AMES, Iowa — For years now, attendance at the boys’ state basketball tournament had been falling.

“There are probably lots of reasons,” said Tom Keating, the executive director of the Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA). “But we got to thinking that it could use some new energy.”

At Iowa State, athletics director Jamie Pollard caught wind of the conversation.

“I just called Tom,” he said. “I told him ‘if you’re really interested in this and you think it’s something you want to do then let’s roll up our sleeves and figure it out.’”

Keating said once both sides confirmed their respective dates matched up, a move to Iowa State began to make more and more sense.

“Hilton Coliseum is a basketball venue,” Keating said. “It’s had a lot of excitement there in the past few years and everybody recognizes that.”

Beginning in the spring of 2027, the Iowa Boys’ State Basketball Tournament will be held at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

In the home of his Cyclones, Pollard saw a chance for high school athletes to play on one of the state’s most cherished courts.

“Many of them,” he said, “the last time they’re going to play organized basketball is going to be that high school game and the thought that they get to create their own magic at Hilton Coliseum is pretty special.”

While state basketball fans might immediately miss the larger, more consolidated infrastructure of the Iowa Events Center and its surrounding amenities, its loss will soon be offset by Iowa State’s new CyTown development near Hilton Coliseum.

“CyTown won’t be finished [in time for the first basketball tournament] but it won’t be far behind,” Pollard said. “When it is done it will have hotel space, restaurants, retail, etc. I can see schools using the amphitheater as a spot for pep rallies.”

Pollard said he also sees this as a potential boost for the entire university.

“There’s a lot of young, future, potential college students that bus in for those games,” Pollard said. “Their school’s closed and they come to watch their high school — and they’re going to get to see Iowa State at its finest. And I think that the campus is really excited to see what that could mean for future enrollment.”

For the IHSAA, this has been a busy spring. Earlier this month, they announced that, starting this fall, state football, wrestling, and basketball will be broadcast on Iowa PBS.

Keating said the long battle to retake control of the Association’s broadcast rights has always been about bringing the games back to the fans.

“We’ve heard from so many of them,” Keating said. “’We want to be able to find it on our TV and I don’t want to search for it! I don’t want to have to go look at a map to see where I should tune in to find that game.’ So that really is what it came down to.”

Iowa PBS is available in all 99 counties in Iowa — for free. It’s been broadcasting the Iowa girls’ basketball tournament successfully for years.

Keating said while there were several suitors bidding for the chance to broadcast the boys’ tournaments, Iowa PBS easily made the most sense.

“Three words,” he said: “Free, good, and easy.”

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