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‘It’s been a good two weeks.’ Sweet 16 crowds beat KHSAA’s pandemic expectations.

Public gathering restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic limited Rupp Arena’s capacity to just 25 percent for the boys’ and girls’ basketball state basketball tournaments, but Kentucky High School Athletic Association Commissioner Julian Tackett said attendance for both events exceeded the organization’s expectations.

Both events drew roughly half their normal attendance figures.

“It’s been a good two weeks and really couldn’t have gone much better operationally,” Tackett said Saturday afternoon ahead of the Mingua Beef Jerky/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16 finals, the last of 30 tournament games held at the venue since March 31.

Over four days two weeks ago, the KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 presented by UK HealthCare Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine had a combined announced attendance of 47,686. Compare that to the 2019 event’s 96,048 and the 2021 crowd represents 49.6 percent of what the event drew before anyone heard of COVID-19.

The Girls’ Sweet 16 drew 21,914 people last week or about 53.6 percent of the 2019 total of 40,852.

But given the restrictions, a number of first-round games of each 2021 event compared favorably to their corresponding 2019 numbers. The Thursday games of the 2021 boys’ tournament drew 7,403 for the first two matchups and 7,053 for the second pair. In 2019, the first corresponding sessions drew 12,205 for the first two games and 10,311 for the second.

For the girls’ tournament, Tackett said, “It’s certainly comparable to some of the sites we’ve had with no limits.”

Because of COVID-19, the KHSAA opted to sell tickets for this year’s event as individual game purchases rather than two-game session seats to help keep the individual game crowds within limits and afford the opportunity to clean the facility between games.

The financial impact of that decision — individual game tickets cost somewhat less than the two-game session tickets — will have to wait until the KHSAA crunches the numbers for its report on the event later this year.

Tackett said two-game session tickets would not have worked with the health restrictions placed on the venue. “It was just necessary. … Fans were super cooperative. It’s what we planned on doing all year and it worked.”

Tackett noted that with the one-game ticket, fans were probably able to get better seats than they might have under the previous format, but the KHSAA has not yet decided how the event will be ticketed in the future.

The most attended girls’ games this year came on a Wednesday evening when 1,941 turned out for an 8 p.m. Anderson County-Southwestern matchup and 1,302 watched Franklin County vs. South Laurel for a two game combined number of 3,243. The corresponding 2019 session number for that round was 4,690.

On the boys’ side, the biggest crowd, 4,346, turned out for the Highlands-Muhlenberg County first-round game on a Thursday afternoon.

By far the biggest hit to each event’s attendance came on its semifinals and finals games where the boys’ event competed with a sunny day for Keeneland’s Toyota Bluegrass Stakes and the girls’ event struggled to attract more than the home fan bases on a rainy Saturday. Both events were also held a couple of weeks later than normal due to the delayed start of the season caused by the pandemic.

The Highlands boys’ title game drew 4,184 compared to the 11,967 who saw Trinity win the title in 2019. The Sacred Heart girls’ title game drew 1,735 compared to the 5,607 that saw Ryle win the title in 2019.

“My goal for both weeks was that we didn’t have to write Central Bank Center a check — that they could write us a check,” Tackett said. “We’re not going to make 40 percent of our normal.”

Last year, the KHSAA estimated the loss of the boys’ and girls’ state tournaments at around $1 million for the nonprofit organization, a total that represents a huge chunk of its operating budget. The KHSAA sanctions most of the state’s high school athletics.

With the efforts made to hold all its state championship events this school year and the importance many feel high school sports has in daily life, Tackett said he’s hopeful state lawmakers will provide some assistance to the organization after all the numbers are in.

“They know the services that are performed year round, and I think we’ll end up getting some help,” Tackett said.

‘What a game they played.’ Sacred Heart brings school its fifth Sweet 16 crown.

2021 Girls’ Sweet 16 Day 4 wrap-up from Rupp Arena