The biggest complaints centered around off-site parking and long ticket lines
As the Pickerington Central team bus finished the two-hour drive north to Canton before Friday's Division I state final, Tiger coach Jay Sharrett noticed his players' eyes start to light up when Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium came into view.
"It was kind of neat because they had never seen two of the biggest goal posts on either side of the highway before, so that lit them up," Sharrett said, referring to the giant, yellow, goal post-shaped electrical power lines on either side of I-77. "It's a great place to come. It's the birthplace of professional football. This stadium is first-class.
"The way everything is done and stuff, we really enjoyed coming here."
They weren't the only ones.
The state football finals returned to Canton this weekend for the first time since 2013 and the early reviews have been positive. Unofficial attendance for the seven games was 61,502, the fourth-highest total in Ohio history behind the 2001 (65,663) and 2002 (65,584) games in Stark County and the 2015 games in Columbus (62,089).
Part of that was because of the weather — outside of a drizzly Division II final on Thursday, the weather was relatively warm and dry for December in Canton — and part of that was because of the matchups. A record 13 of the 14 state finalists were public schools, which tend to bring bigger crowds because they're more likely to draw from the entire community.
But part of it was the fact that Stark County enjoys hosting the games, and puts a huge effort into making the experience special for everyone involved.
Oh, and having a beautiful new stadium doesn't hurt, either.
"It's a beautiful stadium and it's not even finished yet," said Steubenville coach Reno Saccoccia, who coached in his first state final in 1983 at Ohio Stadium and has also coached in state finals in Canton and Massillon. "This is a great facility."
Added Big Red senior Gino Pierro, who played at Ohio Stadium last year, "Canton treats us better than Columbus."
This weekend was a big test for Stark County, which is trying to stay in the rotation after three successful years in Columbus. (Stark County hosted the games every year between 1990 and 2013, splitting them between Massillon and Canton.) The Ohio High School Athletic Association has not committed to any site past 2017 and the organization will spend the next few weeks and months breaking down the good and bad of this weekend.
So far, so good.
"Things have gone very well," OHSAA spokesman Tim Stried said before Saturday's Division III state final. "There are four different groups here — the OHSAA, Visit Canton, the Hall of Fame and Q Management (the stadium's event staff) — and there are a lot of moving parts. Plus, there are 14 communities trying to merge and play seven games.
"I think all of us were cautiously optimistic that things would all come together, and they did. We're very happy with how things have gone, but we've learned some things and I think the other groups learned some things too. We know what went well and what needs to be improved on."
The OHSAA's unofficial plan has been for the finals to return to Canton in 2018 and then go back to Columbus in 2019.
I'd be surprised if anything changes.
Biggest problems
This weekend's two biggest problems centered around the off-site parking and long ticket lines. Not surprisingly, asking fans to park at the Stark County Fairgrounds and take a shuttle to Benson Stadium proved to be unpopular, especially since Stark County fans are used to parking at the McKinley High School student lot.
It didn't help that the Hall of Fame was hosting a regional youth football tournament this weekend on the turf fields behind the high school. (It's for something called the National Youth Football Championship, which is sort of like the Little League World Series of youth football. The championship games will be at the Hall of Fame later this month. Holding a regional tournament here this weekend seemed like a bad idea, if you ask me.)
It also doesn't help that we're still a few years away from getting a parking deck at Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village.
"Those are two things we'll need to look at for next time," Stried said, referring to ticket lines and parking. "But anytime you have an event where 8,000 people are arriving at the same time, there's going to be an issue. We had the same issues at Ohio State. That's important to note. It's not a knock on Canton. And we've already talked about ways to improve that moving forward."
Although other cities would (obviously) like to host the state finals, it's clearly a two-horse race between Columbus and Canton, Stried said.
"I think the thing we've identified (this weekend) is that Canton and Columbus are the two premier sites to host a state championship game," he said. "And the thing we've talked about this weekend is there's so much infrastructure (in Canton) that hasn't been built yet. A lot of those items are significant to the whole operation of hosting the finals.
"Over the coming weeks and months, we'll talk about what went well, what we need to work on and we'll get an idea of what's still unknown. That's when we'll decide what to do moving forward."
According to Saccoccia, that's an easy decision.
"Canton, Massillon … this is the mecca of high school football," said Saccoccia, whose team beat Clarksville Clinton-Massie 50-36 in Saturday's Division IV final. "This is the mecca of high school football, period. I just feel great that when we won it (the championship), we won it in Canton.
"Why they took it out of Canton, I'll never know."
Attendance boost
Although Stark County drew a record 65,663 fans at the 2001 finals — and holds four of the top five all-tournament marks in Ohio history — attendance started to drop off in the 2010s. The 2013 finals drew just 37,766 fans, although part of that was because of blizzard conditions.
"If that blizzard had hit Columbus, we probably would have had (37,000) in Columbus that year, too," Stried said.
Still, ticket sales matter and Columbus performed well the past three years, drawing 59,373 in 2014, 62,089 in 2015 and 55,431 last year. Canton needed a big crowd this weekend and got it, which is a good sign for the future.
What other states do
If you're wondering what other states do, most of them hold the state finals at either a college or professional stadium. In Alabama, they rotate the finals between Tuscaloosa (University of Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium) and Auburn (Jordan-Hare Stadium at Auburn University) and Kentucky holds the finals at UK's Kroger Field in Lexington.
The Texas finals are at the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium and NFL stadiums also host the finals in Georgia (Mercedes Benz Stadium), Indiana (Lucas Oil Stadium) and Michigan (Ford Field).
But there are exceptions. Pennsylvania's state finals are at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey and Florida's finals are at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. Neither has a high-profile football tenant, but they're centrally located. Columbus, obviously, has an edge in that department over Canton.
Song that should be gone
Today's guest selector is Repository sports writer Cliff Hickman, whose choice for "song he never wants to hear at another sporting event" is Justin Bieber's "Sorry."
"The only person that should be sorry is whoever put that travesty in the play list before the game. What exactly does this whiny-voiced piece of uncooked Canadian bacon add to a sporting event? Does it get the athletes excited? Does it get the crowd excited? Or does it secretly make everyone want to take a long walk to the concession stand, reflect on what they are doing with their life and then just continue straight on home. Bieber couldn't help a sporting event draw money with a green crayon. It's a detriment to the crowd, the fans, the media and the players. We deserve better."
Blackledge to speak
ESPN college football analyst Todd Blackledge will be the guest speaker at Monday's Hall of Fame Luncheon Club meeting at Tozzi's on 12th.
Reach Joe at 330-580-8573 or
joe.scalzo@cantonrep.com
On Twitter: @jscalzoREP
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