GHSA basketball state championships move to Georgia State

The GHSA basketball state championships have a new home for the next two seasons.

The 16-game slate with boys and girls championships for each classification will tip off next year at the Georgia State Convocation Center, an 8,000-seat multipurpose facility in downtown Atlanta, the GHSA confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The facility has hosted several Georgia State University events and sports, including men’s and women’s basketball, since it opened in 2022. It has also hosted GHSA basketball semifinals the past four seasons.

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“We have a great working relationship with them, and they have a facility that can hold the kind of crowd that we have,” GHSA executive director Tim Scott said. “The last couple years, we’ve had games that we’ve had 10,000 people at. So, we had to find a facility that will hold that many.”

The Macon Centreplex has hosted basketball state championships since 1969 (except in 2017 after the baskets were placed a foot behind the regulation line in 2016). Renovations brought the state championships back to the venue from 2018 to 2026.

Macon broke ground on a $350 million venue July 28, WMAZ reported. The new arena will be built on what is now the Centreplex’s parking lot. That facility is set to seat more than 10,000 people and will include suites. It’s projected to open in 2028.

The old Macon Centreplex could still play a role in the GHSA postseason next year. Scott said the organization is trying to make the venue a semifinal host for the next two seasons.

“We’ll continue to stay in touch with them as they do the construction, because anytime you do that, and they’ve got construction, they’ve got a laydown yard,” Scott said. “They’re making new parking lots for folks to park in. It’s a big, big project, so we’ll continue to stay in touch with them.

“They’ve been great, and we appreciate them, but we just feel like we needed to find a different venue for now.”

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Scott said the GHSA is “on great terms with Macon” and said the organization has committed to Georgia State’s venue for only the next two years.

The move could be convenient for many of the schools competing for state championships next season. Metro Atlanta schools have made up a large portion of state championship appearances in recent years. Last season, every school in the Class 6A boys Final Four was from Cobb County.

Half the teams in the 2026 state championships came from Fulton County or one of its bordering counties.

That convenience isn’t a primary area of concern for the GHSA, though, according to Scott.

“That’s not our No. 1 (concern), because I don’t know where they’re going to come from,” Scott said. “We find a facility that can take care of the needs that we have, and it’s a nice facility for the students to participate at because that’s one of our goals is to provide the very best facility we can for students to play.”