2014 AAAA OFSAA in Mississauga

After a close vote today at the annual Fall meeting, ROPSSAA was awarded the right to host the 2014 OFSAA Boys AAAA basketball Championship. The games will be hosted by St. Francis Xavier, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and Philip Pocock (with the chance of one more venue). The final four will be at the Sheridan Brampton campus.

Nice, I love it when Ofsaa stays local!

Any chance of the final 4 being held at the Hershey Center or the big arena in Brampton? Sheridan Brampton has limited seating.

Both of those venues are too big (6,000 and 5,500 seats, respectively) and would cost far too much for an OFSAA budget. Brampton was $5,000 a day 3 years ago for OFSAA wrestling and Hershey would have cost even more (and those are both without the added, and not insignificant, cost of installing a basketball court.)

We have explored a number of final four options but in terms of budget, seating, web access, parking, and assistance from the host venue, Sheridan looks like our best choice in Peel.

where is ofsaa 2012 and 2013

2012 = Ottawa (Hillcrest, Ridgemont, Mother Teresa, Longfields; Final 4 @ Carleton)

2013 = Windsor (not sure which schools though one assumes Catholic Central will be involved and the final 4 will be at either Windsor U or St. Clair College)

This is great news. Based on the venues, I assume it's basically the Rimrocker folks who are hosting?

Sheridan is small compared to some venues but it will be an amazing atmosphere inside with the crowd close to the action and all four sides of the court.

I have to wonder if/when OFSAA and Ontario Basketball will ever decide to form a true partnership when it comes to provincial high school basketball events. I watched the BC boys championships this past week. They were held at the Langley Events Centre. The first few days didn't draw that many people but as the rounds progressed more people attented. The finals had over 4000 people attend. It also didn't hurt that one of the schools in the final was a local school.

Perhaps if OFSAA and Ontario Basketball were able to strike a multi-year agreement to have a single facility host the A/AA/AAA/AAAA championships that might help. There are a number of facilities where you can pull this off (The Barrie Molson centre or GM Place in Oshawa seem to come to mind)

They seem to find a why to rent out the Rogers Centre for the Metro Bowl each November. I know that isn't cheap.

Just my $.02

feels like its gonna be a rim rocker tourney part deux

Maybe the organizing commitee should try and appeal to these venues to see if they can as a good jester to the community charge no fee@ all.How was Ottawa able to get Carlton this year from what I saw on the web cam the crowds were very sparse so I don't think they got a real good gate.I've seen the Sheridan venue and I couldn't see more than a few hundred there.Who owns the Hershey arena or Brampton arena?If it's the city then appeal to the fact that it does bring fans to their community which brings in revenue.

I was part of OFSAA for wrestling on three previous occasions and the $5000 rate I quoted in a prior post was actually a deal compared to the regular rate. Both facilities are expensive to operate and staff and neither is going to give us the facility for free.

Having said that, we do agree that Sheridan is probably too small for the expected demand and other options are currently being pursued. With two years to go until the event, we do not need to rush into a hasty decision.

In regards to renting Carleton; the rate is much cheaper than the cost of an OHL-sized arena in the GTA. Even the regular rate for the Ravens' gym is affordable under the typical AAAA OFSAA budget.

What about UTM? It’s a lot bigger that Sheridan.

It's only a little bit larger. Sheridan holds 650-700 while UTM holds 880. However, the parking situation is more difficult at UTM.

I wouldn't suggest that these venues hold these events for free since that wouldn't make good business sense but I find it hard to believe that OFSAA (the second largest high school federation in North America) and Ontario Basketball can't find a way to mutually promote and build the game.

As far as finding a pernamanent home for OFSAA, the Ray Twinney Recreation Complex in Newmarket might work. It holds about 3700 people, has ample parking and is located far enough outside of Toronto to not annoy the rest of the province and give any one school a distinct "home court" advantage (now that Pangos is at Gonzaga). The only downside might be the hotel situation in Newmarket but is resolved by having teams stay in either Richmond Hill or Markham which aren't that far away.

