The 2020 high school football Prep Classic state championships are being moved from the Superdome to Northwestern State in Natchitoches.
LHSAA director Eddie Bonine said it costs half a million dollars to rent the Dome for the games and they usually only break about even selling about 35,000 to 42,000 tickets. He said current capacity restrictions put this year’s number far below that.
“The numbers just were not going to match, we were not going to be able to fulfill our obligations and pay our bills,” said Bonine. “We can fulfill that by going to Natchitoches.”
Bonine said New Orleans also could not commit to even allowing fans in the stadium by late December, and move to Natchitoches gives them a plan set in stone.
“We will be at 25 percent occupancy for that facility which will give us about 4,250 ticket sales per game,” said Bonine.
The games will be held over a four day period from December 27th to 30th. Usually the championships only last three days.
It’s the first time the games won’t be played in the Dome since 2005 after Katrina, and Bonine said it’s unfortunate they won’t have that opportunity this year, but he vowed the games would return to the Superdome in 2021.
“It makes my guts hurt to know that we cannot give them that experience, but it was more important to ensure that they were going to get a championship in front of fans versus not,” said Bonine.
It’s only the second time the games haven’t been played in the Dome since they were first hosted there in 1981.
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