I like their facilities! GW and AD Chuck Burch has done a great job. Not the most simple place to get to not being off an interstate plus it is right on the state line so not as centrally located as would be preferred but it is a good location east to west.
REGIONAL FINALS SITES
- Thread starter Hon Dines
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E-mail this afternoon from Nick Stephens (High School OT/WRAL):
"And I can now confirm that the state championship games will indeed be held at Reynold Coliseum at NC State and the Dean E. Smith Center at UNC."
"And I can now confirm that the state championship games will indeed be held at Reynold Coliseum at NC State and the Dean E. Smith Center at UNC."
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That is the standard every year. Reynolds is great for the games. Carmichael was great but parking the issue there. Dean Dome too big. Would like to see A&T and Elon.
Well, if you would have read my post I said Charlotte schools first. Then if you can't lock that down go back to the UNC (asheville, greensboroa, wilmington) system which should be open to NC system. I think it is stupid for NCHSAA to wait so late (which they did) and think that sending 4 Charlotte schools to Marion. The drive alone will impact the crowd.
I thought McDowell did a great job hosting the 4A Regional today. Our crowd at its peak was a little bit over half full for our gym. Granted we can carry 3500 at capacity. I think we approached 2000 around the time the boys game started and you still had folks from all four teams.
That number would have been too large for any public school gym in Mecklenburg County without turning people away. I know folks complain about not traveling as far but today shows even the most hard-core of fans our facility was a good choice to host.
I hope the atmosphere of today’s games is what’s remembered. That’s what it should all be about, the experience and the atmosphere for the fans and athletes.
I personally think we have seen the end of big arenas for regional events. People better get used to it. So, if I lived in Mecklenburg county I think I would have to ask the question… How could we get in a situation to where we could host events like today?
Surely in a city as large as Charlotte North Carolina there would be people in the community that would have interest in backing the creation of a multi-purpose event center that would be catered toward high school students. Could CMS somehow get involved in a public/private venture to build a facility somewhere in the county?
we’re talking facility that would have a capacity of around 4000-5000 people and it could be used for regional basketball, volleyball, wrestling events. Also this facility could serve for CMS graduations.
That number would have been too large for any public school gym in Mecklenburg County without turning people away. I know folks complain about not traveling as far but today shows even the most hard-core of fans our facility was a good choice to host.
I hope the atmosphere of today’s games is what’s remembered. That’s what it should all be about, the experience and the atmosphere for the fans and athletes.
I personally think we have seen the end of big arenas for regional events. People better get used to it. So, if I lived in Mecklenburg county I think I would have to ask the question… How could we get in a situation to where we could host events like today?
Surely in a city as large as Charlotte North Carolina there would be people in the community that would have interest in backing the creation of a multi-purpose event center that would be catered toward high school students. Could CMS somehow get involved in a public/private venture to build a facility somewhere in the county?
we’re talking facility that would have a capacity of around 4000-5000 people and it could be used for regional basketball, volleyball, wrestling events. Also this facility could serve for CMS graduations.
The WInston Salem Journal had a crack about how they might as well have played the Hayesville—WSPA game at Hayesville. I am guessing the writer doesn’t realize how much of NC there is past Asheville and that Hayesville is 2 hours from AC Reynolds, about the same as Prep. ACR seemed to be a good venue although tickets did sell out.
In the boys game Hayesville's crowd filled at least 3/4 of the gym.
I think that would have been the case no matter what except maybe if it had been at Prep. And why I didn’t think it was fair for the Journal to say the NCHSAA shouldn’t have pretended AC Reynolds was a neutral site. I will say that driving two hours to Asheville is a lot more normal for people from Hayesville than Winston Salem
The location and subsequent crowd has been brought up to NCHSAA reps. They blew it. PERIOD. They know they blew it and will not admit it giving the same corporate line, "we will review for different options." I am a big supporter of the NCHSAA but this could have been handled much better.