I'm pretty certain that the Newmarket Minor Hockey Association and Newmarket Hurricaines can part with the RTRC for 1 week especially given the other ice-hockey arenas in Newmarket. It might also be a more cost-effective solution than what the OHL arenas can provide.

Let's not forget that OFSAA does not organize these events; they are run by volunteer host committees. OFSAA is a pretty bare bones operation so they are not in a position to run the event and, at the same time, it would not be fair to the coaches in York Region to be asked to organize it year after year or to ask other regions to take turns organizing an event that will not take place in their region.

If Xavier Rimrocker and CO are organizing the event it is going to be one of, if not the, best ofsaa basketball event to date.

I believe these gentlement ran ofsaa soccer a couple of years ago, and from what I heard it was amazing!

Sheridan is definitely too small for the medal round games.

The last time ROPSSAA hosted OFSAA was 1995 in Brampton and they used 4 local schools for the first and second rounds and Humber College for the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. Humber was filled to capacity (both sides) for the final.

2 Peel teams did very well. Westwood defeated Bathurst Heights in the semifinals and lost a very close game to Eastern Commerce in the final.

Jamal Magloire was ineligible for OFSAA that year after transferring from (Birchmount Park I believe) but Doug Johnson who was one of the first Toronto players to go to a prep school in the U.S. came back and was eligible right away. Also some players had 6 years of high school eligibility at that time.

Brampton's St. Augustine lost in the semifinals to Eastern Commerce.

I believe Magloire transferred from Wexford.

Thanks Rimrocker for the correction, my memory is fading, I knew it was a Scarborough school!

Humber College has always been a good venue for Ofsaa, hopefully it will be considered for the final 4.

what were the other potential host sites that were beat out by mississauga?

London and Welland. London was eliminated in the first round of voting which might have been due to the fact that they hosted recently. In the second round, Mississauga was picked over Welland.

As a fan the best ofssa I ever attended was in London back almost 20 years ago Runneymede beat Oakwood in a packed U of WO gym @ the buzzer with a packed gym almost 3000 fans.What made this Ofssa so special was that there were no high school venues @ all / games were played in the the old gym which was connected by tunnel to the main gym.If one game wasn't that good then you could go to the other gym in minutes.I managed to see all 16 teams play which was great.With the present set up you have to cross town more than a half hour to see the games you want.As I see it the high school experience has regressed over the years for both fan and players.And yes Humber was great the year O'neil won it was also very memorable.Other great venues were Waterloo when the preliminary games were held @ a large venue again I didn't have to cross town/Hamilton had games @ Mac & even COPP's Collisium in the past /University of Guelf was also a great venue and recently UOIT in Oshawa's venue was great to.Does anyone else feel we have regessed as well? I know these other communities do their best but when they don't have the facilities it just doesn't seem right.

I would love it if we had a venue that allowed us to host all teams in one location and had enough capacity in at least one of the gyms to accommodate the expected crowd for the final, while staying within the typical budget of the event. Unfortunately, those are not very common around Ontario, even without the budget considerations.

The 2010 OFSAA AAAA Championships in Oshawa had a similiar dynamic as the 1990 championships in London. The UOIT and Durham College gyms are about 100m apart so it allowed people to move from one game to the next and easily track teams, scores or just follow the most competitive games.

Just out of curiosity does anyone know what the new venue @ the old Maple Leaf gardens is like.I hear it is part of Ryerson for hockey but they have a gym as well.The area is right on the subway in the heart of the city /the hockey facility could import a floor for the main games and use the auxilary gym for games as well.Funding by ofssa could be done by approaching the Raptors and Lowblaws for funding and this could be where its held regularly similar to how the state of Pennsylvania use to do with the Hershey arena for their state high school championships.PS if CRABBER is viewing do they still do that.