The Class 1B girls state tournament played out Thursday on the south court in the Yakima Valley SunDome.   ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic

By PAUL SHUGAR
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Traditions have to start somewhere, and Yakima’s SunDome might be the perfect setting.

Attendance numbers for the first day aren’t what they were for either last year’s Class 1A or 2A state tournaments, but officials aren’t complaining. The 1B state tournament that nobody knew what to expect from shaped up just fine for them along with its possible future in Yakima.

“All the players and fans and the coaches from all the schools have all been really positive and enjoying themselves,” said tournament director Gene Rostvold on Thursday, the second day of the four-day event. “Everything from how the tournament is run to the facilities and the community — they really enjoy it and are really appreciative of everything.”

Tournament officials had no problems prepping for the inaugural event with plenty of experience from running the 1A and 2A basketball tourneys. The only question remaining was how the communities and their schools — 10 of which were making their first trip to state tournaments this week — would respond.

Greg Lybeck, the assistant general manager for State Fair Park, said the event had about 1,000 less people go through the turnstiles Wednesday compared to the first-day numbers for last year’s 1A and 2A tournaments. Still, about 4,500 fans watching the 16 games on the first day were nothing for him to scoff at.

“Since (the tournament) moved, it was difficult to predict,” Lybeck said. “That’s the one thing is the B has so much tradition in Spokane and it was getting a new start. We were picking up here the tradition they had in Spokane.”

Tradition and time might be all the 1B tournament needs to continue growing in the SunDome. There are already large amounts of tournament support staff and volunteers in place along with the organization and the knowledge of how to run things smoothly behind the scenes.

Washington Interscholastic Activities Association executive director Mike Colbrese understands how tradition helps a tournament settle in and would like to lock up a long-term home for the 1B event. Spokane, which held the old Class B tournament before reclassification split it this year, has shown some interest. Although making the logistics work might be tough with the city already home to the 2B tournament.

The 1B event will return to Yakima next year to finish out the 2-year agreement, and Colbrese said the WIAA continues to have a great relationship with tournament officials in Yakima. As for the future, that can be cloudy; Colbrese never expected to see the B classification split and the tournament leave Spokane.

“We’re definitely looking for a home for the 1B tournament,” Colbrese said. “Yakima has done everything, really, that it should to be that home.”

The payoff for Yakima could be quite large. Communities of B schools are known to travel and support their squads quite well. The B tournament in Spokane brought in the third most revenue — behind Class 4A and 3A tourneys — Colbrese said.

The Yakima Valley Sports Commission estimated the economic impact of the 1B tournament to be a little under $1 million. A drop compared to the estimated 1.35 million the 2A tournament brought in for Yakima last year.

Rostvold, who serves as the commission chairman, admits that economic impact is hard to figure and there are different formulas to use. There also might be other benefits from having small schools compared to big schools when they go out shopping. Numbers they won’t be able to really put a figure on until after this year.

People also start to explore communities the more times they visit, and Rostvold said his tournament officials — most of whom are volunteers or work with the sports commission — just want to paint a pretty picture of the area for the future. Whether the 1B or some other classification is part of that, they will have to wait and see.

“We’d like to have a long commitment, and I’d like the 1B to be a permanent fixture,” Rostvold said. “As we build history, the tournament will grow along with the attendance.

“We just have to establish some tradition.”

And Yakima has done nothing but show its a fertile spot to do just that.