I was not a fan of letting Laramie host the high school championships, but, I was willing to let it have a chance for one or two years. The picture that goes along with that story is all you need to know. Whether it’s hunting, weather, non-interest in other teams or whatever, there aren’t enough people to justify the decision to this point.
What’s wrong with coming to the conclusion that this isn’t working? Why is that such a bad thing to determine? I love state title games in the towns of the teams involved and if UW is losing more than $10,000 each time with the Cowboys facing a scheduling issue on top of that, then it is time to go back to how it was.
The sentences that talk about another venue hosting all five games (with all due respect to Sheridan) make my teeth itch! If it’s not at The War, then it shouldn’t even be a conversation in my opinion. Maybe let UW try it for one more year with some specific goals in mind and if it doesn’t hit those goals? Go back to the towns having learned something.
Congrats to this year’s champs and Happy New Year!
I agree with a lot of what you just said, Dahl. The article also touched on the citizens of Laramie struggling to step up and fill the stands. I think that’s also true — Laramie residents aren’t interested in this event.
I personally love the Laramie arrangement. I get to see all five games at one venue for an affordable price. Awesome. But there are not many Patricks out there… What I think we’re finding out is that a lot of people are not interested in watching five football championship games. They’re interested in watching one — the one their school is playing in. If that’s the case, then maybe host sites are the best.
State football at one site can’t really be the financial boon that state wrestling/basketball/track are, simply because of the number of teams participating; however, I think we’re also seeing internal promotion within Laramie fall a bit short in getting interest drummed up in the community and we’re also seeing external promotion to the towns who don’t have teams playing in the championship weekend also fall short. If your team is not playing, there are not a whole lot of other reasons to come to Laramie in the middle of November. For this thing to work, we need to see more than just football; there needs to be a reason for people living in Laramie to show up, there needs to be a reason for people who are coming to watch stay for more than one game, and there needs to be a reason for people living in towns who don’t have a team participating to have a reason to come to Laramie.
With time, I think we may see some of that and we may see that tradition grow. The question is how much time UW and the WHSAA will give it, given its financial shortcomings.
Completely agree with you Patrick, I can see the allure of it, but for a lot of teams and their fans, it just isn’t feasible with a looooong b-ball and wrestling season coming up right after it. I agree that if Laramie folks want to give it another shot with more local incentives then I think that’s fine, but the thing that scares me is that there seems to be this underlying sentiment that the concept isn’t going away, just an adjustment to the location.
To me, the only venue worthy of consideration for this is War Memorial and if that isn’t able to work, then we leave the idea by the wayside.
Thanks for this link Patrick,
I was not a fan of letting Laramie host the high school championships, but, I was willing to let it have a chance for one or two years. The picture that goes along with that story is all you need to know. Whether it’s hunting, weather, non-interest in other teams or whatever, there aren’t enough people to justify the decision to this point.
What’s wrong with coming to the conclusion that this isn’t working? Why is that such a bad thing to determine? I love state title games in the towns of the teams involved and if UW is losing more than $10,000 each time with the Cowboys facing a scheduling issue on top of that, then it is time to go back to how it was.
The sentences that talk about another venue hosting all five games (with all due respect to Sheridan) make my teeth itch! If it’s not at The War, then it shouldn’t even be a conversation in my opinion. Maybe let UW try it for one more year with some specific goals in mind and if it doesn’t hit those goals? Go back to the towns having learned something.
Congrats to this year’s champs and Happy New Year!
I agree with a lot of what you just said, Dahl. The article also touched on the citizens of Laramie struggling to step up and fill the stands. I think that’s also true — Laramie residents aren’t interested in this event.
I personally love the Laramie arrangement. I get to see all five games at one venue for an affordable price. Awesome. But there are not many Patricks out there… What I think we’re finding out is that a lot of people are not interested in watching five football championship games. They’re interested in watching one — the one their school is playing in. If that’s the case, then maybe host sites are the best.
State football at one site can’t really be the financial boon that state wrestling/basketball/track are, simply because of the number of teams participating; however, I think we’re also seeing internal promotion within Laramie fall a bit short in getting interest drummed up in the community and we’re also seeing external promotion to the towns who don’t have teams playing in the championship weekend also fall short. If your team is not playing, there are not a whole lot of other reasons to come to Laramie in the middle of November. For this thing to work, we need to see more than just football; there needs to be a reason for people living in Laramie to show up, there needs to be a reason for people who are coming to watch stay for more than one game, and there needs to be a reason for people living in towns who don’t have a team participating to have a reason to come to Laramie.
With time, I think we may see some of that and we may see that tradition grow. The question is how much time UW and the WHSAA will give it, given its financial shortcomings.
–patrick
Completely agree with you Patrick, I can see the allure of it, but for a lot of teams and their fans, it just isn’t feasible with a looooong b-ball and wrestling season coming up right after it. I agree that if Laramie folks want to give it another shot with more local incentives then I think that’s fine, but the thing that scares me is that there seems to be this underlying sentiment that the concept isn’t going away, just an adjustment to the location.
To me, the only venue worthy of consideration for this is War Memorial and if that isn’t able to work, then we leave the idea by the wayside.