Wednesday, October 22, 1997

Sports network still seeking central site for high school playoffs

By LANCE FLEMING / Abilene Reporter-News

Despite losing another round in their fight for a central site for Texas high school football state championship games, Fox Sports Southwest officials vow they'll keep pushing forward with their idea.

Sunday morning the University Interscholastic League athletic committee voted unanimously to reject a proposal for a central site for the state's football championship games.

But Jon Heidtke, vice president and general manager of Fox Sports Southwest, said he and Susan Blackwood of the San Antonio Sports Foundation (SASF), will present the idea to the UIL again in June.

Sunday's vote came despite a guarantee from Fox Sports Southwest of $540,000 plus travel and hotel expenses for each of the 16 participating teams and a guaranteed fee to each school for reaching the finals. Under the proposal, the guaranteed payout to Class 5A schools was set at $50,000.

Fox Sports had hopes its proposal would be studied by the UIL after it conducted a telephone survey in August and found overwhelming support for the central site idea from fans.

Heidtke said 53 percent of 18- 34-year-old males would likely attend the games if they were held at a single site. Heidtke also said results found that 61 percent of all those surveyed said they would watch the games on television if they were unable to attend them in person.

But the proposal -- made by Fox Sports Southwest and the SASF -- was rejected by the UIL.

The Texas High School Football Coaches Association has been against the idea from the start with association members saying they didn't want to lose control of when and where state title games would be played.

"That's the reason I'm against it," Cooper head coach Randy Allen said. "As an association, we want to decide where and when to play the game. We don't want the media or any other organization telling us what time the state championship game will start."

However, Heidtke said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters from around the state that neither he nor the SASF would let the issue die.

"I think the coaching fraternity looks at this as a situation where if it's not broken, why fix it?" he said. "Fear is a big part of it, because it's something different. All we're asking is that the 16 teams that reach the finals have a predetermined place to play.

"One coach told me he didn't want to give up control of where he plays, and I asked him if he thought flipping a coin was control," Heidtke said. "He didn't have an answer for me.

"The wheels of progress are moving slowly on this," he said. "I'm disappointed that the UIL wouldn't even approve a study of the issue. Everybody you talk to -- other than the coaches' association -- thinks this is a great idea. At some point we're going to get this thing done, because it makes a lot of sense."

Right now the proposal has the single site being played at the Alamodome in San Antonio. One weekend would play host to the Class 5A Division I state title game, as well as the Class 4A Division I game, the Class A game and the Six-Man game.

The Six-Man field has different dimensions than the 11-man field, and Susan Blackwood -- director of the SASF -- said Alamo Stadium in San Antonio could be used to stage that title game.

The next weekend would showcase the Division II games in Class 5A and Class 4A, as well as the Class 3A and 2A games.

Some of the concerns coaches have mentioned include game site, travel expenses, ticket distribution and loss of control.

But the conference call touched on each of those issues in the conference call, and here are the thoughts of Heidtke and others on each of those issues:

n Game site: Right now the proposal centers around San Antonio and the Alamodome being the first central site. However, that's not to say that the Astrodome in Houston and a domed Texas Stadium (Jerry Jones says it will happen in the next 10 years) won't become part of a rotation system.

"We've had interest from Houston, Dallas, Austin and Waco for this thing," Heidtke said. "We want to try and create a fairness issue, and a rotating system would be a big part of that."

n Travel expenses: Fox Sports Southwest would pay for transportation and housing each of the 16 participating teams, and then would give each team a guaranteed appearance fee.

Heidtke said Southwest Airlines and bus companies have been contacted and that all parties are willing to discuss ways of making this work.

"In terms of transportation, if the team is within driving distance of the game site -- and that's 300 miles or less -- ground transportation would be complimentary," Heidtke said. "If they're more than 300 miles away, air transportation would be complimentary, and they would have ground transportation."

As far as hotel rooms, Blackwood said there are more than enough in San Antonio, and that some chains have been contacted about the possibility of giving teams, fans and school organizations a break on rates.

"We have 7,500 hotel rooms within a 15-minute drive of the Alamodome," she said. "We won't be able to get everybody right down on the Riverwalk, but we'll find them a room."

n Ticket distribution: If coaches are worried about the ticket situation being the same for this as it is for the state basketball tournament, they shouldn't worry. After all, the Alamodome will seat 55,000 for football, while the Erwin Center in Austin seats just 17,000 for basketball.

Heidtke said the participating schools would have the choice of the best seats per game. Mike Abbington, the director of Alamodome operations, said a central site would mandate some sort of equal ticket distribution.

"In events of this sort, there is a pre-allotment of tickets, per school," Abbington said. "I believe policies can and should be created to allot a certain number of tickets to certain organizations. The establishment of distribution policies is mandatory."

n Control: Most coaches are against the proposal because they would be told where to play a state championship game instead of them making their own decisions.

However, a few coaches got a glimpse at what a central site might be like in 1994 when the Class 5A Division I, Class 4A and Class 3A title games were played in front of 35,000 fans at the Astrodome.

"T.J. Mills at Sealy was dead-set against it, and Art Briles at Stephenville didn't want to have anything to do with it," Heidtke said. "But that was before the game. Talk to them now and they'll say they can see how it can work. They'll also tell you they have concerns, but that the idea does have merit."

What it boils down to for Fox Sports, Heidtke said, is that besides making some money, his network will get the chance to present Texas high school football at its most intense and exciting.

"This could be the biggest sporting event in the state of Texas," Heidtke said. "I think, ultimately, it makes too much sense not to do this. It's an education process with the coaches. Just because they said no this time doesn't mean they'll say no the next time it comes up.

"You look at other places that do this -- Minnesota with hockey and Indiana with basketball -- and you see that Texas football deserves a showcase like those other sports have," Heidtke said. "Growing up in Texas, I can't imagine a better way -- or bigger showcase -- to close out the season."