PIAA Moving Football Championships From Hersheypark Stadium To Cumberland Valley High School
By: Mike Darnay/KDKA-TV
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- How sweet it was. For at least the next four years, Pennsylvania's high school football state championship games will no longer be played in Hershey.
The PIAA announced Wednesday that its championship games for football, soccer, and field hockey would be moving to be played at nearby Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg.
The PIAA football championships have been held at Hersheypark since 1998.
According to KDKA's news partners at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mansion Park in Altoona and Penn State's Beaver Stadium also submitted bids to host the title games.
"It was a very tough decision because of our loyalty to all of our sites," said PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi. "When you have spent a long time at certain places, you develop relationships with people. But we're very satisfied with what we had in our decision-making process."
The PIAA said that outdated facilities at Hersheypark Stadium were a factor in the decision for where championship games would be played moving forward.
"Especially with some of the changes they will be making — not only adding a new field and changing the press box — they also have an indoor surface that can be used, a training room, weight room, media center, two artificial surfaces that can be used for walkthroughs, as well as individual locker rooms that would serve each player on each team," Lombardi said. "There were a host of things there that were very attractive, along with Cumberland Valley making a very nice financial package for us."
The following sites were also approved for the 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 fall championships:
- Girls' Team Tennis -- Hershey Racquet Club, Hershey, PA
- Girls' Singles & Doubles Tennis -- Hershey Racquet Club, Hershey, PA
- Cross Country -- Parkview CC Course, Hershey, PA
- Girls' Volleyball -- Cumberland Valley HS, Mechanicsburg, PA
