Alaska high school basketball March Madness flips its schedule

The state's biggest schools will crown their high school basketball champions Wednesday night at Sullivan Arena while the small schools will command center stage on Saturday night.

The flip-flop was approved at a recent Alaska School Activities Association board meeting, where representatives voted 6-2 in favor of the change.

As you might expect, the switch is a hit in villages and other Class 1A and 2A towns -- but not so much in Anchorage and other Class 4A and 3A towns.

"It seems like an odd way to go," said Brad Lauwers, head coach at Heritage Christian, a Class 3A school in Anchorage. "What's normally your top-drawing championships, 3A and 4A, it seems odd to throw that on a Wednesday night when a Saturday night has worked out well."

The driving force behind the change was equity, said John Andrews, ASAA's director of special events.

Ever since 2006, when ASAA began holding all four tournaments in the same week at the Sullivan Arena, the big schools have always held court on the weekend and the small schools have played during the work week.

"Fairness was a big part of it," Andrews said. "We feel this will show everyone they are being treated equally."

That's why Billy Strickland of Bethel, the Region I representative on the ASAA board, voted in favor of the change, even though he's the activities director at a Class 3A school.

"Everyone would prefer to play on the weekends, so there must be something about playing on the weekends that's better," he said. "So if it's better, then probably every kid in Alaska should get that chance, or it should be shared.

Equity will only count for so much, though, when it comes to deciding whether to rotate the schedule from year to year, or put things back the way they were.

This is a one-year trial, Andrews said, and ticket revenues will ultimately decide whether it's a one-and-done deal or an every-other-year deal.

"Attendance (will be) a primary factor," he said. "It is our showcase event, and we want to make sure the most people possible can attend."

And, ASAA wants to maximize the revenue potential of the week-long basketball bonanza.

Andrews said revenue from all of ASAA's state tournaments -- basketball, football, wrestling and others -- makes up 20 percent of the association's total revenue. March Madness, which is the name it has given to state basketball week, makes up 40 percent of all state tournament revenue.

This year's basketball tournaments netted $217,886, with the 4A and 3A tournaments outdrawing the 2A and 1A tournaments substantially.

The small schools played Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and had a three-day turnout of 6,034. The big schools played Thursday, Friday and Saturday and attracted almost 50 percent more fans, for a three-day total of 9,521.

In terms of gate receipts, the difference was $69,572 for the small schools and $101,335 for the big schools.

Throw in merchandise sales, however, and the revenue gap gets smaller. Sales at this year's small-school tournaments totaled $32,832, more than double the $14,147 sold at the 4A and 3A tournaments.

Just how much those numbers -- particularly gate receipts -- were influenced by the days the games were played is a mystery.

"That's the big question," Andrews said.

Actually, it's a three-part question:

Will significantly more villagers come to Anchorage for a three-day tournament played on Thursday, Friday and Saturday?

Will significantly fewer people from towns on the road system -- which describes a majority of 4A and 3A schools -- make the drive to Anchorage for a mid-week semifinal or championship game?

And will fans of Anchorage schools -- which account for four of the 16 Class 4A tournament teams every year and usually qualify a couple for the Class 3A tournament too -- show up for games in the middle of the week?

Colton Lauwers, the son of the Heritage Christian coach who played for Dimond High's championship team this season, thinks some Anchorage students would stay home on a Wednesday night rather than show up for a 9:15 p.m. championship game.

"I know some kids don't like going out on school nights and stuff, so if it's on a school night, they probably won't go," he said. "There'll be not as much support."

One thing no one questions is that the big schools have more potential to draw a big crowd than the smaller schools.

The eight teams in this year's Class 1A boys came from villages with a combined population of 2,657, according to State of Alaska statistics. That's less than the population of the smallest town that sent a team to this year's Class 4A boys tournament -- Soldotna, population 3,983.

Soldotna High principal Todd Syverson wonders if his school would have enjoyed as much support for its Saturday night championship game against Dimond if the game had been played on Wednesday instead of Saturday.

"The nice thing about Thursday-Friday-Saturday is most of our parents can get up there Friday afternoon and stay for Friday evening and Saturday evening. So Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday is a concern," he said.

"The parents will take the days off, but we'll lose some of our community fan base. We'll lose maybe a third of those."

March Madness attendance is critical, because basketball fans help pay for other events staged by ASAA, the governing body for Alaska high school activities.

"One of the things ASAA has to do is maximize the profits on this event," Strickland said. "Basketball, football and hockey really have to be maximized so we can afford to host a forensics and debate championship and a cross-country skiing championship.

"We're not in this to make money, but some sports have to make a profit so other sports can keep having their championships."

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Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.