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It was great to return to the pageantry and excitement of the boys and girls basketball state tournaments over the last couple weeks. We saw record-setting performances like the 51-point game from Kenosha St. Joseph's junior Eric Kenesie, three-peats by the Pewaukee boys and Notre Dame girls teams, and first-time state champions in the Laconia, Kewaskum, and McDonell Central girls plus the Luther and Newman Catholic boys.

There were some enthusiastic cheerleaders, rocking pep bands, and lively student sections among the spectators.

But once again, there weren't as many fans as we have historically seen, in either the boys or girls tournaments.

First, a glimmer of positive news, as the boys basketball state attendance did rebound slightly from 2022's historic low attendance. The 2023 tournament drew 64,360 fans in the preliminary WIAA accounting provided to WisSports.net, up about 10 percent from last year's total number of 58,508 fans.

That includes three sessions (Friday D1 evening, Saturday D5-3 championship, Saturday 2-1 championship) of at least 10,000 fans, after the 2022 boys state tournament failed to draw 10,000 fans to any session for the first time since 1945, when state tournament attendance first became available (not counting 2020 canceled tournament or adjusted 2021, two-venue season).

However, the 2023 total boys basketball state tournament attendance of 64,360 trails the 2019 pre-pandemic total of 83,353 considerably, and that season was one of the lowest in the last three decades. In the first year of the current five-division, 15-game, seven-session format, the 2011 tournament drew just 73,094 fans, but was over 80,000 every year from 2012 to 2019.

The 64,360 number for this year is the second-lowest, behind 2022, in boys state tournament history since 1953, when there were just 10 games and five sessions. This despite the fact that the Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team did not make the NCAA tournament, which often causes some fans to stay away from the boys tournament to either attend the Badgers' postseason run or watch on TV.

For a full boys state tournament attendance history, click here.

The news was less encouraging on the girls side, where the preliminary three-day total attendance at the Resch Center in Green Bay for the 2023 state tournament was just 27,859.

That represents a 15% decline from the 2022 total of 32,889, which also happened to be the lowest number since the WIAA moved the girls state tournament out of Madison and to the Resch Center in 2013. It's a near 30% dropoff from the Green Bay-high of 39,966 set in the first season of the tournament at the Resch Center.

The 2023 total of 27,859 marks a 23% drop from the 2019 pre-pandemic figure and is the lowest girls basketball state tournament attendance since 1978, which was the third year the WIAA sponsored a girls state tourney and featured 16 games with six sessions over three days.

For a full girls state tournament attendance history, click here.

No matter how you spin the boys or girls numbers, it is a second-straight year of precipitous declines in total state tournament attendance compared to where the figures have been in the past.

Why the attendance at the state tournaments was so low is an important question the WIAA will once again review in the coming weeks and months. As I posed last year, I think a few reasons include:

- Pandemic hangover
- More streaming options and increased familiarity and comfort with watching games from home
- NCAA tournament
- Some schools on spring break
- Lack of local Madison-area teams at boys tournament

Certainly, some of these issues have been a factor in years past, when attendance was stronger, but they continue to be heightened more and more each year.

First and foremost, these are great events that celebrate the successes of outstanding student-athletes who have put in so much time and effort over not just the current season, but their entire athletic careers. For many schools, towns, and communities, they are an opportunity to come together for a common purpose, and represent who and what they are and can be. Having large and involved crowds adds to the experience for all involved, and no one likes to see sparsely-filled venues that numerous empty sections.

The economic reality is also that the boys and girls basketball playoffs, from regionals through state tournaments, are significant revenue drivers for the WIAA, and help support many of the other playoffs and state tournaments for sports that lose money for the Association to run.

In 2018-19, the last pre-pandemic season, the boys playoffs in total generated more than $2.1 million in revenue on just over $850,000 in expenses, for a positive balance of more than $1.2 million. The girls basketball playoffs generated $1.1 million in revenue on $570,000 in expenses for a profit of over $492,000.

The combined $1.8 million in profit from the boys and girls playoffs in 2018-2019 was 82% of all playoff revenue generated by the WIAA, which includes 11 sports that lose money across their playoff runs.

The 2019 boys basketball state tournament itself generated more than $1 million in revenue for the WIAA against $351,000 in expenses.

In girls basketball, the 2019 state tournament generated more than $450,000 in revenue on $151,000 in expenses.

Total revenue and expenditures is not publicly available for the 2022 or 2023 basketball state tournaments at this time, but with state tournament attendance decreasing significantly, it stands that revenue and profits from those events decreased substantially as well.

