I know this has been brought up numerous times, so I am expecting a lot of people to make fun of me.... I do not have a Dog at the fight this year - I am a HIGHLAND fan and our basketball team was not there this year... But if you look at the 4A Semis 3/4 teams remaining are from East Idaho, and in 5A 2/4 teams are from East Idaho, 1 from the North and Borah is the lone team from the SIC. I get that Boise has the best facilities to host the tourney, and I will be the first to admit that Highland's could use a much better gym! But, there are the facilities in place here between ISU (Reed's gym, Holt Arena, BYUI, Madison, Bonneville and Pocatello High School to Host a decent tournament, and yes there are enough good Hotel rooms in the Pocatello area for such tourney (Pocatello hosts the Simplot games every year the largest HS track tourney in the country) and does a great job at it. So in reality why is the tourney in Boise every year. 1 - yes I have discussed this with Travis Bell in the past. 2 - Without a Dog in the fight I will not be going to Boise to watch and I CERTAINLY am NOT going to PAY NFHS money to watch it... I would like to see the tourney made available to more fans by rotating it once in a while. I know that the IHSAA has voted to keep the tourney in Boise forever and never move it out.... Just my old 2 cent gripe!
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The treasure valley is central for the whole state and has the most participating teams in the tournament based on seeds for various districts, so it makes sense to have it here. I could see why it might be annoying for the out of area teams to leave every year, but logistically as a whole, it easily makes the most sense.
So why aren't all sports held there every year and not just track and basketball?
@Bigfoot I'm not sure, but I think they should be. I think volleyball is here also, so is the majority of soccer and baseball I believe but I could be wrong. I was only stating the reasons of why basketball is held here per the OP. I'm sure they hold them different places to spread out the travel for everyone, but I think the majority of the state tournaments should be held in the treasure valley just based on logistics.
@idahooper: OK Boise has the highest number of 5A schools, but if you look at the number of teams that have to travel for the tourney (all 1a d2 - 5a) I would bet that there are more teams or very close to the same number of teams from East Idaho as there is in Boise - Definitely the number of teams in 4A closer to East Idaho than to Boise. Also I would bet the same is true for 3A... 2A is probably fairly close so I do not see that your argument makes sense.... Additionally, If my kids want to go see a game in Boise it is a $20 bus ride provided by the school over there. If it is a kid from the treasure valley they just drive to the game....
I agree with you. I know many claim that they all need to be played in close proximity to each other but in reality you can only watch one game at a time and I don't think there are as many people running around watching games outside of their own classification as people claim. I have long thought it should be more like football with different classification playing in different regions each year. In addition to that I am shocked that other cities in the state are not outraged by the amount of tourism dollars spent in boise every year instead of the state sharing the wealth. I to don't have a team in the tournament this year but if there were games in Poky or IF I probably would drive over and watch but boise is just too far to justify the trip.
@idahooper - I mean this sincerely! Enjoy the games they should be fun!
The other issue is, the revenue that comes into the pockets of the Boise schools that host. They keep All off the proceeds from the concessions, and not sure, but i think may split the gait as well. And to top it off, they don't have travel costs, bus, food, hotels. It's not fair for all the schools outside of the Boise valley. IHSAA should share the love
By going to Boise from Tri-Cites, to watch basketball and from Tri-Cites to Pocatello to watch football, I have made a lot of friends. I still communicate with many of them. Treasure Valley fans would provide the same argument that the Eastern fans are now. If you polled the kids, I'll bet they would vote to go to Boise, after all its their showcase.