NCHSAA West Regional Semis being moved

The NCHSAA must be having problems with the folks in Winston who financially back the regionals...North Forsyth and Atkins will host regional semis the week of March 4th. Atkins holds about 1700 while North holds about 1400...You know am I dreaming or did the NCHSAA decide leave Hickory four years ago because of overcrowding?

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/S...3354588207&path=!sports!prep!&s=1037645509502

 

The Annex they always play in at Winston is terrible. It will seat alot of people, but the floor and goals suck. Then it always seems that Wake Forest has a home game during the regionals and that just makes matters even worse because there is no parking.

 

I bet the people in Charlotte, Hickory, & Asheville are licking their chops right now if this trend continues. The whole idea of bringing it to Winston-Salem was to avoid overcrowding and to put it at a bigger venue. Now they cant get their schedules and finances in line to pull this off.

During the time frame of the tournament (03/03-03/08) a game has been scheduled at The LJVM Annex (Twin City Cyclones vs Fayetteville Fireantz - minor league hockey) and the NC State-Wake Forest game at the main arena.

Personally, Id like to see these games moved back to Hickory because its more centrally located in the western region. If all else fails, move some of the games to McDowell High, we got the biggest on campus gym in NC.

 

I would love to see them move the regionals to Asheville. The only problem with moving it to Asheville is where would they play. UNCA only seats 1100 and most of the high school gyms are small also. Playing it at McDowell would be even better, but I don't see that happening. Gardner Webb is another choice with a nice gym. Davidson would also be a good place to play.

 

They could play at the Asheville Civic Center, which seats approximately 7,500 - 8,000 for basketball. The ACC has hosted The Big South Conference tournaments in the late 80's and at oft times in the 90s, not to mention was the home of the NBDL's Asheville Altitude (which never had a sell-out). The biggest HS gym in the Asheville area that could remotely handle Western Regional-sized crowds is Griffin Gymnasium at Asheville High. Baldwin Gym at Roberson could hold it, but with their seating arrangements and dingy lighting, it wouldnt work. Roberts Gym at Reynolds is too prone to overcrowding. However, a problem that looms for hosting the Regionals is parking, and we all know that the ACC has some pathetic parking.

But the best option if they brought the Regionals to the Asheville area is to play games at Asheville Civic Center and at McDowell High due to the abilities to hold large crowds.

Charlotte is really anxious to bring the Regionals to the Queen City. They talked about playing the games at Halton Arena at UNCC and at Cricket Arena aka Independence Arena or "The Big I". They even threw out possibilities of playing championship games at Charlotte Bobcats Arena.

 

I forgot about the Civic Center just like the City of Asheville has forgotten about it. The last time I was there I watched The Midnight Express vs. The Rockin Roll Express 20 years ago on Sunday when wrestling use to come to town once a month.

The games will probably be played in Charlotte next year.

 

If they're played in Charlotte I wonder if we can pack a little heat for safety purposes?LOL

 

Tony, I think I would take it easy on the references to self protection. We're probably the only school system in this part of the country that can enter a high school athletic event and not have to go through some sort of screening. The scary thing is that sometimes I wonder what it would take to change all of that?


Anyway back to the topic at hand...I think this might end up being a golden opportunity for Charlotte to take over the regionals for basketball. I think its a shame that the folks in Winston committed to such a long term deal with the NCHSAA and then mid-stream decide that they couldn't afford the full support needed. I'm sure there are groups or organizations in the QC that would be willing to support the NCHSAA in having the events.

As far as where would they have these events...I don't think it's as easy as saying "Well, lets have it at Cricket Arena or at Bobcats Arena" because you have to consider the fact of logistics. First off you would need at the least two different facilities to hold these events.

Personally if I were in charge in trying to get the regionals to Charlotte, my priority would be to get Halton Arena (UNCC) and John M. Belk Arena (Davidson). Both facilities are more than capable of holding big crowds. Also both are within a reasonable distance of each other. The NCHSAA does a pretty good job at staggering schedules to where girls and boys teams from the same school wouldn't overlap each other.

The biggest issue with me in having games at Cricket or Bobcats Arena would be the fact that you would have to travel in the middle of town. Trust me, finding a parking spot for a game a Bobcats isn't the most exciting thing to do. Having the games in the northern end of town would probably be more appealing to those who would want to go.

 

Logistics for using Pro-College facilities have a lot of red tape and cost- but if Asheville was too far West---Burkes 2 High schools (East burke- Freedom) can pack out at nearly 3500 each. Could work in a pinch.
When NCHSAA uses a High schools they ALWAYS make money and have NO cost.
And don't think that MONEY isn't a factor.