About an hour and a half before nationally ranked Allen played five-time state champion Duncanville on Tuesday night, a long line of fans started in front of the Coppell High School arena and stretched on endlessly, covering the walkway leading up to what had suddenly become the epicenter of Texas high school boys basketball.
The bus carrying the Duncanville team hadn't even arrived yet, but fans got there extra early to ensure that they got a good seat for the game of the year in the Lone Star State. One fan walked around holding a sign that said, "need 1 ticket."
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In the UIL's new split-division playoff format that has drawn mixed reviews, two of the largest schools in the state didn't have to travel far for their much hyped Class 6A Division I state semifinal, but the problem was that the gym at Coppell seats only 2,000. With Allen ranked No. 2 in the state and Duncanville ranked No. 6, there was high demand for tickets, and the game sold out in 45 minutes after they went on sale Monday.
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"One of my friends said she went on and the time she got ready to checkout it said sold out," said Bertha Matlock, who attended Duncanville's 77-74 win over Allen. "A friend of mine said her grandson plays, she didn't even get tickets. They really need another venue larger than this."
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Allen is the largest school in the state, with an enrollment of 6,947 for the UIL's realignment in February, and Duncanville has the sixth-largest enrollment in Texas at 4,710.5. Fans from both schools would have been easily accommodated if that game had been at the Alamodome in San Antonio, which has a capacity of just more than 16,000 for boys and girls state basketball games.
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But there is no more traditional state tournament. State semifinals are now played at neutral sites throughout Texas, and that has pros and cons.
"It's better for us because we can get to it here, but ... they need a bigger venue," said Randy McCoy, another fan at Tuesday's game.
Duncanville boys coach David Peavy said the schools looked at holding Tuesday's game at SMU, UT-Arlington, Ellis Davis Field House in Dallas and Wilkerson-Greines Activity Center in Fort Worth but ultimately settled for a smaller venue. SMU's Moody Coliseum seats 7,000 and would have been an ideal choice, but it wasn't available because the Mustangs hosted Syracuse in men's basketball Tuesday night.
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"There were a lot of places that we just couldn't get in," Peavy said. "I thought Coppell was a great venue, but I didn't know we needed something with 20,000."
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Chance Westmoreland, coach of six-time state champion Argyle girls, hopes the UIL will consider moving the boys and girls state championship games out of San Antonio. They have been played there since 2015 and have never been held in the Dallas area, where the Mavericks' American Airlines Center and Dickies Arena in Fort Worth are potential options.
"I think a lot of talks have been gaining steam over the last couple of years that they want to try to move maybe the girls to Waco and the boys to Dickies Arena, which would be awesome," Westmoreland said. "It just needs to be a basketball venue. The girls tournament, you probably look at the attendance over the last couple of years, and the biggest crowd is going to be maybe 3,000.
"When the state tournament used to be at The Drum in Austin, that was pretty cool. You made it to The Drum. You don't really hear people saying we're making it to the Alamodome. It's not a basketball venue. The casual spectator is not going to go to San Antonio to watch a game."
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Baylor's Foster Pavilion in Waco has a seating capacity of 7,500, and Dickies Arena seats close to 14,000 for basketball. But the UIL said Tuesday that the state games will be in San Antonio for at least next season, and possibly beyond.
"We are currently under contract with the Alamodome to host the boys and girls basketball state championships through 2026, with possible extensions if mutually agreed upon. We have not communicated any plans to move the state finals and do not wish to comment on that speculation," UIL communications manager Julia Zachary said in an email. "As with all UIL events, we are continuously evaluating all options to provide the best possible state championship experience for everyone involved."
The UIL said last year that American Airlines Center "would be a phenomenal place to have the tournament," but the problem with moving the state championship games is finding a marquee venue that is available on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday two weeks in a row, with this week's boys championship games following last week's girls finals at the Alamodome. American Airlines Center has conflicts with Mavericks and Stars games, and Dickies Arena has hosted American Athletic Conference men's and women's postseason tournaments and concerts that overlapped with the dates the UIL needed it for.
With two playoff brackets for each classification, there are now 24 state semifinals and 12 state championship games, making it difficult to play all of that at one location if the UIL decided at some point to go back to a true state tournament. Either multiple venues would be needed, or the state tournament would have to stretch over a full week or longer.
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The UIL only announced a single attendance figure for both girls state finals in each classification this year, and 5A had the highest at 4,164, followed by 2A (3,651), 3A (3,483), 4A (3,322), 6A (2,048) and 1A (1,677). The 5A attendance was boosted by the fact that McDonald's All-American and No. 1 national recruit Aaliyah Chavez was playing for Lubbock Monterey in Saturday's 5A Division II title game, in which it crushed Liberty Hill 64-35.
Last year, when there was an actual state tournament, the largest girls crowd was 3,307 for the 3A final in which Shallowater beat Huntington 54-49, while the 5A final between Frisco Liberty and Mansfield Timberview drew 3,044 and the 6A final between Duncanville and South Grand Prairie drew 2,961. On the boys side, Plano East's 53-41 win over Round Rock Stony Point in the 6A championship game drew 8,812, Stony Point's semifinal win over Beaumont United had a crowd of 7,331 and Lancaster's 59-30 win over Killeen Ellison in the 5A final attracted 5,874 fans.
"I think it should be a rotation of cities for kids to experience different locations in Texas," said Lincoln girls coach Ashley Greer, whose team won the Class 4A Division II state championship by routing Cuero 60-32 last Friday. "Let's try Houston, let's try Dallas. I know Austin isn't a go because of South by Southwest. Either The Star [in Frisco] or AT&T Stadium [in Arlington] would be a huge experience for kids. I think you would get more fans, because I think Dallas is the new mecca of high school basketball, girls and boys."
The UIL said it doesn't have any financial numbers available yet for this year's girls state finals, but the event has been an economic boon for the host city in the past. Visit San Antonio, the organization that handles sales and marketing for the city, projected that the 2023 girls and boys state tournaments had an economic impact of about $3.5 million and $4.8 million, respectively.
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The fact that it is now incumbent on the schools playing in state semifinals to find their own venue instead of having that already predetermined when those games used to be at the Alamodome has created an extra hassle for coaches. Peavy thinks the UIL may have to step in and start handling that in the future, especially since the semifinals are now played just a few days after the regional finals instead of having almost a week in between like in the past.
"I think UIL is probably going to have to put sites together for these things instead of us having to try to find them this late," he said. "It's such a quick turnaround and we're so locked in on our opponent, no one has started looking ahead."
Staff writer Myah Taylor contributed to this report.
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