The WIAA eliminated member dues several years ago and operates more than half of its sport playoffs at a loss, and the undeniable fact is that the boys and girls basketball playoffs and state tournaments are the biggest economic drivers for the WIAA and need to be successful financially for the Association to continue to offer top-notch experiences for all athletes throughout the year.

There are no easy solutions to declining state tournament attendance, and while things are very much cyclical, it remains to be seen if this is a short-term blip or a sign of where attendance will go in the coming years and decades.

Last year, I wrote an article proposing two related changes to the WIAA boys and girls basketball playoffs, including one which would immediately give the attendance figures a shot in the arm.

The first would add a session to the currently empty Thursday morning schedule for two more teams from Division 1, which would increase the state qualifiers for the state's largest schools from four to six (and correspondingly move from four sectionals currently to six sectionals).

Using the new computer formula used to seed both regionals and the state tournament this year, the six state qualifiers would be seeded, with the top two seeds getting a bye into Friday's semi-finals, while the other four would play Thursday in quarterfinals, with the third-seed facing off against the number six seed, and the four-seed meeting the five-seed.

Whether such a proposal would result in adding the additional D1 games to Thursday morning, or re-shuffling the order of the Thursday contests could be further discussed.

This would allow the WIAA to fill the currently open Thursday morning time with two more games. This session could be used to help fill bring additional fans to the state tournament, provide more players and teams the state tournament experience, add additional revenue for the WIAA as it continues to recover from the COVID shutdown, and perhaps give a way for Division 1 coaches and supporters, many of whom are still upset over the reduction of eight qualifiers to four in 2011 as part of the five-division plan, to move positively forward.

No other divisions would be negatively impacted, though there are some small-school supporters who would likely express displeasure with larger schools getting further preferential treatment.

The largest drawback to such a plan would undoubtedly be the significant advantage provided to the top two seeds in Division 1 that would receive byes into the semi-finals. That is a huge step up in comparison to the bottom four seeds that would have to win three games in three days in order to claim a title. No doubt, there would be controversy over who should and who would receive the top two seeds, and whether the number three or four seeds should have gotten the bye instead. The computer formula, which did receive some complaints in both regional and state tournament seeding the last two years, would come under further scrutiny.

Would Division 1 coaches be supportive enough of getting two more of their teams to the state tournament in exchange for the advantage-disadvantage situation that would exist with two teams getting byes into the semi-finals? Based on conversations with Division 1 coaches in the last year, it seems they would be supportive of such a measure.

The second part of my plan would re-balance the playoff division cutlines and structures. My plan would have changed the enrollment cutoffs and thus the number of teams in each division, adding more in Division 1 and 2, with fewer teams in Divisions 3, 4, and 5.

The full proposal can be viewed here. 

My proposal created a good amount of discussion in the basketball world, and in a bit of a surprising turn, the WIAA Basketball Coaches Advisory Committee proposed it almost verbatim at their spring meeting.

However, at the WIAA Advisory Council meeting, that group voted down the plan and it never got to the Board of Control for review and possible passage.

The discussion of such a plan has continued over the last 12 months, however, and there have been conversations about tweaking the plan to remove the enrollment cutoffs in favor of setting an equal number of teams in each division or a closer to equal number of teams in each division. It was discussed further at a Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Executive Board meeting earlier this year.

Whether there is enough support to re-draw divisional boundaries and specifically to add two Division 1 teams to the state tournament, with some small school possibly being against "favoring" large schools, it remains to be seen how this plays out in the coming weeks.

The WIAA Basketball Coaches Advisory Committee meets on April 5th to review topics to move forward through the WIAA's rule-making process, and any proposals out of that group would advance to the June WIAA Advisory Council and possibly Board of Control meetings for a vote.

But if the WIAA is looking for an immediate way to boost boys and girls state tournament attendance and recoup lost revenue from declining attendance, filling the open Thursday morning session remains the easiest way to do so.

Travis Wilson serves as the WisSports.net General Manager, Football Editor, and contributing writer for other parts of the site. Wilson was selected as part of the Sports 40 Under 40 list by Coach & AD Magazine and the National High School Athletic Coaches Association for 2019. The Wisconsin Football Coaches Association (WFCA) named Travis the 2015 recipient of the Dave McClain Distinguished Service Award. He currently serves on the WFCA Executive Board and is a member of the Executive Board of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association. A graduate of Richland Center High School and Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Travis was a three-sport athlete in high school (football, baseball, basketball), inducted to the Richland Center High School Hall of Fame in 2023, and currently resides in Reedsburg. You can follow him on Twitter at @travisWSN.