The Elder playoff game has in fact been moved from Mason down to pay Court Stadium. And you know something Willie and I were kind of pushing hard for. But someone who deserves a lot of the credit and making this happen is Hamilon County Commissioner Denise Dreehouse. And she joins us right now, Commissioner Dreehouse, how are.
You well, I'm in a good mood. Yes, let me say. Can I just say though, that it took Willie reaching out to me to put it on my radar, so you know, I wasn't in the loop on this, and so when he told me what was going on, I was like, oh, wait a minute. And so so I appreciates credit, but credit where credits due? I mean the impetus came from Willy Cunningham.
Yeah, so explain the machinations going on here, Denise? Where did you go once you had this information?
So talk to.
Willy a little bit about it. I'm familiar with Elder and ex cocidentally and what a big rivalry. And so I said, oh my gosh, we should so have this down at pay Corps. And so I called Katie Blackburn and said, hey, we had been talking through the least the least. We just signed about having high school football games at pay Corpse Stadium, and we were thinking, yeah, we'll work all that out next year, have a model that we can you know, sort through. And it just
came sooner than later, that's all. And Katie said, well, yeah, let's see if we can make it happen. And so she and her team reached out to the O H SAA and said, hey, we've got the capacity down here. We think, you know, we're open to this. Would you think about moving it because I'm hearing horror stories right at these schools where that the students can't get tickets, the parents can't get tickets, the teachers can't get tickets,
and so we just they took it from there. But the Bengals did a lot of the groundwork here and then finally got in okay, and then it took you know, the county Commission to say yes to it as well.
Yeah, and that was the issue a lot of folks that it reached out to me and you know, we're kind of screaming, look, you know, nothing against Mason High School, great place, but since it's about you know, six thousand people and you go to just your average regular season Elder game and there's eight ten thousand people. You go to your average regular season, say next game, there's eight ten thousand people at that thing.
So it just it's crazy.
And you know, they released the tickets during school hours, so a lot of the students who yeah, and you want the students to be at the game. That's the lifeblood of high school football is having the you know, the kids there and stuff. So I guess, I mean, I mean talk about some of the other I guess hurdles that had to be you know, kind of overcome here to make this happen to these well there Actually.
There's quite a bit to it when you talk about the personnel that needs to be down there at the safety of the stadium, you know, opening that thing up on a day that you didn't anticipate. Remember, the Bengals are in town on Sunday, so that's a quick turnaround for them. We can do it, but it's it's no small task to turn that around. So they work well
with us. They had to run through all that. They were working last night through the night trying to figure out whether or not they could pull it off for Friday. And then I heard from Katie this morning and she said, yep, she said, we can do it. We just need the nod FROMHSAA. And then that came, and then we had to get approval from the county commissioners and so that came, and it's like so everything just kind of fell into place.
But you know, hopefully this will serve as a model as we move into next year and we get more aggressive about being on the radar WITHSAA. I don't want to do this this way next time, right. I want to be on the radar and have them thinking through oh wait a minute, pay corpse and option why don't we have some of our games down there, because I want this to be open to any high school team
that you know in this kind of game. I mean, this is exciting step for the community and by the way, the taxpayers on the stadium, so I think.
We should let them use it agree.
And look, when you're talking about the regional finals every year, it's going to be one or multiple of these schools. It's going to be Saint ax is going to be out, it's going to be Mole, or it's going to be you know, it could be Leasal could be Lakota West, you know, I mean you you're talking about some and others I haven't mentioned, but you're talking all big time
fan bases. So I mean, no matter who of a bunch of like say a group of ten teams, any one of those are going to bring a big fan base. So it just makes sense to just let's make this precedent set right now that the regional finals are going to be held a pay corps.
That'd be great.
I think that'd be great too. That's not my decision to make right right, but here we are right doing this setting a precedent. You know, this is again this is the first foray because commissioners have said we set all along we want to bring more concerts and football games into this facility. So here we are right, and it's and it's quicker than we anticipated. But let's get
this right. Let's figure out all the details, and then next year we'll be set and ready to go to you know, try to promote this pay course stadium for some more of these games.
County Commissioner Denise Streethouses our guest and so who I don't know understand, not that it matter, just one of those behind the scenes thing that I was thinking about, who who staffs or who staffs the stadium on a on a night like this. Do the Bengals supply the staff does the county? How does that work? I have no idea.
Yeah, the Bengals manage all of that. And so this is why it was so important that they reach out to OHSAA, because you know, there are those kinds of technical questions on what do you need, what do we need to open up? How many people do we need in there? And so it was critical that the Bengals do that outreach, which they happily did because they're excited
about this too. And so you know, it hasn't always been this kind of relationship with the Bengals, between the Bengals in the county, but I think you see, you know, it's a new day. We've got the leaf behind us, and so this is a new posture between the Bengals and the county and I think it's it's a good thing for the community that we're all working together.
