Wrestling Is Booming, Basketball Is Bleeding: What Montana’s High School Money Tells Us

If you want to know where high school sports are headed, follow the ticket money. New financial reports from the Montana High School Association, obtained by MTN Sports, show a striking split from this past winter: state wrestling is setting records while state basketball — long the crown jewel of small-town Montana winters — mostly lost money.

Wrestling’s record winter

The all-class state wrestling tournaments at First Interstate Arena in Billings turned a profit of just over $90,000, up from roughly $77,500 a year ago and $77,200 in 2024. Gross ticket sales hit $165,319 — an all-time high for the event. It helps that wrestling is the fastest-growing sport in Montana for both boys and girls, and that the February tournament dates caught friendly travel weather. The momentum ran all the way down the bracket: every divisional and seeding tournament finished in the black, from about $3,300 at the Eastern AA to more than $12,000 at the Western B/C in Butte.

Basketball’s rough ledger

State basketball told the opposite story. Only two of the four state tournaments made money: the Class AA boys and girls events in Billings (about $33,500) and the Class B tournaments in Bozeman (about $65,300). Class A in Great Falls lost roughly $14,300, and Class C in Missoula lost about $24,100.

The Class C losses are the most telling. Income for these events comes entirely from ticket sales, and this year’s Missoula site forced brutal road trips on eastern Montana communities like Scobey, Circle, Melstone and Roy-Winifred. When fans face a six-plus-hour drive through February weather, attendance — and revenue — suffers. Across all of Class C’s district and divisional tournaments, exactly one finished with a profit: the District 8C event in Great Falls, which redistributed its $6,609 surplus to its 11 member schools.

It’s a sharp reversal from 2024, when record crowds and NFHS Network streaming helped all four state basketball tournaments post healthy profits, led by Class B at nearly $108,000. All four made money in 2025 as well.

The bigger picture

Montana’s numbers mirror a national trend: wrestling participation, especially among girls, is surging across the country, while attendance-dependent events are increasingly at the mercy of geography and weather. For athletic associations everywhere, the lesson is uncomfortable but clear — tournament site selection isn’t just a logistics question, it’s a financial one, and the communities footing the longest drives often pay twice. Meanwhile, the state swim meet in Great Falls quietly broke even, as it usually does.

For young wrestlers, the takeaway is more fun: your sport isn’t just growing on the mat. It’s becoming the box-office star of the winter season.

Source: MTN Sports