'Going downstate' for state basketball finals could mean trip to Sears Centre

The traditional goal of “going downstate” for the top boys' high school basketball teams in the suburbs could be exchanged for a rowdy hometown crowd just a short drive away, if one local venue gets its wish this weekend.

Global Spectrum, the company that manages Hoffman Estates' Sears Centre Arena, is trying to coax the Class 3A and 4A IHSA boys' basketball state finals from two downstate host cities for the first time in 97 years.

For the last 20 years, Illinois' most talented high school basketball players — including future Bulls star Derrick Rose — have won state championships at the Peoria Civic Center.

And during the 77 years before that, the state finals took place at various locations on the University of Illinois campus in Champaign.

In fact, the last time the finals were held in the greater Chicago area was in 1908, when the Oak Park YMCA played host.

Sears Centre General Manager Ben Gibbs knows how strong a tradition he's hoping to upend with his pitch to host the state championships for the larger schools that make up the IHSA's 3A and 4A divisions beginning in 2016.

But he believes the Sears Centre can deliver in all the right ways, especially attendance.

“With our population density, we're pulling in from 10 million people,” Gibbs said. “We can fill (the Sears Centre) with hard-core and even casual fans. We are expert marketers. We're going to sell out. There's no better way to bring buzz back to an event than to sell every seat.”

And that's at the heart of the Sears Centre's “Be There” marketing campaign, which features poster art and video spots created by Global Spectrum, an affiliate of Comcast.

Some of the best prep basketball players in the nation compete in the IHSA finals, and a packed, rambunctious arena should be the background for those games, Gibbs said.

“You will see the up-and-coming players have the most memorable moments,” he said. “We wanted to remind people that Derrick Rose not only played in the finals but had a terrific, memorable moment.”

In 2006's title game, Rose hit the game-winning shot in overtime for Chicago's Simeon Career Academy against Peoria's Richwoods High School.

Gibbs admits he doesn't know whether the IHSA will see the Sears Centre's advantages as strengths the way he does. The arena's pitch is markedly different from those of Peoria's Civic Center or the University of Illinois' State Farm Center, formerly known as Assembly Hall.

Among those differences is the Sears Centre's plan to split up the IHSA's four classes between two venues, with the larger Class 3A and 4A schools in the suburbs and 1A and 2A teams competing downstate. The Sears Centre also isn't pledging financial backing to the event, as are the other venues, and doesn't plan an interactive “March Madness Experience” like the one held for fans in Peoria.

Though Gibbs wants a full five-year contract for the tournament, he told IHSA officials he would be satisfied with a fewer years just to show what the Sears Centre can do.

IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman said his organization's board is free to break up the contract any way it likes when it votes this Saturday morning, but he doesn't anticipate any less than five years being awarded.

And Hickman doesn't see the Sears Centre's proposal to divide the state tournament between two venues as an automatic negative.

As the Sears Centre already has played host to the IHSA's basketball supersectionals, Hickman considers its pitch for the state finals to be strong and viable.

“First of all, it's a beautiful facility,” Hickman said. “I know the quality of the facility.”

The Sears Centre's clearest advantage is its proximity to many of the Class 3A and 4A schools that would play in the tournament. Of the 16 teams competing for trips downstate in Tuesday night's 3A and 4A supersectionals, 11 are from Chicago or the suburbs. At least five of the eight teams that will make it to the finals are from the Chicago area.

Hickman was with the IHSA 20 years ago when Peoria was awarded the state finals and has seen traditions like Champaign's decades of hosting the tournament fall before.

But Peoria's March Madness Experience, which gave its 1995 pitch such resonance, remains a big factor in its 2015 bid, he said.

“The first thing that comes to mind is the community support,” Hickman said of Peoria. “It's really grown. That's part of how they got it (in 1995).”

Jim Wetherington, general manager of the Peoria Civic Center, said maintaining a volunteer base of 2,000 people for 20 years is a sure indication of how much community support Peoria has put behind the March Madness Experience.

With the six-figure amount the community has committed financially toward the event — which brings in millions of dollars in economic benefits to the Peoria area — it should be clear to the IHSA how important the tournament is to the city, Wetherington said.

Though Gibbs says breaking up the state finals between two venues gives each the chance to pour all their resources into one weekend, Wetherington believes there's less justification for a community event based around a single weekend.

He concedes that attendance has dipped a bit since 2008, when the IHSA divided basketball into four classes, resulting in fewer downstate teams making the state finals.

But the big question in the current bidding battle is whether the state finals should be seen as a basketball tournament only, as it would be in Hoffman Estates, or the communitywide celebration it is in Peoria, he said.

“It's still a wonderful event,” Wetherington said. “It's not sold out, but it's still a very great event.”

Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod supports the Sears Centre bid, noting that Global Spectrum's innovative marketing has helped bring in big events such as the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament to the Northwest suburbs.

While he recognizes the weight of tradition, McLeod said he doesn't understand why the boys basketball finals shouldn't be rotated around to more than one venue or community.

“It would be great to have it,” McLeod said. “We've done a lot of basketball, obviously.”

Though downstate venues have been traditional for the IHSA, a move to the northern part of the state would not be unprecedented. Only two years ago, the football state finals were held at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb rather than their traditional home at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Hickman said.

“We had a wonderful experience there,” he said.