For decades, the Alabama High School Athletic Association has built championship traditions around familiar venues that schools and fans travel to each year.

Basketball has called Legacy Arena home since 1994, volleyball and indoor track are contracted to the Birmingham CrossPlex, and softball has settled into Choccolocco Park in Oxford. A majority of the prep athletics in Alabama stay contracted with these host sites for years before making a move or ultimately renewing.

Football — Southern athletic associations' crown jewel — has evolved into a true rotation, moving from UAB's old stadium at Legion Field (1996-2008) to a split between Auburn and Tuscaloosa (2009-2020), then adding Protective Stadium in 2021 and now scheduling future championships between Birmingham and Mobile's Hancock Whitney Stadium through 2028.

It may be time for the AHSAA to consider expanding the football model across all championships.

TRAVEL 

The issue isn't tradition; it's access. Take Baldwin County as an example — if Fairhope's boys basketball program reached the state championship game every year, they would travel a roughly 536-mile round trip annually to Birmingham. Then you take a program like Hoover, which would travel less than 40 miles each year.

Let's keep going in favor of this county. In softball, Orange Beach has won five consecutive state titles, making the 600-plus-mile round trip to Oxford each spring. If Oxford High made the finals annually, they would not need to leave town.

Going another step further but this time arguing against a Gulf Coast host site; Gulf Shores High has hosted the outdoor state track meet for years now. For some programs, it's a springtime end-of-school year vacation at the beach, but it can be a yearly hit on expenses for programs that are hours away that make consistent appearances.

States like Kansas, Ohio and New York regularly rotate basketball state championships between sites to help spread travel responsibilities. Alabama has more than 30 colleges with athletic programs, and more than half have facilities capable of hosting state championships — from arenas to complexes to stadiums. Considering most event centers and venues like to generate revenue, the likelihood of welcoming partnership with the AHSAA is high as well.

MONEY TO BE MADE

In 2025, the AHSAA reported that the basketball state tournament generated more than $4 million in local economic impact. That figure has long benefited Birmingham, but there are cities such as Mobile, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Huntsville, Dothan — and increasingly Foley and Gulf Shores — that also have the infrastructure to handle major events like state titles.

The numbers in Baldwin County alone illustrate that opportunity. In Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, the AVCA Small College Beach Volleyball National Championships produced 921 hotel room nights and nearly $610,000 in economic impact. The NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship added 1,833 room nights and $1.58 million in impact.

Three Gulf Coast Classic softball tournaments generated nearly 4,500 room nights and $2.95 million in impact. The baseball edition added another 4,900 room nights and $3.24 million.

Foley Sports Tourism hosted 85 events in 2025, drawing more than 253,000 visitors and producing $44.5 million in business sales and $2.5 million in local tax revenue.

Implementing a consistent championship site rotation in other sports could create the same financial opportunities for other host sites, venues and universities. Many AHSAA championship events are streamed as well, providing exposure statewide and possibly nationally to an extent.

FINDING A BALANCE

There are valid reasons for annually used sites: contracts, quality of facility, logistics and established relationships. But football's evolution shows the AHSAA is willing to adapt.

Rotating championships could distribute the travel burden, spread economic growth opportunity across the state and increase exposure for different regions, colleges, universities and venues.

The goal wouldn't be to eliminate Birmingham's role; there is a long-standing legacy of AHSAA title moments there and in Montgomery that should be celebrated. The goal would be to share it, and maybe create a little legacy for other regions in the state along the way.