east5840 wrote:football is suppost to be played outside, deal with the weather. Also it would take away the home field advantage you worked for in the season.
More often then not the teams in the Semi's are #1 seeds from opposite regions anyway, so the "Home Field Advantage" would be determined by whether it is an even year or odd year... neutral fields would be more fair than making a #1 Seed play at another #1 seed's field. This may not have been the case this year, but I think most years it is.
larrybird33 wrote:Let's use Harvey/Velva as an example.
Would you rather play that game outdoors in inclement weather in nearby Minot,
or
Would you prefer to have both teams and all their fans driving hundreds of miles on bad roads to get to an indoor facility in Grand Forks or Fargo?
Man up, bundle up, and play the game outdoors where it belongs.
Entire towns in Minnesota shut down to travel to Minneapolis for the Semi-finals at the Metrodome, I don't think their road conditions are much worse then ours in November... People would make it and the place would be full. It would also be nice for everyone who wished to have the opportunity to see all of the semi-finals games that they wanted to instead of going to 1 game and having to rely on updates over the PA system or reading about the other games in the paper the next day. It would also make it easier for other coaches to scout their potential matchups for the state finals.
Besides, look at the travel going on for Semi-Finals anyway in all of the classes-
According to Yahoo Maps:
Napoleon @ Hillsboro= 209 miles
Devil's Lake @ Watford City= 244 miles
MPCG Lost by only 6 to Lisbon, say they had won that game instead- Linton @ MPCG= 237 Miles
Hazen @ Valley City- 204 Miles
Bismarck Century @ Fargo South- 197 Miles
There is hundreds of miles of driving during the Semi-Final round anyway, so why not drive to a neutral site in a controlled conditions dome and play the game. Sure this is going to cause a little more travel for the scheduled home team, but if I'm not mistaken the schools involved in the playoffs get traveling expenses at least partially paid for by the state (through jacking up prices for playoff games at the gates and no passes being allowed, not that it's a bad thing when the money is going to these teams)