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Colleges Letting H.S. Teams Play Regular Season Games in Stadium

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Miami University also opens the year with HS football teams as well. I saw LaSalle play Colerain there to start last season(and actually got to meet Justin Hilliard's dad). HS showcases in public universities is pretty cool, IMO and gives the kids some good HS memories. No harm no foul and it happens throughout the country.
 
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Zurp said:
Meh - why doesn't Ohio Stadium host some big-time, cross-regional games?
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108,000 K seats is why. Columbus Crew Stadium is much better suited for most in-season HS games. Having been to a bunch of Div 1 finals I can tell you that they rarely fill up even half of Ohio Stadium and the bigger the stadium the bigger the security problems, the cost of opening and operating, the cost of cleaning up afterwards.

Ohio State hosted the state finals from their inception in the early 70's until they re-installed grass. The old farts at OHSAA insisted that ALL final games be played in Ohio Stadium, not just division 1, and OSU realized that five games in a two day time frame would destroy the grass so they ended the agreement and the games were moved first to Nippert (when the original plan was to shift the game between north and south) and then to Massillon and later to Massillon and Canton.

What's the problem in SW Ohio? The biggest HS stadium in SW Ohio is probably Centerville which I would guess can hold about 15 to 17 K. The Biggest in Cincinnati is probably Princeton at about 12 to 13. Perk - Welcome is close to 20K, Miami and Nippert come in in the 25 - 35K range. Not sure about Brown and Fawcett but I think both are in the mid 20s.

Mikey Boy, Director of Corporate Piddlies, and son of Paul Brown, got one hell of a deal from Hamilton County for his stadium, to include a massive board room table with hand carved tigers for the legs, and at first tried to deny teams the use of PBS. He then relented to let St. X and Colerain play a game, but when it rained he insisted that the schools bands not be allowed on the field. Pissed into the wind on that, offending the St. X alumni who literally run this town and Colerain parents who represent one of the largest GOP voting blocks in Hamilton County. Both bands marched and Mikey has been somewhat less territorial. It must have pissed him off when the largest crowd in the joint was for the 2002 Ohio state U Cincinnati game.
ORD_Buckeye said:
Because we don't have to.
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Wrongola. Getting the state championships back in Ohio Stadium wasn't at the top of Urban's to do list when he got here, but he's been working on it. It IS a huge recruiting bennie. I think the current contract with Massillion and Canton ends this year or next and that the state finals will be back where they have always belonged, Ohio Stadium.
 
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cincibuck said:
Wrongola. Getting the state championships back in Ohio Stadium wasn't at the top of Urban's to do list when he got here, but he's been working on it. It IS a huge recruiting bennie. I think the current contract with Massillion and Canton ends this year or next and that the state finals will be back where they have always belonged, Ohio Stadium.
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Didn't they play in the stadium last year?

Edit - I thought I remembered correctly:
http://www.ohsaa.org/sports/ft/boys/2014/2014FTcoverage.htm
Division III

Toledo Central Catholic wins Thriller vs. The Plains Athens in Division III state championship, 56-52

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Fighting Irish of Toledo Central Catholic claimed their third OHSAA football state championship with a 56-52 victory over The Plains Athens in the 2014 OHSAA Division III state championship game Thursday night at Ohio Stadium.
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Yes, the state finals were in the Shoe last year and will be until at least 2016.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/sports/2014/12/12/High-school-football-playoffs-1212.html

Some might contend that the Canton-Massillon area provides the ideal setting for the high-school football state championships, but the grandiose backdrop of Ohio Stadium is hard to beat.

By most accounts, the return of the state finals to Ohio Stadium after a 25-year run in Stark County was a huge success. Despite bone-chilling rains and wind gusts over much of Friday and Saturday, the seven-game attendance of 59,373 topped the 2013 total by more 22,000. The average crowd of 8,481 placed this year among the top 10 in the 43-year history of the event.

Although officials from the Ohio High School Athletic Association, the Greater Columbus Sports Commission and Ohio State have yet to meet to hash over logistics from the weekend, an OHSAA official said feedback from the competing schools was very positive.

“In general, although it’s a small sample size of players and coaches we’re talking about, those who have been to both venues have nothing but good things to say about their experience in Stark County, but they said that being able to play in The Horseshoe was incomparable,” said Bob Goldring, the OHSAA’s associate commissioner for operations. “Many of them said they had grown up watching the Buckeyes, and they couldn’t ask for anything better than to end their season on that field.”

Athens coach Ryan Adams, whose team is familiar with Ohio University’s facility, said his players were overwhelmed by the experience of playing in the Horseshoe before a big group of supporters from southeast Ohio.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from, Ohio Stadium is such a special place,” Adams said. “ There’s no place more recognizable in the state of Ohio. To have the game back at the Horseshoe had an overwhelming level of nostalgia for me personally.

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http://www.wkyc.com/story/sports/hi...le-games-remain-columbus-through-16/31102369/

The state’s high school football state championship games will remain in Columbus’ Ohio Stadium for an additional year through 2016, the Ohio High School Athletic Association announced jointly with the Greater Columbus Sports Commission on Tuesday.

The Sports Commission and the Ohio State Athletics Department were awarded a contract to host the football title games in 2014 and 2015, with the OHSAA intending to moving the finals back to Stark County, which hosted the championships for 24 seasons (1993-2014). However, the massive renovations underway in Canton at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium are not expected to be completed until 2017.

“We are very grateful for the cooperation of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission and Ohio State for working with us on this extension,” OHSAA Commissioner Dan Ross said in a prepared statement. “We have been in conversation with the folks in Stark County about the timeline for the renovations in Canton.”

Beyond 2016, details are being discussed as to which venues will host the football state championship games and in which years.

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cincibuck said:
Wrongola. Getting the state championships back in Ohio Stadium wasn't at the top of Urban's to do list when he got here, but he's been working on it. It IS a huge recruiting bennie. I think the current contract with Massillion and Canton ends this year or next and that the state finals will be back where they have always belonged, Ohio Stadium.
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I can't imagine it having any serious impact on recruiting.
 
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BUCKYLE said:
I can't imagine it having any serious impact on recruiting.
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I know this much, I always saw several coaches, often Cooper or Tressell, at the state track meet and at the indoor hs meet the Buckeyes hosted in February. This was especially true when my teams included the Francisco brothers and Mike Munoz. I know that my kids talked about being on campus and "competing in Ohio Stadium," for weeks after we would go there. The football kids - my sprinters and throwers - who had been there for a state championship game - considered being in Ohio Stadium and the locker room special. I doubt if it sealed the deal - and the emphasis on camps, which puts kids in those same facilities, in the last fifteen years may have lessened the value, but my track guys loved it.
 
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