There were some who questioned the KHSAA moving the state high school football championship games from Bowling Green to Lexington – the fourth different venue in the past 15 years. However, the fans didn’t seem to mind the change as attendance at the six state title games set a new record.
The six title games drew a total of 52,796 fans to Kroger Field on the campus of the University of Kentucky – the first time since 1976 that Lexington hosted the state finals. This weekend’s totals were just over 5,000 more than the previous high set in 2010 in Bowling Green and over 18,000 more than last year.
The high attendance mark at Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium was 46,620 in 2007 – the first year the KHSAA moved to six-class football. The high attendance mark for four-class football since 1984 was 46,687 in 2003. The most fans that attended the finals at old Cardinal Stadium since 1984 was 40,947 in 2001.
Helping boost the weekend’s attendance was convenient parking next to Kroger Field and unseasonably warm weather. One of the complaints about Western Kentucky hosting the finals was the lack of parking near Houchins Field due to classes being in session on Friday when the games are played.
The finals were moved from Louisville to Bowling Green in 2009 because UofL could not guarantee the availability of Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium during finals weekend. The same issue arose in Bowling Green last year when the KHSAA had to rearrange the finals schedule because Western Kentucky hosted the Conference USA championship game. That was one of the reasons the KHSAA opted to make the move to Lexington because they do not play any December football games at Kroger Field, and the university recently installed artificial turf at the venue formerly known as Commonwealth Stadium.
The weekend’s title games in Class 3A (11,234) and 5A (10,646) set new records, while the Class 1A championship game (7,103) was the third-highest attended contest.