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Greeson: Hey TSSAA, it’s time to kiss Cookeville goodbye

Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Finley Stadium's proximity to downtown lodging and restaurants is a big part of Chattanooga's bid to host the TSSAA Blue Cross Bowl, the three-day run of state championship games for Tennessee high school football.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Finley Stadium's proximity to downtown lodging and restaurants is a big part of Chattanooga's bid to host the TSSAA Blue Cross Bowl, the three-day run of state championship games for Tennessee high school football.

By Jay Greeson 3 min read

I love the efforts from the people in our town to lift the state football championship games from Cookeville, Tennessee.

The aggressive and savvy folks at Chattanooga Sports, a division of Chattanooga Tourism Co., have joined a slew of area business cohorts and are bidding on the rights to host the TSSAA BlueCross Bowl, the nine annual state high school title games. If successful, the estimates are around $3 million in economic impact.

But, while Chattanooga has a bevy of high school championship events, we have not hosted the state football championships since the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association grouped all the games at one locale. Still, this is more than experience and more than the money.

This should be about the kids as well as the cash. Make it about the experience as much as the exchange.

Having been to Tucker Stadium, the current site of the state title games on the Tennessee Tech campus, well, there simply is no comparison between that facility and Finley Stadium.