(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
The state football championships in Class 4A and 5A have been on TV in recent years, but that won’t be the case this season.
Why?
“You need somebody that wants to televise it,” CHSAA commissioner Paul Angelico said on Friday morning. “We have tried to get it televised. No station has picked up sponsoring it, and we are not going to spend money to pay to have it televised.
“The only offer we received was someone who said we would have to pay them to do it,” Angelico said. “We cannot use funds for all sports from all schools to fund televising one sport in two classes.
“Why wouldn’t we do 3A? Why wouldn’t boys soccer three weeks ago be on TV? That doesn’t even touch girls sports. If we were funding it, we better get lots of our sports televised.”
The rights to all of CHSAA’s postseason contests have previously been purchased by the NFHS Network.
Earlier in the season, an outlet did request a proposal from the NFHS Network to show the 4A and 5A games, but declined the offer and did not submit a counter-offer. No further communication on the postseason has been had since that point.
As a result, all three championship games will be shown on the NFHS Network this Saturday. But to many in the public who are used to seeing them on TV, that isn’t good enough. The NFHS Network broadcast also charges a $10 monthly fee.
“We have an ownership stake in the NFHS Network, and they have all the rights to the postseason games,” Angelico said. “So in order for them to give those up, someone needs to purchase those rights, and not just give them away for free. Unfortunately, they couldn’t work out an agreement for this fall.”
Angelico also voiced frustration that, “Somehow, (TV networks are) willing and able to do this for regular season games, but not for postseason games, and we don’t understand that. And there must be a good reason.”
Any fee that is charged to television stations during the regular season goes to the home school, according to Bert Borgmann, CHSAA assistant commissioner who handles broadcasts.
“We were hopeful someone was going to step up and but no one has,” Angelico said. “Many, many cable channels want to broadcast the championships, but no one wants to take the risk to do it. They want to put it on our backs on to finance it.”
Discovery Canyon and Pueblo East will play for the 3A championship in Colorado Springs. The 4A (Pine Creek vs. Broomfield) and 5A (Pomona vs. Valor Christian) games are at Mile High on Saturday.
All games will have complete live and postgame coverage on CHSAANow.com.