Can IHSAA finals afford to stay in Lucas Oil?
Blake Ress knows the new site for the football state finals is a beauty. The Indiana High School Athletic Association commissioner wishes he could guarantee it would stay there. “This is where we want to be,” Ress said earlier this week while standing in a Lucas Oil Stadium meeting room. “But we have to see how this year works and whether we can come out OK.” The finals are being played at the newly-constructed stadium this weekend after a 24-year run at the RCA Dome. Last year’s event drew 51,217 fans, smashing the previous record by nearly 5,000 fans. But a move to the new palace isn’t coming cheaply. The IHSAA decided earlier this year to raise ticket prices from $10 to $15 per session. Ress estimates that staging this year’s event will cost the organization nearly $250,000, about double what it cost at the dome. He said he doesn’t yet know if that’s feasible in the long term, especially if Indianapolis officials decline to give financial aid to the IHSAA like they do to some conven
