Indianapolis Colts Sponsor HS Playoffs-How about FL?

[OldSchoolLion]

The Indianapolis Colts have been sponsoring the Indiana high school football playoffs for the past 10 years and the finals are played at Lucas Oil Stadium.  Their 6 state final games typically average about 7000 attendees per game.   Attendance at our 8 finals in Florida typically average less than 4000 per game.  

http://www.maxpreps.com/news/7i8wgZirhkOi1psIZp8qkA/ihsaa-football-brackets,-stat-leaderboards-and-rankings.htm

As you'll see from their website, the Colts are very involved with youth and high school football in the community.  I've looked on the websites for the Dolphins, Jaguars and Bucs and don't see anything like this.  It's disappointing we have 3 pro teams in the hs football hotbed of Florida yet the game doesn't seem to get as much support as a state with 1 pro team and a lot less hs players/teams. 

https://www.colts.com/community/highschoolfootball/

[MC Rockets]

Yes, this is sad that none of the pro teams here do anything like the Colts. The only way they may consider is if the state finals were played in one of their cities.

[DB4]

They tried the state finals in Miami, teams from up in the Panhandle didn't like it. Idk about Jacksonville but I'm sure teams on the Gulf coast side wont like it. Tampa would be reasonable but Orlando is much more centrally located.

The Dolphins do a lot for the youth/HS community in South FL. Just bc they don't sponsor the playoffs doesn't take away from that 

[OldSchoolLion]

36 minutes ago, DB4 said:

They tried the state finals in Miami, teams from up in the Panhandle didn't like it. Idk about Jacksonville but I'm sure teams on the Gulf coast side wont like it. Tampa would be reasonable but Orlando is much more centrally located.

The Dolphins do a lot for the youth/HS community in South FL. Just bc they don't sponsor the playoffs doesn't take away from that 

General comments here not directed at you DB...these teams should try traveling from Panhandle to Miami or vice versa and playing at the other team's stadium, like back in the day.   A team in New Mexico just traveled 500 miles for a first round playoff game.  Having spent time in some other states has given me perspective on what whiners some people in FL are.  Sorry, just had to say it. 

As far as the Dolphins, no doubt they do great things for the community.  Something about the following rubs me the wrong way, though.  And other NFL teams do similar things, so it's not just the Dolphins (although I think the Colts also offer some free camps).  Recognizing how many of these kids are coming from families who do not have that kind of money, and these are the kids who will be lining their pockets in the future, they should be offering these things for free, IMO.

http://juniordolphinsfootball.com/camps/

[DB4]

1 minute ago, OldSchoolLion said:

General comments here not directed at you DB...these teams should try traveling from Panhandle to Miami or vice versa and playing at the other team's stadium, like back in the day.   A team in New Mexico just traveled 500 miles for a first round playoff game.  Having spent time in some other states has given me perspective on what whiners some people in FL are.  Sorry, just had to say it. 

As far as the Dolphins, no doubt they do great things for the community.  Something about the following rubs me the wrong way, though.  And other NFL teams do similar things, so it's not just the Dolphins (although I think the Colts also offer some free camps).  Recognizing how many of these kids are coming from families who do not have that kind of money, and these are the kids who will be lining their pockets in the future, they should be offering these things for free, IMO.

http://juniordolphinsfootball.com/camps/

Traveling that far for a first round game just doesn't make sense anymore if you don't have to do it. A team could miss 1 or more likely 2 days of school. Then you have to get hotels for the team, and feed the team. It's not about what they did back in the day, it's more about how they're going to pay for all that.

I do agree about football camps that should be free. Or even if you do have camps that you pay for, still have some other free camps.

[OldSchoolLion]

40 minutes ago, DB4 said:

Traveling that far for a first round game just doesn't make sense anymore if you don't have to do it. A team could miss 1 or more likely 2 days of school. Then you have to get hotels for the team, and feed the team. It's not about what they did back in the day, it's more about how they're going to pay for all that.

I do agree about football camps that should be free. Or even if you do have camps that you pay for, still have some other free camps.

I completely agree that level of travel makes no sense for a first round game.  My point was simply that there are folks around the country who face substantial hardships getting to games because of the population/layout of their states.  For someone to complain about traveling for a state final in today's age, where even "bad" teams are traveling substantial distances to play OOS games..I don't get that.  If we cannot afford travel to state finals, we cannot afford a lot of other stuff I see money being spent on today. 

The state finals could be made into an incredible weekend...once-in-a-lifetime stuff that I would think a parent would do anything to allow his/her kid to experience, regardless of distance and expense, ie cancel the family vacation and go to Miami/Jacksonville/Tampa for the finals instead.