By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The third annual Bill Snyder Classic brought a thrilling matchup to Civic Arena, ending in an upset win for the Kansas State women over the Ole Miss Rebels.
St. Joseph Sports Commission Director Brett Esely says while the crowd wasn’t quite what he had hoped for, still about 1,600 people showed up despite the game being played on a Sunday, rather than the usual Saturday.
Esely says the game next year though, which is already scheduled, will return to Saturday, stating that Sunday events in St. Joe are hard to plan for
“In my experience in event management now 20 plus years, Sunday afternoons have always been a tough draw sporting event wise here,” Esely tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “I think this time of year, certainly we didn’t go opposite the Chiefs timewise, but we were sensitive to that, we weren’t going to schedule during a Chiefs game, that’s probably not a good plan of attack here.”
Esely says knowing Kansas State has options of where to play these non-conference matchups, the commission always treats this event like it’s the first one
“We do make sure the hospitality is at a very high level for any event we host, let alone we host, because these are division one travel parties that have a high level of expectation,” Esely explains. “And anywhere they go I feel like they are showered with some level of hospitality that we want to make sure the hospitality level is as good here as they get anywhere else, they go play at any other time across the country.”
Even with three years in the books now of the event, Esely still feels like improvements can be made. Esely says specifically there can be improvements in how they market the matchup coming to St. Joseph
“Making sure that the publicity for this game is as it should be, we’re also sensitive to ticket prices as well,” Esely says. “I think our tickets were priced as they should have been for an event like this, given we had a premium option, but we also had a $10 option to get in the door as well, but we certainly don’t want that to be a deterrent for anybody that wants to attend the game.”
Esely says Kansas State will return to Civic Arena for a fourth Bill Snyder Classic but is not quite ready to announce the opponent.
The announcement of the Wildcats opponent will hopefully be out around next spring.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.