Well, like you said, hopefully that the precedent is set that this is kind of the situation moving forward. If I can be of service and helping with that for next year, next please let me know because because I think it'd be fantastic for the community. But the Commissioner, dreaeh House, we really appreciate your time and great job, and thank you so much.
Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.
Yep, got it.
Denise Treehouse are our guest, And uh yeah, that's man talk about getting a lot of there's a lot of machinations going on to open that thing.
There is, yeah, just a lot of moving parts, but it just takes, you know, the willingness to do it. And where I had started to hear that this may happen, I have, you know, some police friends, and they had put internally put out hey, uh you know they're they're just checking with people to see if they will be available to work police details down at the game. So once you heard that, you knew that the wheels were certainly in motion here.
Well, Rock, I don't know if you got another call to together for us, but I'm saying that we might have Kerry Combs on the line.
Kerry Combs on the line.
I do believe he is. Kerry Combs. Welcome to the program.
Hey, how do you guys do today?
Good?
Now, if you're talking tri state football.
Okay, you're talking about the love that is the Cincinnati area. It begins and ends with carry Combs, Carrie, how are you, brother, Rocky.
I'm fantastic. I gotta tell you. I just called because this is a big deal playing this game at paycourps. And you know, the Bengals deserve a ton of credit because this is not easy for them to do. And it's not just open up the stadium and let people come in. I mean, it's it affects the coaches and the players and everybody affiliate.
With the Bengals.
You know, the Brown family, this is significant. And I know Mike Brown loves high school football. I know how it feels about it. I had great opportunity to coach down there in that stadium and some pretty dagone big games, and uh it was. It was a phenomenal experience for my players and and I did something they'll never forget. So I'm expecting they're gonna get forty your fifty thousand people down there this weekend. You got two great high
school teams with great tradition, two great coaches. It's just really exciting that they're that they're gonna do that. I just tell you. It just makes me love being a Cincinnati.
And Rocky, you know what I mean, there's no doubt, bro.
And and look, you know when I played, when you were coaching these these big regional playoff games, they were at Nipper, they were at you know, at the time, Paul Brown Stadium. For what a reason that that went away my understanding And you may know this, Carrie, like the reason why they can't be held at Nipper anymore is is a recruiting violation?
Is that? Is that what you've heard as well? Yeah, it is, Okay, it is.
And it was so frustrating last year we were gonna play we were trying to get the city championship down there because you know, those kids, it's uh from the city schools don't get to play in some of those environments and stadiums. And so we were gonna do a doubleheader uh city championship games down there, and uh NCAA wouldn't let us do it.
And you know, we used to have.
The early season the opening game there and and everybody played and everybody went.
They can't.
I can't imagine in any conceivable way that that's some kind of recruiting advantage and never never felt that way.
I was on both sides of it as a.
High school coach and as a college coach. Never felt like that at all. It just felt like this is where people ought to be. I mean, I don't know if you played in games down there. I coached in a ton of a little effort where people were hanging off the rafters.
It was sold out.
We lived before they did.
Yeah, play them down there, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, fantastic, And so I'm really glad the Bangles stepped up. I'm just telling you, man, it just and you guys had a big part in it. Don't think that you didn't. Between Willie and you getting it on the air and pumping that and uh you know, uh God bless mus gree House and Katie obviously for putting it together because that's not easy for the Bengals. I'm telling you that Bengals deserve a ton of credit on this. This is a huge, huge thing for them, and it's
only because they love high school football. My guess is, rocket you go around, uh the other thirty two thirty one NFL teams, you probably aren't going to find any high school games being played in any of those Steaves going through the home game on Sunday.
That's that's a great point.
Well, well, now all these happenings, you need to be out there for the opening coin flip. I mean, let let's make this thing full circle, right, Let's get the embodiment of high school football out there and flip the coin.
Right, It'll be, that'd be.
It'd be a ton of fun. I'd love seeing Doug and Steve and love seeing the game. It would be.
It just does my hard good.
High school football in Cincinnati is different than anywhere else.
I've told you that to hold people that all over.
The country, it just is, and uh in the state of Ohio, but especially since Sinnati, it's it's remarkable. And I'm just so excited for those teams and those kids and just our town in general. You know, it's just it's what and you.
Know we need that in.
The fall, right, you need that kind of excitement and energy. It's just just fantastic.
Carrie very Well said, we really appreciate calling on the show and checking in, my friend, and hope you do it again soon.
Thank you so much.
All right, Hey, good luck with your boys teams too.
Now, thanks, carry appreciate you Bud.
Yeah, yeah, it Kerry Carry Combs.
Just the beast. How about that Carry comes calling it a rocky show.
I thought you would have raised them. I'm like, you didn't tell me this.
Going on. I'm sure the phone I was trying to get pull my hair out, was trying to get that Commissioner of Dreehouse on, and I'm trying to get Tim Streed from the OHSA to come on to talk about it. But yeah, and Carry calls about that. Cool, that's great. He's the best with that.
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