The Neah Bay High School girls basketball team stretches at center court prior a Feb. 26 game against Mary M. Knight in the Class 1B state tournament. Neah Bay traveled 303 miles to the tournament, further than any other team. Neah Bay beat Mary M. Knight 59-28 Thursday and will face Moses Lake Christian at 11 a.m. today.   GORDON KING/ Yakima Herald-Republic

 State tournament numbers game

By MELISSA SANCHEZ
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

This is not a sports story.

This is for the rest of us who might be surprised to learn that the high school basketball tournaments that began this week in Yakima's SunDome will bring in roughly $5.7 million to Yakima.

Got your attention?

By the time it's over, 96 boys and girls teams will have played 156 games on two courts over three weeks for shots at a state championship title.

This week, Class 1B teams -- Washington's smallest schools -- began competing for the state's high school basketball championships. They traveled to Yakima from as far as Neah Bay and as close as Sunnyside. The winners will be decided Saturday at 7 p.m. for girls and 9 p.m. for boys.

Next week, the SunDome hosts the Class 1A tournament, and the Class 2A tournament is the following week.

Here's a look at the tournaments by the numbers.

* 60,000 -- People expected to walk through the SunDome's doors during these three weeks.

* 81 -- Height in inches for the tallest player in this week's Class 1B tournaments. That's Curlew's Jordon Wakefield, who stands 6 feet, 9 inches.

* 60 -- Height in inches for the shortest player this week. That's Mary Knight's Amber Wood at 5 feet even.

* 72 -- Officials who will referee the 156 games.

* 250 -- People it takes to run the SunDome per day during the tournaments.

* 5,700,000 -- Projected dollars the three tournaments will bring to the Yakima Valley, generated mostly at local hotels and restaurants. That's $1.75 million from the 1B tournaments, $2.15 million from 1A and $1.8 million from 2A.

* 21.50 -- The dollar cost for parking, one adult admission, a hot dog and medium soda.

* 1,800 -- Hot dogs expected to be consumed throughout the tournaments. (Not all are sold; staff members eat some, too.)

* 60 -- Steps to the tallest bleacher in the stands.

* 1,000 -- This milestone number will be reached next Wednesday. That's when the 1,000th game will be played at the SunDome since state tournaments were first held there in 1999.

* 4,000 -- Bottles of water ordered for tournament concessions.

* 10 -- Locker rooms at the SunDome.

* 2,165 -- Parking spaces available. It costs $5 to park.

* 6 -- Dollar cost for a barbecued pork sandwich at the concession stands.

* 303 -- Miles traveled from home this week by the team living farthest away from the SunDome. It took the Neah Bay girls team eight hours to get here by bus.

* 37 -- Miles from home the team closest to the SunDome traveled this week. That's Sunnyside Christian, which sent boys and girls teams to the state championships.

* 10 -- Height of the basket's rim in feet. It's the same for boys and girls.

* 9 -- Flavors of Baskin-Robbins ice cream available at a stand in the dome. Onehose, butter almond crunch, is sugar free.

* 92 -- Height in feet from the SunDome's ground to the top of the roof. From there, it's another 10 feet to the top of the crow's nest and another 12 feet to the top of the flag pole.

* 600 -- Number of gray tournament hooded sweatshirts (small to XXXL) ordered. This popular item costs $45, plus an extra $7 to get your player's name or number printed, too.

* 27 -- Arcades and pinball machines scattered around the SunDome.

* 15 -- Days until it's over. The 2A championship games will be played on March 14. Girls play at 7 p.m., boys at 9 p.m.