I know a lot of schools will not honor passes for playoff games, mainly because of the 50/50 split between the schools. By not honoring passes it ensures that the gate receipts will be as high as they can get them.

I looked at the KHSAA tournament rules for Football and didn't see anything in them that dictated what ticket prices would be or that the host school school couldn't honor season passes. Maybe it's in there or somewhere else but I missed it. I think those things are more of gentlemen agreements between the schools. It seems fair that the host school doesn't honor passes to maximize gate receipts and help the traveling school defray travel costs.

It's in the playoff instructions, not the tournament rules, and not that easy to find. I only know where it is because I've had to read it a bunch of times. And there isn't actually much said about admission charges. It's part of a provision that says the two schools must discuss and agree on a number of things. Here's part of the text:

 

The representatives of the two schools involved shall discuss and must agree in advance on all items incidental to playing the game including:

4) The price of admission, the number of passes for each school and the distribution of reserved seats (if any);

 

FWIW, there's also this on gate receipts:

 

9) The financial distribution of gate receipts. The proceeds of all playoff games, with the exception of the final game in each class, will be used to defray the expenses of the visiting team, officials, trophies, and other necessary expenses.

 

And in another section called "Agreement on Finances:"

 

There are two common methods of dividing the proceeds of the playoff games.

1) The first and more commonly used method is to simply split the gate receipts after the payment of the trophy bill and the cost of officials. In addition, for the fourth round, many schools agree to allow a fixed rate mileage allowance prior to making this division of the gate. This encourages the visiting team to minimize the travel expenses and the home team to control game costs and eliminates the perception of inflated costs by either the traveling team or home management.

2) The second method is a split of the gate after agreed expenses, which would involve:

-- Allow for the cost of the trophies and the game officials’

-- Determine and agree in advance on the expenses of the home team for staging the game including charges for police and security, ticket sellers and takers, P.A. announcer, dressing room attendants, parking, ushers, statistics, etc.;

-- Determine and agree in advance on the expense allowance for the visiting team for mileage, meals and lodging if applicable. If no other agreement can be reached, using the state expense allowance is recommended;

-- Split the balance between the two teams after payment for the three items listed above;

If no agreement exists in advance, method (1) as detailed below shall govern the finances.

Thx General. A lot of that info is also in the Tournament Rules. But to get back to my point, the KHSAA doesn't, except for the state games, dictate ticket prices for the playoff games or whether passes are honored. Or at least I didn't see it in the Tournament Rules or the Playoff Instructions you posted. Rather it's left up to the schools to agree upon. Am I right about that?

Yes, it is left up to them, and I suppose the fact that it must be agreed upon is part of what keeps the tickets somewhat reasonable. ADs from both sides can talk about what's normal for their school or their area. And I'm sure you're right about the no-passes rule helping to boost the gate, because pretty much every regular-season game probably has an awful lot of people in the stands who got in for free. I'd think you could lose hundreds of dollars on that, at least in the later rounds.