A Look Ahead to 2008 and a Proposal

[ZagGrad]

Spokane could, potentially, host the tournament in two locations: Gonzaga Prep High School and Joe Albi Stadium. Both of these facilities offer field-turf, stadium seating (prep seats 1-2K while Albi seats 20K) and both could offer locker rooms. I would not recommend the GU campus just based on poor parking, seats, and lack of accessible locker rooms. The growth of lacrosse in Spokane is still slow going, but both fields would provide for a great venue.

[primetime21]

I for one loved the final four in vancouver. facilities were great, city was so supportive and the whole event was ran exceptionally well!! I think dan has something going on here with these other cities. I would love to see a final four in bellingham, or somewhere between bellingham and seattle, mainly...like dan stated to showcase our league. with the rise of oregon high school lacrosse we have seen what that could do for area colleges i.e western oregon, OSU, and most notably 2nd ranked UofO rather than allowing teams to decide who should host maybe someone on the committee or even local teams should research where high school lax is growing and showcase it. lax should be spread throughout but we also need to look out for ourselves as a league. if spokane is not growing as a lax community how does it really benefit the league. i don't know how idaho's growth is coming but i would be interested to find out and see what even a mid-season weekend tourney could get for attendance as a measuring stick to the possibility of a final four there.

i would say before putting such a main event in an "unkown" territory we should look at these cities hosting potential tourneys or big game weekends in the season to see what kind of interest they could draw from local schools and communities. that way everybody in one way or another would "win" and get the idea of final four potential.

[PNWLaxer]

I do believe it is now up to the executive to put together the final four tournament. It is no longer up to the membership teams to decide/vote on where they want to play. I know there was some serious talk about having it on the East side in 2007 but when the committee dug a little bit to find a venue and local support there was none. The HS in Tacoma with the help of Kyle stepped up and took on the roll as host. As Dan pointed out the tourney has rotated between 3 places the last 10 years - Portland, SeaTac and Vancouver, it would be nice to see other places join the list.

[Blake]

Boise should host one hands down, and here's why:

1. High School Interest - I'm not sure how many schools in the Spokane area are playing, but Boise has 12 high schools, along with a slew of youth teams. Some of the high schools have 60 players in the organization. You won't find a PNCLL city with faster growing community support.

2. Facilities - Shawn has done a great job with the fall tournament every year. He has also secured access to the Blue Turf. Everybody knows what the blue turf is, and it would present some great PR and photo ops for the league.

Just my two cents. Oh...and most importantly I would be able to watch the tournament. Get on this Shawn!

[Sonny]

I do believe it is now up to the executive to put together the final four tournament. It is no longer up to the membership teams to decide/vote on where they want to play.

Agree. The same thing applies to every other MCLA conference and here's why.

You need to find a venue (high school stadium with all weather guarantee) that is appropriate for our level of play with a locale that can support the event (fannies in the seats) and gives exposure to youth & H.S. lacrosse.

The answer is a high school lacrosse booster club that wants to leverage your conference tournament to help raise funds. It's a win-win for everybody - the booster club becomes financially vested in the success of the event year round. (They want to sell more tickets to raise more $$.)

Even if the conference loses money on the event (or is revenue neutral) - the conference gains a guaranteed venue and hopefully a decent crowd to play in front of. The lacrosse booster club worries about all the details like ticket sales, games management, concessions, promotions, PA Announcing, etc. which frees up our already overtaxed conference execs & coaches to work on other issues.

Also, don't underestimate the value of holding the event at the same place year after year. You build continuity, you don't have to reinvent the wheel each year, and it helps people who are doing the planning.

One final thought - You can mostly forget try to attract a large number of high school kids. They seem indifferent (too cool) to attend our games en mass and if they aren't already playing, they seem to want to hang out with friends or girlfriends then go to a college game. So just because an area has H.S. lacrosse, doesn't mean that you will draw 2,000 people in the stands.

Your true target audience that everyone in the MCLA should be targeting - Middle school lacrosse players. They are extremely receptive & impressionable. And most of the middle schoolers travel en mass. And they buy lots of food (concessions $$).

[Kyle Berggren]

I think Boise would be a fantastic venue, I love that city. Is there a local lacrosse store that would get on board? Organization would be much more important in Boise over a place like Seattle or Portland. Don't forget we have to have get officials over there, & their travel costs aren't going down. We'd have to be creative, but I'm sure we can get it done. Field rental is also important, hopefully the University will take care of you field cost wise.

In Tacoma, we the Clinic we did on Friday, we were revenue neutral. This was not exactly our goal, but as time went on, Jason & I were all too aware of how much the volunteers were biting off & just said forget it, neutral is perfect. The minimal excess went to Curtis Lax, as well as the majority of the Clinic money. Luckily, we were not exactly charged for Curtis. The UPS team plays a lump sum to get gear to the Curtis team, & the wonderful AD at Curtis gives us the field. The Final Four was simply built into the UPS budget.

For those of you keeping score, UPS has now paid for your Final Four, & your far away home games!!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[Band]

I think Boise would be a fantastic venue, I love that city. Is there a local lacrosse store that would get on board?

Yes there is.