If the games would have been separated out with at least three hours between start times or played at two different high schools there are a few gyms in Charlotte area that could have handled the crowd that attended yesterday. The difference if played in Charlotte the people coming to the game is MUCH larger. Mooresville's new gym seats 2,250. Plenty large enough for the crowd that attended but would have been much larger. So do you prefer for the teams to drive thirty minutes, play in front of 2,200 with some people turned away or drive two hours and play in front of 1,500-1,800?
High school sports in Charlotte are not a big ticket item. What needs to happen is to start a dialogue with the colleges and try to come up with the a plan but more importantly get some input from schools. Personally, I think Mooresville would have worked. 3A boys on Friday night. On Saturday 4A girls at 12 noon and 4A boys at 4. People would clear out after "their" team played as they would not stay for that length of time or you could clear the gym. Sell a one game ticket and a two game ticket for Saturday.
If that were a realistic location for the 3A girls I would put them in the middle with starting times at noon, 4pm, and 7pm. That would give an 1:45 between game and only the true basketball fan is going to wait for that as the people there for "their" school would clear out. If three games played add an extra layer to keep the crowd under with no admittance after halftime until 15 minutes after that game is over.
For this year I would have had 3A girls go to Freedom or East Burke for a one off or played three games at McDowell.
JC Smith holds over 2,000 but very little room overall. Not a good option. Mooresville HS would be better.
UNCC is the school the NCHSAA should start a dialogue with. Davidson would be perfect at over 5,000 seats. Catawba with around 3,000 is a good option between Charlotte and Greensboro.
The Winston-Salem journal does not have a HS sports writer. Same owner as GSO paper, they share a HS guy, Joe Sierra.
WS Journal sports writers has been reduced to one, John Dell, he’s trying to cover WSSU and WFU and a few other assignments.
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If it had been a home game for prep, Hayesville would still have had more fans…. Happened years back when girls played there. NC doesn’t exist west of black mountain. Even more proof of the dislike for mountain teams to compete…
It wasn’t a bad article overall, and I know papers are spread thin everywhere these days. I just thought it was interesting that, of all the neutral sites, they attacked the one that was probably the most geographically central to the teams playing.
Freedom and East Burke both seat 2500, maybe 2700 in a pinch. McDowell goes 3-3.5K with good standing room so that has to be the biggest variable. E. Burke was fine as a site for the 4A regionals many years ago, but parking is not quite as good as the other locations and it isn't as easy to get in or out with really only one two lane road unless you know the area. It is closer for the Charlotte schools,, but these other factors are trade offs that were probably factored in.
WS Prep simple doesn't travel. The year Lincoln Charter vs. WS Prep played at WSP, LCS took up 3/4 of WS Prep gym. When they played the next year in Regional Final at UNC-G LCS took up 3/4 of that seating. So, no surprises there.
if I was the sanctioning body I would rather know that I have a big enough venue and put the responsibilities on the fans to travel instead of book a smaller hometown gym knowing the host school will have to turn people away.
I think three games per site could have been a bit more appealing to the casual basketball fan, which obviously there are more of those in the rural counties compared to urban areas.
I do think the selection process was made a little more complex because of Enka girls (3A), there’s no way they could have placed the 3A games at AC Reynolds (15 minutes away) and at McDowell (45 minutes away, conference member). Therefor the only option for that game was Freedom.
That meant the 4A schools came to McDowell rather than going all the way to AC Reynolds.
Again it all goes back to my original post and comment, we better get used to how the regionals will be done because I believe the NCHSAA will be going this route in the future.
The smaller colleges like Lenoir-Rhyne or whoever we want to think would be a great place to host regionals… They are not renting these facilities out for charity. They are charging a pretty good price for an entire day of events.
Places like Mooresville or East Burke if they can really hold enough folks, none of it matters if the school doesn’t want to put in the money and time to host. I can tell you now we (coaches, AD, admin, support staff) busted our tails for three days to get the facility at McDowell ready.
