Sheridan, Laramie both bid for football championships (Casper Star-Tribune).
In sum, Sheridan has submitted a bid to host the football championships in 2011 and 2012. Laramie’s bid is to host in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The WHSAA can accept one bid or the other, or reject both and go back to having title games at host sites.
–patrick
Patrick, what is your opinion on the mood of the board right now? In my opinion, there would be an absolute REVOLT if they decided to tell people that they were going to be forced to drive to Sheridan for state games instead of just reverting back to the old format. It’s fine if the bid was put in to just get a feel for the process, but if this should not be seriously considered.
Dahl, unfortunately, having not been to a WHSAA board meeting in almost two years, I can’t really say. My personal take is that Sheridan has presented a strong financial bid, while Laramie has the weaker financial bid but brings the intangibles that only UW can bring…. And I think the fact that the board delayed a vote today to get more info shows that they’re taking Sheridan’s proposal seriously.
Based on attendance figures from the past couple years, the difference between the Sheridan bid and the Laramie bid is about $10K per year (thanks CST). Even in an organization as big as the WHSAA, that’s not chump change.
Still, I would be surprised to see Sheridan earn the bid. I think Laramie will retain host duties. Right now, it’s UW, not the WHSAA, that’s taking the bulk of the financial losses. If UW is willing to continue to do that (and obviously they are, because they submitted a bid), then I think the WHSAA will continue to let UW bite the bullet to be the host.
However, if UW’s deal calls for some more deficit sharing with the WHSAA, I would not be surprised to see the title games return to host sites….
We’ll see Wednesday.
–patrick