Lacrosse Idaho Inc.
Matt Hamilton
(208) 384-LAXX (5299)
laxidaho@gmail.com
1217 Broadway Ave. Suite 108
Boise, ID 83706

Store Hours
Monday to Friday - 11am to 7pm
Saturday - 10am to 5pm

[Dr. Jason Stockton]

For the record, the 2007 Final Four raised over $2000 for Curtis HS and their program (including our Friday night kids clinic), and the gate from the tournament, which went directly into the PNCLL bank account, ended up just over $3000. . .which coincidentally is almost exactly what the officiating bill was for the weekend.

We budget Final Four officials into our annual budget, and don't send out a bill to the playoff teams. . .but this year is the first time that our event raised enough money to cover those (much increased) costs making the event truly revenue neutral for the league, and revenue-generating for the Curtis HS Lacrosse Boosters, who had over 50 volunteers doing all of the heavy lifting over the weekend.

Sonny's suggestion is absolutely correct - find a location with local HS support. . . to do the thing right you need tons of bodies to make sure EVERYTHING gets covered. . .and that will be best found in a HS program with a strong parental group running the show.

On the other notes, I am still very interested in showcasing our league on the East side of the Cascades. We were heading to Walla Walla in 2007 until the local hotels could not accomodate the influx of lacrosse teams and families. . .I think Spokane and Boise would be ideal locations. . .and I'm also interested to see if a certain team from Missoula might put in a bid to host???

If any of you are interested in putting in a bid, please contact me so I can help you through the process. . .there's no need to re-invent the wheel. Let's get started now so we can have a real viable option (or two) to present to the membership in September. . .

And if people enjoyed it, and no bids get presented, I'd be more than happy to host again in 2008 in Tacoma. Curtis HS has told us they'd love to have us back any year. . .

[Jana]

I think Boise would be a fantastic venue...Organization would be much more important in Boise over a place like Seattle or Portland

2005 NWWLA champs were held in Boise. They did a great job and even held a banquet on campus Saturday night. Boise has a passionate advocate in Alain Rodrigue, the BSU club athletics staff administrator.

Don't forget we have to have get officials over there, & their travel costs aren't going down. We'd have to be creative, but I'm sure we can get it done. Field rental is also important, hopefully the University will take care of you field cost wise.

The NWWLA had to pay to rent the smurf turf, but I don't recall that it was insanely expensive, I will have to check the treasurer records. You will also have to pay for trainers on site. And yes, the pictures from the event turned out very cool with the smurf turf contrasting color.

Hotels are more reasonably priced than other places, which will help, and if you get the umpires to commit early, plane reservations are less than $150 each from SEA or PDX. You may also consider umpires from SLC, which is only a 5 hour drive from BSU.

Good steakhouses in town too.

[Ryan Hanavan]

And if people enjoyed it, and no bids get presented, I'd be more than happy to host again in 2008 in Tacoma. Curtis HS has told us they'd love to have us back any year. . .

Can we at least transport the couches and chairs from the Curtis locker rooms to the next venue?

Boise, Spokane and Missoula are all great choices. Maybe we'll try and bring it to the dome in Moscow at some point in the near future. I think we are still close enough to Spokane/CdA to bring their high school lacrosse programs into the mix. We could even provide an outdoor field turf practice field.

[Shawn Carman]

Here is some quick details that I wanted to get out there.

Blake has some great things to say about the Gem State Lacrosse Tournament hosted here in Boise which will will be happening here in late October. To answer some of the things Kyle commented on -

1.) Yes, there is a local lacrosse store that is within walking distance from the University and game fields, that helps with our teams exposure, and would surely hop on board to help.
2.) About officials, we have three that are certified college officials and with Boise being pretty centrally located, it makes sense.
3.) Field rental is not a problem. We have our grass student activities field and our blue turf field which are minimal cost to us. We also have a new One Year old Indoor Turf Field that we are trying to use for such events.

Boise very well could be a great place to host such an event.

[Shawn Carman]

Also we have a host hotel that offers reduced rates for teams involved with us. It is something like $53 a night or something very close.

[ZagGrad]

Why is a having a lacrosse store propel one venue over another? How hard would it be to make a few phone calls to have someone come up or send representation? I think it'd be pretty easy to work on Neil down at Sling-It! lax...

I think the major issue would be youth lacrosse and generating a response out of that. I'm sure we could pull some kids from our "North Idaho Lacrosse League," which would be a decent amount. I don't know what the draw has been for the past couple of turnouts, but really, is youth participation that big of a deal? Yeah, exposure is great, but I'd rather play at nice facilities. Spokane doesn't offer the greatest in facilities, but I'm sure it could definitely compete with Curtis High School. I'm sure Boise has a lot to offer as well, but the drive would be killer for some guys.

[teslax14]

When we played Chapman at Lakeridge HS this year, there was somewhere in the region of 1000 people in attendance. I don't know what we had at this year's PNCLL championships but i bet it wasn't close to that number. There is always interest in the Portland area especially because there are so many players on PNCLL teams from that region. I'm sure there are more factors that contribute to the selection of a venue, but I would tend to put local interest VERY high on that list.

[Ryan Hanavan]

We have our grass student activities field and our blue turf field which are minimal cost to us. We also have a new One Year old Indoor Turf Field that we are trying to use for such events.

Boise very well could be a great place to host such an event.

My only concern about the student activities field is the sand box goal creases. I'd be all for the smurf-turf though and still think Boise is a great city to keep on the list of host sites. The key would be getting permission to paint lines on the turf.