Rising Costs of Tournaments Article

[SportsMa]

http://www.startribune.com/sports/preps/15723287.html

"This week marks the beginning of an annual Minnesota ritual: high school state tournaments. From now until late March, athletes and teams will see their dreams come true, as they compete on the big stage. But that stage could become smaller in a few years, for reasons that have nothing to do with sports and everything to do with business."

Costs:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/preps/15723277.html

[Central]

Interesting article and the list of costs. Considering they just renewed the girls hockey contract any changes would not be for quite some time. Not sure how central the location is as stated by one of the coaches as that would vary from year to year. It would be interesting if they would survey state tourney fans over a few years and get data to see where the various fans are from and what is the attendance rate by people that are not associated with specific teams participating and such. This information then could also be used to help market the tournament.

[eastsidehockey]

maybe some of the business should chip in with all of those coming down to the state tourny, especially hockey and more specifically boys hockey. Take the tourny outside the metro and see how the businesses like to feel the "squeeze" in the metro area.

fans spend alot of money down there for rooms and food so maybe (if even possible) the state should take that into account and chip in some cash for keeping the tourny in the metro area.

[hockeya1a]

why not some of the professional teams chip in. Hockey could for hockey, basketball for basketball and so on they make plenty of money on us, they should give back being they reap the rewards for the athletes that are playing. Heck it would be a drop in the bucket for them.
they could give .50 cents from each of there ticket sales through out the year in their respective sport and pass it on.