Tuesday, September 19, 2000
Elder-Highlands game should turn profit
By Terry Flynn
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT THOMAS — If Highlands High School Principal George Frakes could do Saturday all over again, he would have had every ticket window at Paul Brown Stadium open before his school's football game against Elder High School.
But only five ticket windows were open for the gridiron clash of the nationally ranked Highlands Bluebirds and the Elder Panthers, a perennial powerhouse. So thousands of fans had to be let in for free for safety purposes. Despite the glitch, Saturday's match-up was still a success, he said.
“We just never imagined we would have that many people show up,” Mr. Frakes said.
Highlands had rented 29,000 seats, the entire lower section of the stadium, for the game, believing “that was plenty,” he said.
“We had 25,000 to 26,000 attendance, not the 35,000 that has been reported,” he said.
“Everyone was supposed to be in the lower-level seats, but when the police opened the gate to let the crowd in, someone decided to let people go to the club level.”
It was the first match-up of high-school teams in the new stadium. Troy Blackburn, the Bengals' director of business development, said he was impressed with the turnout.
“We are aware that there was a ticketing problem caused by short notice and a larger-than-anticipated crowd,” he said. “But from what (we) heard, it was a great spectacle for a high-school game. If anything, we are encouraged rather than discouraged by this kind of event at the stadium.”
Elder beat Highlands, 21-14.
It is unclear how many people actually paid the $10 to $14 ticket price, though. Mr. Frakes said the ticket sales count is still being compiled; the school probably won't have a final figure for a couple of days.
The game is expected to be a moneymaker. An initial count indicated 18,859 tickets were sold before the rest of the crowd was let in for free. Highlands had expected to break even at 10,000 tickets sold.
Highlands had expected to pay $75,000 for stadium rental and other expenses, including ticket takers, concession workers, cleanup and security. But because the crowd was unexpectedly admitted to the upper deck, too, that could raise cleanup and other costs.
Despite the snags, Mr. Frakes said, he received a letter of congratulations from Elder High School for coming up with the idea to move the game from Highlands, where the stadium seats 4,800.
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