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MSHSAA announces new state championship sites

Posted Friday, April 8, 2016, at 6:45 PM

The Missouri State High School Activities Association Board of Directors on Friday approved new homes for its football and basketball state championships.

The football finale -- the Show-Me Bowl -- for Classes 1-6 will be played at Missouri State's Plaster Stadium in Springfield in 2016.

The games will then move to the University of Missouri's Faurot Field in Columbia in 2017.

The Show-Me Showdown basketball final four will have a new home beginning with the 2017-18 school year, with the MSHSAA announcing a five-year contract to hold the event at Missouri State's JQH Arena in Springfield.

Class 1, 2 and 3 Thursday semifinal games will also be held at the school's Hammons Student Center.

The basketball championships have most recently been hosted by Mizzou, while the football championships were played at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

"We appreciate the work that the cities put into this bid process and we have taken this process very seriously," MSHSAA Executive Director Kerwin Urhahn said in a press release. "We are especially humbled by the amount of community support the city of Springfield showed in putting together its bids. We have an obligation to our membership to find not only the best facilities to host our championships, but also the best support from the host site to serve our schools needs."

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So the SEC is ok with their football stadiums hosting non SEC events but not basketball? Kinda strange ain't it?

-- Posted by 3Rfan on Fri, Apr 8, 2016, at 10:17 PM
3Rfan, I believe there was a bidding process to host both football and basketball championships. Springfield will be a nice changeup from Columbia for basketball, but may be some possible weather challenges for football. One good thing for you, Springfield will be closer travel for you!

-- Posted by semo ref on Sat, Apr 9, 2016, at 6:24 AM
Springfield is fine with me, it will still be quite expensive to go for 3 days. I was told the SEC doesn't want non SEC events in their school's arenas and that is why they have to move the HS Final 4 from Columbia. If that's true why would they allow HS football championships to be held at Mizzou?

-- Posted by 3Rfan on Sat, Apr 9, 2016, at 4:43 PM
I'll assume the rumors about the SEC not allowing their members to have other events are not true. Hard to believe they could tell those schools they have to turn down a LOT revenue by not hosting other events on campus.

Springfield is fine with me for the basketball tourney. I like Springfield much better than Columbia anyway. Not sure when I'll go again, it will still be expensive no matter where it is.

-- Posted by 3Rfan on Sat, Apr 9, 2016, at 9:34 PM
Missouri State wants to become the premier university in Missouri because of the garbage going on at mizzou. Good luck and I hope they're successful.

-- Posted by crackerjack on Mon, Apr 11, 2016, at 9:16 AM
Numerous SEC campuses around the league host high school championship events. It is a great recruiting tool (for athletes and for general students). I cannot imagine that the league would discourage that.

These event site decisions boil down to costs and incentives the local community makes available (hotel rates, etc.). Plus attendance in Columbia had gotten really bad. You'll never sell out a 14,000 seat building for the high school tournament, but the thousands and thousands of lower-level empties were starting to get folks' attention.

I blame low attendance on the three day format as opposed to two in the old days (more expensive for fans to travel), the fact that championship games are televised (less incentive to make the trip), and the number of repeat teams to make it year after year. And I don't think they were drawing a lot of local fans around mid-Missouri who weren't loyal to a particular team and just wanted to see good hoops.

Hopefully going to Springfield will help with more local, regional fan attendance and renewed interest from followers of repeat Final Four teams. At least it is a smaller building to fill.

-- Posted by MemphisBlues on Mon, Apr 11, 2016, at 11:35 AM
Kentucky plays their state championships at Rupp Arena. Pretty much the highlight of those kids career's.

-- Posted by BuckMajor on Mon, Apr 11, 2016, at 11:45 AM
Missouri State has the same chance of becoming the premier institution of high learning in the state of Missouri as I have of waking up tomorrow and being 7 feet tall.

But I like the move to Springfield because it will be a closer drive to go watch the basketball final four.

-- Posted by jwhitlock on Mon, Apr 11, 2016, at 12:11 PM
MIZZOU was good venue for kids to play in, no more expensive than anywhere else plus centrally located.

comes down to money for mshsaa bet u.

-- Posted by HOLYCOWMAN on Mon, Apr 11, 2016, at 1:05 PM
Rupp areana!! So Awesome! !

-- Posted by IndianPride on Mon, Apr 11, 2016, at 11:17 PM

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