The NFL announced that the Bears will play at Philadelphia at 2pm on Friday November 28th (on Prime). Ths will be in direct conflict with the 2A and 3A championships.
Thanks, George.
Thanks, George.
Bears to compete with IHSA
- Thread starter MC63
- Start date
You do realize the league sets the schedule, not each individual team.
I think this is great. Bears will be on national television.
If you're one who goes to the state title games, you will still go.
If you're like me and like to watch them from your couch...you now get to watch the bears and IHSA football on the day after turkey day.
Simple fix......move the IHSA games back a week and play them a week earlier instead of playing on the worst weekend possible?
The teams are given notice of the schedule and have soe input. Ted Phillips told me this personally
To an extent, but don't think they have a say in prime time or international games. Plus even if that is the case I guarantee they put zero thought into how it effects HS football games because there is no competition there. HS games already compete with a full slate of college football games on Saturday.
Terrible idea. The IHSA title games couldn't fill NIU or U of I, Soldier Field would look like a ghost town with a few thousand people per game.
You mighthave a point, but those two sites are very inconvenient to the vast majority of the state's population.
NIU I agree, but U of I wasn't bad. ISU is the perfect spot for these games.
Yes, the center of the state is a terrible idea for the STATE championships🙄. 6 of 8 classes are divided north/south so Bloomington makes perfect sense. I know it pains you, but the IHSA does not care that Mt. Carmel has to travel to Bloomington for the state game.
Bears game is on Amazon Prime. Multi view with YouTube TV won't help you here.
Screw the title games. It’ll be in conflict with the Prep Bowl who most of you hate but I like!!!
NFL teams can provide "input" to the league. That input is largely limited to bye week preferences, international travel preferences (not vetoes, just preferences on timing) , and facility bookings which would prevent hosting on certain days.
With all the media partners now, this is not like 30 years ago where the Cowboys may be able to demand a change or two once the draft schedule is out. The teams used to have legitimate input. Now there are too many media partners and they are paying too much to have teams tell them something is inconvenient to them. The owners understand that the league and media partners are going to dictate the schedule with the exception of some basic, common sense requests being granted. They care about what Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Fox are demanding. Not that the Packers don't want to host a Thursday night game just because they also hosted the previous Sunday night. If Prime is paying the league and their broadcast team what they are paying, they are going to get the Packers on Thursday night.
At the most, it could be a situation where the Colts say "Lucas Oil is hosting a Taylor Swift concert during week 7 and the facility is booked Thursday morning through Saturday night so if the league needs the Colts to host that week, we are limited to Sunday night or Monday night games due to facility turnaround issues."
With all the media partners now, this is not like 30 years ago where the Cowboys may be able to demand a change or two once the draft schedule is out. The teams used to have legitimate input. Now there are too many media partners and they are paying too much to have teams tell them something is inconvenient to them. The owners understand that the league and media partners are going to dictate the schedule with the exception of some basic, common sense requests being granted. They care about what Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Fox are demanding. Not that the Packers don't want to host a Thursday night game just because they also hosted the previous Sunday night. If Prime is paying the league and their broadcast team what they are paying, they are going to get the Packers on Thursday night.
At the most, it could be a situation where the Colts say "Lucas Oil is hosting a Taylor Swift concert during week 7 and the facility is booked Thursday morning through Saturday night so if the league needs the Colts to host that week, we are limited to Sunday night or Monday night games due to facility turnaround issues."
I have completely come around to the idea that none of the state championship logistics debate actually matters. What weekend it is held on, what time the games are played at, and where the games are held will all have minimal impact on attendance. At most, these factors may swing the attendance of a few hundred or, at most a thousand or so fans.
It will never happen, but if they were really looking to boost attendance by several thousand people, the only real incentive is to go full Bill Wirtz and not televise the games. If it's teams I am not closely following, I am watching from home or not at all. Most HS football fans in the state fall into that category.
Playing indoors at Arlington Heights may also be able to bump up 1,000 or more for certain large school games just because of the comfort factor for a lot of fans.
