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Basketball crowds help fund Southwest District

Boys basketball is major contributor to athletic funding for area schools.

Students, staff and fans packed the Franklin High School gym Friday night to watch the Wildcats try to complete their first 20-0 regular season against Monroe.

Wheeler Students, staff and fans packed the Franklin High School gym Friday night to watch the Wildcats try to complete their first 20-0 regular season against Monroe.

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By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer Updated 10:59 PM Saturday, February 18, 2012

FRANKLIN — Rodney Roberts walked past the refurbished sports records boards and hallways that recently have been upgraded with welcoming signs.

“This is our gym,” said Roberts, the Franklin High School athletic director and football coach, opening the door.

The wooden fold-out bleachers on both sides were backed against the walls for afternoon gym classes.

The stage, which seats the pep band and middle school students during games, was quiet.

It was far from the atmosphere that the 1,300-seat gym has experienced this season.

Franklin burst to the top of the area’s boys basketball scene this year by completing a 20-0 regular season.

That caused Franklin fans to jam the athletic office with pre-sale ticket requests and dominate the attention of Roberts and secretary Lynn Hetzler.

Officials are hoping Franklin and other schools will bring plenty of fans to the highly anticipated Division II sectional and district tournaments, which begin this week.

Because the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Southwest District, one of six in the state, does not receive revenue from the football playoffs, it relies heavily on ticket sales from basketball tournaments to fill its coffers.

No. 2 seed Franklin is part of a loaded D-II boys basketball sectional that also includes state top-ranked and No. 1 seed Dunbar (20-0), No. 3 Meadowdale (16-4), No. 4 Thurgood Marshall (10-10) and No. 5 Chaminade Julienne (14-6) as well as tradition-rich Alter and high-scoring Valley View. That means more ticket demand for the roughly 1,800 seats at sectional host Miamisburg High School.

As a nod to the expected interest, officials moved the two D-II sectional finals from Miamisburg to UD Arena, hoping to cash in on interest. Cashing in is important, as the boys basketball tournament produces about 40 percent of the Southwest District’s revenue for the year.

“You get these waves of momentum through athletics and success,” Roberts said, “and what you learn is to get on that wave and ride it as long as you can.”

‘Are you sold out?’

The joke around the Franklin athletic office this year has been some form of the question it receives several times daily: “Are you sold out?”

For Franklin fans, it has been a legitimate concern. As the season progressed and the team continued to win with senior twins Jacob and Justin Rossi, both headed to Northern Kentucky, and standout freshman Luke Kennard, Roberts fielded an increasing number of ticket requests.

Also the school’s football coach, Roberts’ ticket demand first increased during the football season. The Wildcats went 9-1 and hosted a first-round playoff game for the first time in school history. In a scheduling quirk that left them with only four regular-season home games, they missed out on the usual five home games in the hugely important football ticket sales, which account for about 60 percent of overall athletic department revenue.

Then, basketball took off. A good night of basketball revenue is $2,000, Roberts said, but only one Franklin home game this season produced less than $3,000, which helped to cover the deficit of one less home football game.

Before one mid-season game, Roberts received a cellphone call from game officials who couldn’t find a parking space. That caused a change in parking flow as Roberts blocked off the area closest to the building for game officials.

Franklin coach Brian Bales experienced the collateral damage. He lost the parking spot he used for his first four-plus seasons.

“So now I have a new same spot,” Bales joked.

Other groups have taken advantage of the bigger crowds with bake sales and fundraising events. The National Honor Society offered a coat check for $1.

The biggest challenge has been filling ticket requests. When Franklin traveled to Springboro earlier this season for a meeting of then-undefeated teams, Springboro officials stopped allowing new spectators by about halftime of the junior-varsity game.

At Franklin, Roberts said he has been more careful about counting pre-sold tickets, attendees with passes who don’t have to buy tickets and other incoming spectators while hoping to avoid shutting out fans. The bleachers there reach to about two feet from the playing floor, so the larger attendance has also caused a sharper eye on the crowd, although officials said regular communication has helped ease that concern.

“It’s more about being orderly,” said Franklin police Capt. Ross Coulton, who is present at most home games. “There’s more traffic and more people, but Rodney has my cellphone number, and I have his. If anything is going on, we’re on top of it.”

Filling the coffers

The Southwest District receives no funds from the lucrative OHSAA football postseason, which netted the state association at least $1.5 million each year from 2006 to 2010. For 17 other tournaments, the district pays to operate them at the sectional and district rounds but also benefits from the ticket sales.

Without football, the next biggest financial windfall sport is boys basketball, which earned between 38 and 46 percent of the district’s revenue from 2006 to 2010. Officials are hoping for bigger basketball crowds, and it appears the boys D-II sectional at Miamisburg that includes the passionate Franklin group will provide solid attendance as one of 20 boys sectional tournaments.

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