By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
St. Elizabeth Healthcare will be corporate sponsor for the 2016 Kentucky girls’ high school basketball tournament which will be held in NKy for the first time since the sport was reinstated by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA).
The tournament will be played March 9-13, 2016 at BB&T Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky University.
St. Elizabeth Healthcare is listed as the tournament sponsor on the KHSAA website, but officials at the non-profit corporation based in Edgewood were not available for comment on the sponsorship.
Julian Tackett, commissioner of the KHSAA, said he would not comment on the sponsorship agreement until St. Elizabeth Healthcare officials made an official announcement.
The KHSAA Board of Control selected the 9,000-seat arena on the NKU campus as the site for the 2016 and 2017 girls’ state basketball tournaments in May of 2014. After that two-year period, the Board of Control will evaluate the event’s success compared to past tournaments and determine a direction for the future.
The girls’ state basketball basketball tournament was played at Western Kentucky University’s Diddle Arena the last 15 years and sponsored by Houchens Industries, a grocery store chain based in Bowling Green.
In an article published by the Bowling Green Daily News on May 14, 2014, the sports sales director for the Bowling Green Area Convention & Visitors Bureau said the Houchens’ sponsorship package for the girls’ state basketball tournament “has typically been $50,000.”
Hosting the girls’ state basketball tournament will have a positive impact on the local economy. Each year, thousands of fans watch teams from 16 regional tournaments across the state compete in the five-day state tournament. They’ll be staying in local motels, eating at local restaurants and shopping at local stores while attending the games at BB&T Arena.
The 2015 state tournament in Bowling Green drew more than 32,000 fans, according to attendance figures posted on the KHSAA website after each session. There were 5,335 fans in the stands for the championship game between Holy Cross and Allen County Scottsville.
Staff members from the BB&T Arena and Northern Kentucky University attended the girls’ state basketball tournament last March to take notes on the policies and procedures of hosting the event. The 9th Region boys’ and girls’ basketball tournaments have been played at the arena for the last seven years and the facility hosted the semifinals and finals of the NCAA Division II men’s basketball championship in 2012.