Canton City Schools official hopes OHSAA considers 'greatest high school gym in Ohio'
Ohio high school basketball has made its bed in Columbus or Dayton for decades upon decades of state final fours.
Change is coming. Canton is calling.
Life will be different when the boys and girls basketball tournaments expand from four divisions to seven next year.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association is figuring out where to play state semifinal games when it is way too crowded to jam a final four into one city in one weekend.
Joe Bogdan has done lots of figuring. He wants uber-iconic Memorial Field House in Canton to be a state semifinals stop.
"I've been lobbying with anyone who will listen that this would be a great spot to hold semifinal games, like a mini-state tournament," he said.
Canton City Schools operates the 4,200-seat, 72-year-old Field House. Bogdan's title with the school district is Director of Sports, Athletic Partnerships, Facilities and Physical Education.
OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute said Thursday, when the move to seven divisions became official, that arranging the new-look state semifinals and finals is a complicated work-in-progress.
Early indications are that the University of Dayton will be retained as the site for state championship games, along the lines of Canton's Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium hosting Ohio's seven state title games in football.
In football, state semis are conducted at seven different sites around Ohio.
"I think everything's on the table for basketball," Bogdan said. "I don't know if they'll decide to have seven semifinals in seven different parts of the state, based on geography.
"Maybe there's an opportunity to play three, four, five or all seven of them in a single location in an all-day period so people have a chance to see multiple games ... like a mini-state tournament."
Bogdan hopes for as many state semifinal games as the OHSAA cares to throw Canton's way. He will make proposals to host state semifinal games in boys basketball, girls basketball and girls volleyball, all of which are expanding from four to seven divisions.
Bogdan said the Field House's next-door-neighbor proximity to Hall of Fame Village could be a factor.
"We'll come up with our best plan," he said. "We'll let them know the amount of people we think we can hold.
"We have this wonderful place here. We're certainly willing to do anything we can to help out. It costs a little more to play a game here than in a normal high school. But it costs less to play here than in a college arena.
"We might be able to hit that sweet spot of price and capacity that they're looking for.
"They have lots of options and lots of things they have to do down the road. We'll continue to make ourselves available for any discussions they want to have."
The Field House has been used for many Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games, with lots of Northeast Ohio teams punching their tickets to state inside the arena. When the seats are full and the games are close, the building's personality and surround-sound atmosphere can be other-worldly.
"I'm very very biased," Bogdan said. "If there were places that were bigger and easier to get to and nicer, I would still want to play it here. I just think this is the greatest high school gym in Ohio.
"It would be a spectacular state-level spot.
"There's lot of things they're going to have to look for. Our spot at the campus of Hall of Fame Village with all the things going on is certainly something they'll want to look at."
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton Memorial Field House seeks future OHSAA basketball state semis
