Editors note – The “Inside the CIAC” series provides regular glimpse inside the workings of the organization and its membership.
“Why on earth is that game being played there?”
That’s the sort of question that gets bandied about a lot at certain times of year as CIAC Tournament games are played at neutral sites, and might be among the most easy-to-see decisions the organization makes on a regular basis. Over three seasons and many, many sports requiring a whole lot of venues for tournament games it adds up to a lot of choices for sites and a lot of opportunities for second guessing.
From the outside, it may at times be difficult to understand the decisions that lead to games being played at certain venues. Here then, presented in a series of questions and corresponding answers, is an attempt to bring fans to the inside and offer some explanation on the scheduling and site puzzle that is CIAC championship tournaments.
Question:
Who makes these decisions?
Answer:
The majority of decisions made regarding tournament sites, times, etc. are made by our Tournament Directors. These are folks who dedicate a tremendous amount of time to working with site directors, officials assignors, ADs, CIAC staff, and others across the state to try and insure the CIAC tournaments go off with as few hitches as possible. Most of these folks also have other jobs (not with the CIAC) but come tournament time you can generally find them hunched over pairings with a phone to their ear and a furrowed brow.
Question:
Are decisions on sites for the finals different than earlier round neutral sites?
Answer:
Indeed they are. For most CIAC tournaments the venues for the finals are determined in advance of the tournament. Those decisions are made through discussion and analysis of available options by the specific sports committees, with the CIAC sport liaison, tournament director, and committee chair all offering thoughts and feedback. While some long-term contracts are negotiated for finals venues, the championship site is generally at least discussed by the sports committees each year.
Neutral site decisions for semifinal and early tournament games are made much more in real time, almost always not until the participating teams are determined. So for basketball semifinals, the final site determinations aren’t made until the quarterfinals are completed. This is the time when that image of tournament directors poring over pairings is most accurate.
Mohegan Sun Arena has been the basketball championship site for several years. Finding earlier round sites is complicated. MaxPreps photo by Mike Braca.
Question:
So what is the process? How are these neutral sites chosen?
Answer:
Here’s where things get a little bit complicated. One of the reasons we started by explaining who makes these decisions is to illustrate that every tournament director approaches these decisions a little differently, so there is no one process dictating the decisions. Generally speaking the process begins well in advance of the games as tournament directors begin making calls to line up as many potential sites as possible for games on specific dates. These might be high schools, colleges, or any other venue that might be willing to host a game. From there it’s a game of wait-and-see as results come in and decisions have to be made as directors then try to match two teams with sites that have agreed to host. Traditionally geography is given considerable weight as tournament directors work to find locations that are roughly equidistant for both teams. The size of the venue, potential conflicts with other games, staffing, cost, and other factors are all taken into account. And because each tournament has its own director, they may have certain preferences that impact these decisions. Some might like finding a venue that can support and likes scheduling doubleheaders, others might like trying to use college venues, or may have certain sites they greatly prefer because of good past experiences. Generally speaking finding and scheduling neutral site games in the late rounds is more art than science, but these are many of the things that influence the decision.
Question:
Why did you use that site when that other site would have been better (substitute generic sites into this question)?
Answer:
There is probably not just one answer to this (hypothetical) question, but let’s try and run down a few reasons why what fans think is an obvious site wasn’t selected. The most likely is that not every site is available on every competition date. Schools and venues are not required to make their sites available for CIAC competition, and it requires a lot of time, personnel and organization to host an event. For a lot of perfectly valid reasons, a site just might not want to take on the added effort of hosting a CIAC event. That is why the organization is incredibly grateful every single time a site agrees to serve as a host site. Quite simply the championships would not run without them. Similarly a site might be perfectly willing to host, but might have another conflict on the particular date. Or a facility might be large enough and willing to host a tournament game for a smaller division but might not have the space for the game in question. As mentioned before, most tournament directors also like to know in advance what venues it can choose from for a particular round so that once the match-ups are known the schedule can be finalized. This means that sometimes venues might not be able to commit in advance to being able to host, so when the time comes the tournament director might have moved on to other spots. Not to say these are the only explanations for why a preferred place wasn’t chosen, but this covers a lot of the obvious ones.
Question:
Why don’t you use more college/larger venues for big late-round games?
Answer:
This is another answer with a few different pieces. The first point is one mentioned previously, the challenge of securing a venue well in advance when a tournament director is never sure whether or not it will be needed. This is particularly challenging for college or larger venues that might not want to commit to being able to host a game when it’s not certain there will be a game that makes sense to play there. Finances also do play a role as though venues make every effort to work with the CIAC on fees, they tend to be larger for non-high school venues. Taken together, the scheduling challenges and cost differentials are the biggest factors in keeping CIAC events – at least prior to the finals – at school venues.
Question:
Why didn’t you put that game at a larger venue when everyone knew it wasn’t big enough?
Answer:
This answer again, can hopefully be seen in the processes mentioned above. When venues need to be reserved in advance, and not every venue is available and/or feasible, sometimes there may be a game where the interest pushes the space limitations of the venue. It’s unfortunate when this happens, and our tournament directors do their very best to have sites available that can handle the fan interest of every game, but sometimes we do the best we can with what we have. There is also often a bit of guesswork on how big a crowd a particular team might bring. Often the decision is based on the size of the school and historical following (most of our tournament directors have been at this for many years) of the fan base so there may be times when the guesswork underestimates the support.
It’s a long road to a CIAC Championship celebration, and a lot of decisions are made along the way. Christian Abraham – Danbury News Times
Question:
Why did you make one team travel so much farther than its opponent?
Answer:
Lots of these answers are going to sound pretty similar, because the selection of sites is never going to be perfect. In this case, once again, the answer is that location is just one of the factors that go into determining where a game is played. Geography is absolutely taken into account, but finding a facility that is willing and able to handle the game is just as important, which might force one team to travel farther than another.
Question:
These explanations are fine, but the CIAC really only cares about money, right?
Answer:
No, but the reality is we have to care about money a little bit. The CIAC holds 93 championship events (give or take a few depending on how you count divisional championships or joint boys and girls events) which all have costs associated with them. Revenue from ticket sales for championship games is the primary income for CIAC operations and goes towards off-setting the cost of running those 93 championship events many of which cost more than the revenue they return. Those CIAC operations also includes athletic program evaluations, coaching education, concussion management, lobbying for and against legislation which affects member schools and students among other things. So yes, cost is one of the factors tournament directors take into consideration when making their decisions. It would never be enough of a factor that a game would be played at a venue that could not adequately host the game. It is just one piece of the factors and considerations that go into the puzzle of putting together tournaments to crown CIAC champions.
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