I am a near life-long attendee of the state basketball tournament. I have long been amazed by the MSHL's war on its own tournament. It takes extra creativity to pull seats at the target center to make it an awful venue to watch a basketball game. I started going to the tournament back in the early 80's when it was two classes. All I ever heard then was how much better it was at Williams Arena when it was only one class. But, it was still a very fun tournament in the 80's. St. Paul makes for a very nice host city (its scale seems to better fit HS tournaments), and Williams Arena is even better when games are held there. Somehow, Minneapolis just doesn't feel like a good fit for the basketball tournament. It is too big. And all that is even before you step foot in the arena, to find black cloth hanging in front of the closest seats hanging in the air back above the court.
I realize that some of the problems are out of the MSHSL's hands. Open enrollement and private schools have resulted in all-star teams. The Genie is out of the bottle. And as a result the only thing the MSHSL can think of to deal with it is add more classes, which have a way of giving further advantages to private schools where their all star teams can play down in lower classes thanks to the only criteria usually used for class assignment: enrollement. Things like the head scratching Target Center seating layout for the tournament just seem to be done for good measure to make it the most uncomfortable sporting event one can attend.
I've been to my share of 4-class tournament games and although it all is worse than the way it used to be, games in Williams arena still are the best. I've gone to the Target Center each of the last two years and it has been painful to be there. I went to the hockey tournament for the first time this year and although hockey has some problems of its own... it shows 2 classes are still small enough for fans to care. I may have to give up completely on the bball tournament going forward.
