Lake Charles and Sulphur will make their pitches to keep the state tournaments for basketball and baseball today at the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Executive Committee meeting in Baton Rouge.

Bids will be awarded Thursday.

Lake Charles is bidding to host the boys and girls basketball tournaments at Burton Coliseum, which hosted the tournaments in 2014-15, and the boys tournament the past two years. Alexandria is submitting bids to host both tournaments at recently renovated Rapides Coliseum. Alexandria was home to both tournaments from 1967-1976 and 1979-1982. Rapides hosted the girls-only tournament from 1983-1992 and again in 1995-1996. Hammond is bidding to keep the girls tournament at Southeastern Louisiana after hosting the past two years. Lafayette is bidding to lure the boys tournament after hosting the event from 1997-2011.

Morgan City submitted the only other bid for baseball, which has been played exclusively at Sulphur’s McMurry Park the past four years.

Eric Zartler, sales director at the Southwest Louisiana Convention and Bureau, said history and quality volunteers are the area’s biggest selling points.

“We have been there and hosted events before, and I think we have done a good job with these events in the past,” he said. “We have great people, great volunteers involved. I hope (the LHSAA) feel like we have put on great events in the past.”

The select/non-select (private/public schools) split has caused tournaments to grow in length and volume of games, but Zartler said that did not present an issue.

“It means an added day, and in some cases longer days, but it worked well for us,” Zartler said. “It helped add to the impact of the event with more schools and more fans.”

Attendance at the basketball tournament grew from 29,848 in 2016 to 38,390 in 2017.

Zartler said bidding for the championship events remains competitive.

“Anytime you have 30 to 40 thousand people coming in, the impact is tremendous for everybody,” he said. “It is great for the hotels, restaurants, gas stations and everyone. The impact on the area is tremendous in addition to the prestige of hosting these events.”