The over convenience of televising the games and being outdoors in November all keep far more fans away than any argument over time, location, or specific weekend will ever have. Though I do think bumping them up one weekend would be the third most meaningful impact on attendance after the television and outdoor issues. Location and game times are not even in the conversation. At the end of the day, these are games that will never be particularly well attended given the current state of HS sports in society. I absolutely hate what has happened to attendance at regular season games the last several decades. I think televised games are a big part of why attendance and atmosphere have gone way down.
Absolutely agree. MC63 just thinks that anything other than a home game for MC is a huge inconvenience.
Sadly I don't even think televised games are helping. HS sports is a very niche thing. Outside of the obsessed like us, and the fans of those participating in the games these are not widely viewed events, especially on Thanksgiving weekend when people have family in town and other things going on.
Yes, two or three TV’s makes for a great football weekend!!I think this is great. Bears will be on national television.
If you're one who goes to the state title games, you will still go.
If you're like me and like to watch them from your couch...you now get to watch the bears and IHSA football on the day after turkey day.
If they were that inconvenient very few people would go. Here you are in this thread complaining about the Bears playing on Friday and acting like you care about the lower class schools having to compete with the NFL game. Then a few posts later you are again complaining about the location of the games and saying it's an inconvenience for you to drive. What about the lower class schools' fans who may have to drive 4 or 5 hours one way if the games were at NIU? Isn't that an inconvenience for them? That would more of an inconvenience for them than you to go to ISU. Obviously you don't think it is. In your world, if you think it is an inconvenience for you, then it is an inconvenience for everyone. You are the only one who ever even brings this up.
There is no guarantee MC will even be in the title game. And if they aren't, what do you care? You won't have to leave home. Guess we'll have to wait to see who's there.
What makes you think that? You think more people would go just to say they went to Soldier Field? As Hillman said, the people that go will go no matter where the games are played and those that watch on TV will continue to do so.
If you're basing it on location do you think more fans of ESL will make the trip to Chicago vs. Bloomington? Outside of 7A and 8A there's a southern rep in every title game and traveling to Chicago is less than ideal. MC63 wants the games in Chicago so he's not inconvenienced with a 2 hour drive.
I'd be more upset if this was happening between weeks 1 & 9 as those gates matter to the schools and their communities and essentially everyone north of I-80 and east of I-39 would be affected in some capacity. The only people who really go to State Championship games are those of the teams who are in the championships and they'll be at the championship game over watching the bears for that one day. The rest of us will either be flipping back and forth or have 2 tvs going
Do you really want championship games played on a day that the vast majority of working people do not have off?
I'll never go to a game the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, family traditions etc.. and that comes first. I would assume many are in the same boat. But I would possibly go on a different Friday/Saturday. Just an example.
So then let's make the site equally inconvenient for all but the handful of schools from central Illinois that find their way to the title game, right? Here's a great idea...let's intentionally make it a long trip for MOST schools and fans so as to NOT show favoritism to the big city market schools. Typical small-minded and small school mentality that dominates the IHSA.
Last fall, 10 of the 16 schools in the finals were from the Chicago media market. It was 10 of 16 back in 2018. Most years it's 8. Last year, the only class that did not have a school from the Chicago market was 1A.
Seems highly unlikely to me that overall attendance at the games would be greater in Bloomington than Chicago.
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I went to the 8A game last fall, but I probably would not take off a day of work to do that.
My Friday after Thanksgiving tradition is to watch games while I make turkey soup. My family knows that and gives me that day to enjoy.
Convenient that you left out the first part of my post. The people that travel to the state games will still go no matter where the games are held and those that stay home will continue to stay home. High school football championship games in Illinois don't bring out the casual fans, only the die hards and fans of the teams playing.
If the games were at Soldier Field, how many more Loyola fans would attend? 100? 1,000? It wouldn't be enough to warrant what it would cost to host the games there. If the games were at Soldier Field and Loyola wasn't playing would you still go to the 8A game?
Many people, myself included, have family that comes from out of town and stays the weekend for Thanksgiving and these are people that I only see once a year so I'm not telling them I can't spend time with them because I want to watch HS football.
I typically get to watch all of 1A, 2A and part of 3A on Friday and then 5A and 6A on Saturday before family commitments take over. I think many people are in the same boat and the location of the games won't change that.
