The MIAA and state championship venues are back in headlines again after the organization announced it would not hold its football championships at Gillette this year.
At first, the news was a shock, given its sudden nature and the looming postseason. But the Kraft Group clarified that logistics around Revolution and Patriots upcoming games were the cause.
With Gillette Stadium out of the picture for now, hockey is the only sport that holds its high school championships in an arena for one of New England's big four men's sports teams. Basketball hasn't competed at TD Garden since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2022, state championships have played out at UMass Lowell's Tsongas Center.
Every year, the topic resurfaces at some point in the high school season. Should the MIAA get its basketball state championships back at the Garden? Ethan Fuller and Steve Hewitt discuss.
Ethan: It's worth remembering that the MIAA did not play its championship games in the Garden under the old format — just the semifinals.
First, before I drop opinions, let's look at how we got here. In 2022, when the MIAA made the decision to leave TD Garden, they cited the inability to play 20 semifinal games at the Garden. Basketball had just increased to five divisions and the statewide tournament was about to kick off.
Before the pandemic, when basketball had sectional tournaments before its state championships, only the Eastern Mass. teams played at the Garden, so they only had to fit eight games. Eric McHugh of the Patriot Ledger wrote in January 2022 that moving from eight EMass semifinal games to 20 statewide semifinal games was logistically impossible; the Garden could only accommodate eight games over two days.
In 2025, the Boston Globe's Matt Porter wrote that renting TD Garden for multiple days was viewed as "untenable" in his chat with MIAA basketball tournament director Jim Quatromoni. So for now, it appears the Garden is off the itinerary.
That's the context.
Steve: And that's really important context. Ethan, we've gone back and forth over the last couple years about this, and you know I've been trying to make the case for basketball to go back to the Garden. The experience would be incredible. You're playing on the same court as the Celtics in an NBA arena. It feels like a championship environment. It's easy just to say, 'find a way.'
But the more research I do on this, the logistics just don't make sense. A quick look ahead to the Garden's March 2027 calendar shows that there's a concert, Celtics game or Bruins game scheduled on almost every night in the middle of March. Hockey just barely works because you can pack six games into a single day, but you would need at least two days to hold 10 basketball state finals, and that just doesn't work. The MIAA doesn't have any kind of authority to ask NBA and NHL schedule makers to put the C's and the B's on the road so they can more easily fit high school state championship games, and I can't imagine how much it would cost to rent out the Garden for two full days of games.
Ethan:Â There's also very little flexibility on the high school sports calendar to make this happen. Could the state tournament start or delay by a week to get the MIAA out of its own conflict with hockey? Maybe, if it wouldn't encroach on the rapid turnaround to spring sports? But you should want basketball state championships on a weekend, for ticket sales and logistics, and because it's the stage these schools deserve. As you allude to, it's a lot easier to say "figure it out" than it is to actually find two days' worth of open arena time.
I know from our past coaches' survey that some coaches believe hosting some championship games at the Garden, even if not all divisions, would be worth it. Others disagree. I am in the latter camp. The MIAA has to give equal opportunity to its member schools, and putting small divisions at a lesser site, for example, would make them appear as "less than."
Steve: Yeah, if I were to play devil's advocate, maybe you'd put the Division 1 and 2 finals at the Garden, because those games would probably be more likely to fill the arena (at least the lower bowl) with fans. But this wouldn't fly with anyone unless everyone got the opportunity to play there.
For the sake of argument — are there any other venues in Massachusetts where the MIAA could hold the state finals? If you wanted to put it in Boston, maybe BU's Agganis Arena. Or maybe UMass' Mullins Center. But the Tsongas Center makes sense, given how central it is in the state. They've been a terrific host site. The environments have been electric; the Div. 1 boys final between Bishop Feehan and Central Catholic last year felt like a legit big game.
Ethan:Â I think those are both viable. The DCU Center in Worcester would be the most central location for everyone and probably has the closest feel to a massive arena like the Garden.
But like you said, I truly have no major issues with Tsongas. I've covered every year of state championships there, and at least from my perspective, logistics have always worked out smoothly. It feels like a bigger stage than a high school gym, and the Division 1 matchups in particular have raucous crowds, but in truth, it still isn't filling the arena. I think Tsongas' size matches the crowds these championships draw.
My last point would be that if MIAA schools want a TD Garden presence... why not just hold another showcase there? The Andrew Lawson Invitational in January already includes a few MIAA teams. It would be a challenge, but it's easier to use the venue for a one-day event. Or, if we really want state championships in Boston badly enough, the basketball divisions need to shrink back to four. That bleeds into another conversation, but it's worth thinking about.
Steve: Yeah, the divisional piece is worth thinking about. Could you fit eight games in one day if you started in the morning? It would be a tough squeeze, but it's possible. Last year's Andrew Lawson Invitational actually held 10 games at the Garden in one day, with the first game starting at 8 a.m. and the final game starting at 8:30 p.m. I don't think an 8 a.m. state championship would be ideal or fair, though.
I think we both agree: In an ideal world, we'd love the MIAA basketball championships to return to TD Garden, but the logistical obstacles are too great right now. The Tsongas Center is working just fine in the meantime.
