Madison keeps the boys' basketball tournament; girls heading to Green Bay

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A big rise in this year’s attendance apparently helped Madison keep the boys’ state high school basketball tournament. The W-I-A-A’s Board of Control voted unanimously yesterday to keep the boys’ tournament in Madison, where’s it been for every year but one since 1920. The girls’ tournament will move to the Resch Center in Green Bay for at least the next two years, and maybe longer. That’s due to potential U-W hockey conflicts at Madison’s Kohl Center in March of the next two years. The W-I-A-A had decided in February to move both tournaments to Green Bay, unless the U-W could work out its scheduling conflicts in Madison. But W-I-A-A director Dave Anderson suggested the split arrangement. Associate director Deb Hauser said there were questions about whether it was financially feasible to move the boys to Green Bay’s Resch Center, after this year’s tournament drew eight-thousand people more spectators than the year before in Madison. There was speculation that many fans could no longer afford Madison’s hotel, parking, and food prices – but the city offered discount packages for all three this year. And attendance for some of the boys’ sessions was as high as 13-thousand at the Kohl Center. The Resch Center seats 93-hundred. Also yesterday, the W-I-A-A Board moved the summer baseball tournament from Stevens Point to Mequon effective this year. That’s because most of the teams are normally from southeast Wisconsin. The tournament was also reduced from eight teams to four.

Tags: wisconsin sports, sports, prep, basketball