Football finals need to be showcase event when picking venue

There was a suggestion broached last week that piqued my interest — a state championship football game held in Vancouver.

Ever since 1995, the high school football season in Washington ended with championship games in the Tacoma Dome.

But last week, Mike Colbrese, the retiring executive director of the WIAA, said that streak could end next fall, the Kitsap Sun reported.

“Our contract is up with the dome,” Colbrese told a group in Bremerton. “I’m not so sure we’ll renew it.”

The issue is cost. The price tag for renting the Tacoma Dome to host those six state championships over two days is almost $70,000.

In 2016, the WIAA cut its bottom line by moving semifinal football games to outdoor venues. Colbrese wondered if it didn’t make sense — from a fiscal standpoint — to do the same for the championship games.

He mentioned Pop Keeney Stadium in Bothell, Sparks Stadium in Puyallup and McKenzie Stadium in Vancouver as potential outdoor venues.

McKenzie Stadium hosted semifinal doubleheaders in 2016 and last fall. Both events were considered big successes, drawing near-capacity crowds to McKenzie.

Now Colbrese is suggesting the WIAA continue that success into championship weekend, and save some money to boot.

He said one outdoor venue wouldn’t host all six state title games. They would be divided among two or three sites.

For example, had this outdoor plan had been in place last season, you might have seen the 4A (Union vs. Lake Stevens) and 3A (Eastside Catholic vs. O’Dea) title games at Pop Keeney Stadium, the 2A (Hockinson vs. Lynden) and 2B (Kalama vs. Napavine) games at McKenzie Stadium and the 1A (Colville vs. Newport) and 1B (Odessa vs. Almira-Coulee-Hartline) at a site in Spokane or some other eastside location.

Clark County has only had a taste of hosting state championship sporting events over the past two decades.

Doc Harris Stadium in Camas hosted state soccer finals more than a decade ago. Vancouver Tennis Center hosted a couple of state tennis tournaments. And Southwest Washington golf courses hosted state tournaments in 2013 and 2014.

Getting to host state title football games would be huge event for Clark County.

But if the WIAA actually goes through with a plan to take the Gridiron Classic out of the Tacoma Dome and move those games to places like Pop Keeney, Sparks or McKenzie, it should be prepared for a significant level of blowback from players, coaches, schools and fans.

First of all, the Tacoma Dome has tradition on its side, with nearly 25-year history of hosting state title football games.

And even though the Tacoma Dome has its faults — a new seating configuration last fall left some fans with restricted viewing of the playing field — the Dome remains a destination location for high school teams that places like Pop Keeney, Sparks or McKenzie can’t match.

So moving the title games out of the Tacoma Dome to an outside location requires the game being moved to an outdoor site that is a destination. And there are few options in western Washington that qualify — CenturyLink Field or Husky Stadium are two that come to mind.

But the rental cost of those facilities likely would exceed the price tag at the Tacoma Dome — unless the WIAA comes to some kind of agreement in which those facilities would open its doors to high school teams at a reduced price.

Such an agreement is not without precedent. Safeco Field has hosted baseball state title games.

(Yeah, that’s right, I said Safeco Field. That’s because when baseball title games were played there, it was still called Safeco Field. Now it’s T-Mobile Park.)

And before you start thinking of T-Mobile being a potential host site for football, last year the facility hosted a Christmas Light display event for the entire month of December. (Hey, don’t knock the Christmas Lights event. I took my son to it last year, and it’s pretty cool).

Husky Stadium did host the Emerald City Kickoff, an opening-week prep football showcase, in past seasons. So there is a relationship between the WIAA and Husky Stadium.

Perhaps that relationship can be renewed. The college football regular season ends in November, so Husky Stadium figures to be available the first weekend in December.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is not a done deal. The WIAA is still in negotiations with the Tacoma Dome. A final decision won’t be made until June.

It would not surprise me in the least to see the Gridiron Classic back at the Tacoma Dome in December.

Because moving the event out of the dome might make fiscal sense, but if moving it means ending up at sites like McKenzie Stadium — no matter how cool it would be for Clark County fans — that would fall far short of the showcase event to which players, schools and fans in the state have grown accustomed.

Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep editor for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.