MAC ON SPORTS: IHSA TO AWARD BASKETBALL SITES MONDAY
J. Thomas McNamara
The IHSA Board of Directors will vote on state basketball hosting bids when they meet next Monday, June 15.
The Peoria Civic Center and Redbird Arena have submitted bids to host the girls tournaments with the Peoria Civic Center and State Farm Center bidding on the boys tournaments.
The Peoria Civic Center has bid on hosting both the boys and girls tournaments as well as the boys tournament only.
It will be a virtual board meeting. “We are still finalizing our media plans, but I do anticipate a conference or Zoom call on Monday afternoon. We may also seek to conduct a media event at the venue or venues selected to host later in the week, depending on their ability (and media interest) to do so within quarantine guidelines, wrote the IHSA’s Matt Troha in his heads up note to the media.
In a statement released to the media Wednesday afternoon (June 10), IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said, “The IHSA Board of Directors will deliberate and vote on the host venues for the IHSA Girls and Boys Basketball State Final Tournaments for 2021-2023 when they meet on Monday, June 15, 2020. It had initially been my intention to hold off on making a decision on host venues until the IHSA Board of Directors were able to meet again in person. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to impact our timeline, we have reached a juncture where we believe it will become detrimental to the potential host venue or venues, as well as our staff, if we continue to wait any longer. Monday’s Board meeting will be conducted remotely via a video conference call. We appreciate the patience of everyone involved in this process.”
I’m expecting the board to award the boys tournament to State Farm Center and the girls tournament to stay at Redbird Arena.
All four classes of tournaments will be held on the same weekend with the girls playing the week before the boys.
I will have on this developing story in a future print edition of the Decatur Tribune.
