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State tournaments cost plenty, earn big in Ohio

OHSAA generates significant revenue from its championships

OHSAA no longer picking up tab to send athletes to state

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By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer 10:18 PM Saturday, May 29, 2010

While Waynesville High School’s Alyssa Ritchie was making her run to a Division II state singles tennis championship last fall, there was a referee watching each point of each match.

“That might seem like it happens all the time,” said Ritchie, a junior. “But I travel to a lot of tournaments, and it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes you have roaming referees, but they have a lot of courts to watch.

“It’s just something extra the players notice.”

In tennis, as in all of its 24 championships, the Ohio High School Athletic Association is known for its crisp operation. Large attendance at its marquee football and boys and girls basketball finals allows the association that regulates 828 high schools to spend about $11 million per year on its state championships.

That number dwarfs even comparably sized states, which make much less than the $15 million in revenue that OHSAA earns from its championships.

But not many championships are in the black. Of the state-sponsored sports, 13 aren’t considered “revenue-generating,” which means their individual state qualifiers and coaches no longer receive money from the OHSAA to cover expenses.

Athletes, coaches and athletic directors, however, said the OHSAA works to make the state tournaments as well-run and enjoyable as possible, citing their organization and assistance.

It just costs plenty to do so.

“We want the state tournament to be a benchmark event in their lives,” said Dan Ross, the OHSAA commissioner. “We want them to be at the high school class reunion saying, ‘Remember when we played in the state tournament?’ Or we want them to drive their grand-kids by the high schools or venues and remember their experiences.

“The experience we create is probably second to none, and you’ll hear that across the country.”

One of the biggest

With about 330,000 athletes, Ohio is the country’s fifth-largest state in prep sports participation, behind Texas, California, New York and Illinois.

That means the state wants appropriately sized productions for its 24 state tournaments.

“Once you get to the arena, everything is taken care of,” said Dunbar boys basketball coach Pete Pullen, whose team won its third state championship during his tenure in March. “They make sure you can get on the court to get some pictures, give you enough time to really soak up the moment.”

Despite the decision to cut travel reimbursement for state tournaments that don’t perform well financially, others do very well for the OHSAA pocket book. The football and boys basketball tournaments turn a combined profit of about $3 million, part of the $3 to $4 million the OHSAA makes on all of its state tournaments each year.

Those gains help make Ohio one of the top-spending states on such tournaments in the country. Illinois, for instance, has about 11,000 more athletes than Ohio but reported spending about half on its state tournaments, according to tax documents.

Pennsylvania spends about $6 million per year on the championship events, still far less than Ohio’s $11 million, according to the documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

Attendance drives the difference. In 2008, about 18,500 people paid to see the four Pennsylvania state football finals, and about 32,000 went to the eight Illinois title games. In Ohio, 48,420 watched the six football championship games.

In 2009, 69,062 people attended the eight boys and girls basketball state finals in Ohio. That’s almost four times the 18,620 who went to the finals in Pennsylvania.

Revenues from the money-generating events help to cover the losses in other sports, like boys and girls cross country, which lost a combined $72,127 two years ago. That same year, the track tournament lost $118,550, and those numbers caused the OHSAA to stop travel reimbursement for 13 sports beginning this school year.

Making a choice

Without the $12 to $54.50 per-day travel expenses from the state, athletes like Oakwood’s tennis doubles team of Aaron Pruitt and Matt Carpenter used district funds while staying in a hotel and buying meals at the state tournament this weekend.

Oakwood Athletic Director Mark Hughes said the change in funding could cause greater discussion about plans for such trips.

“It’s not going to affect whether we send an athlete to compete, but we’ll look at what time the competition is in basing whether they stay overnight,” Hughes said.

Once they get there, the athletes said, the OHSAA operations allow them to focus on competing. Ritchie, while competing in the tennis tournament last fall, found a seamless transition to an indoor facility when rain arrived. Directions and information came quickly, which allowed her to keep attention on her matches, she said.

But Ritchie was one of the athletes who no longer received a stipend from the state, which OHSAA administrators said was a difficult decision.

“Stop and think about state track,” said Ross, the OHSAA commissioner. “You’re going to Jesse Owens, it’s a premier facility, and you have about 1,900 athletes, then coaches. The reimbursement of those expenses is a major commitment, particularly for its performance financially. But, you also want them to be there, you don’t want a school to say ‘we can’t afford to send to our kids.’ ”

So far, no coach or athletic director has said that’s an option. But the changes have caused them to more closely consider budgets.

“That burden is back on the districts, and during a difficult time for everyone,” said Springboro Athletic Director Troy Holtrey. “We spent quite a bit of money on hotel rooms and meals this year.”

Contact this reporter at

(937) 225-7389 or

knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com

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