A schools were the cinderella's that made the previous toruney so enjoyable.

At the very least, they ought to play both championship games in primetime Sat night, that would appear to be a better "double ticket" draw..

[Beninator]

Da Coach....can we expect to hear something from Matt Roth in regards to his college preference, after this weekend?

Do you guys need a Washington reporter?