The smaller colleges like Lenoir-Rhyne or whoever we want to think would be a great place to host regionals… They are not renting these facilities out for charity. They are charging a pretty good price for an entire day of events.
Places like Mooresville or East Burke if they can really hold enough folks, none of it matters if the school doesn’t want to put in the money and time to host. I can tell you now we (coaches, AD, admin, support staff) busted our tails for three days to get the facility at McDowell ready.
When I was at the Mount Airy News in the 1990s we had 3 sportswriters for a short time but always 2 sportswriters, Bob King & Michael Howlett, and a News reporter would cover one of the 4 county schools we covered, Mount Airy, North Surry, East Surry, and Surry Central in my early years there then later we went from 3 daily then 4, 5, 6 and 7 daily and now it is back to 3 daily and 1 sports reporter, Cory Smith. he may get help at times from the News department.
That’s more than the WS Journal probably has in the building. Everything is share with Greensboro.
I was at both Freedom and A.C. Reynolds yesterday (I left near the end of the 3rd quarter of the WC/CC game to get up mountain). Neither of these venues were sold out, but they had good crowds and everyone I talked to seemed satisfied with the venues. N. Davidson had a healthy crowd as did Hayesville for what it's worth. I expect that the NCHSAA had a pretty good day as far as making a few extra dollars.
I have the last copy of Winston-Salem Sentinel that shut down in 1985 put up somewhere.
Winston-Salem Sentinel Closes After Nearly 100 Years
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) _ The Sentinel published its last issue today, 36 days short of the Winston- Salem afternoon newspaper's 100th anniversary. ''It's a very sad situation,'' said Managing Editor Fred Flagler. ''Any time you lose an institution that has served the community well ...
apnews.com
This is what keeps The Mount Airy News publishing 3 times a week. I can remember as a kid it came out twice weekly.
The Mount Airy News
For 140 years, The Mount Airy News has served the people of Surry County as their primary source of news, as well as a guide to satisfy the community’s appetite for goods and services through advertising of local merchants. The Mount Airy News traces its heritage back to 1880, when the first issue was published. The News may be the oldest continuously operated business in Mount Airy, starting as a weekly publication just 15 years after the Civil War concluded. Over those decades, the newspaper grew to publish twice a week, then three times each week, and eventually became a five-day-a-week daily.
The Mount Airy News is a regional printing hub, with several newspapers and other products being printed here, including the weekly newspapers Elkin Tribune The Stokes News, The Carroll News in Virginia, and The Yadkin Ripple.
(All these papers are printed at the Mount Airy location)
The Mount Airy News offers multimedia delivery of news and advertising to a large percentage of the community.
Our goal of giving readers a balanced and fair account of what goes on in this community and elsewhere in the world will never change, while the means through which we deliver your community news and information has expanded rapidly. Today, our community members can take their news in print six times a week, through e-mail daily, online and using their mobile devices anytime, as well as through live streaming broadcasts from locations around town. We reach more than 70,000 unique visitors across these various products.
The Mount Airy News seeks to provide the news the community needs, reported faithfully and fully, with respect for all and favor to none. We strive to be authoritative and insightful, to inform and to delight.
To accomplish this mission, we set for ourselves the following goals:
To be the indispensable, timely source of information and community coverage, examining all subjects that impact readers.
To provide community members with information relevant to their daily lives.
To raise issues aggressively and constructively in matters of public interest.
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To ensure that the right information, reaches the right audience, at the time they want it using the wide variety of formats available to us.
Our news and information products have our name on it, however we want you to think of it as yours, too. Use it, enjoy it, and let us know how we can make it better. We are eager to hear from you.
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I see a lot of more reasoning why charter schools need their own class. Us rural town schools have watched our kids play together since birth and when they reach this stage the whole “town” goes to watch! It just means more. Sorry for hijacking but the truth is the truth! We’ll always have more fans!
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