Sacramento State is close to finalizing a deal for the CIF-San Joaquin Section Division I, II and III football championship games to be played at Hornet Stadium through 2013.

Last December, local prep powerhouses Grant and Folsom played in the Division II championship game at Hornet Stadium to an overflow crowd of 22,000 people, the biggest crowd for a football game since the 1999 Causeway Classic, according to Sac State stadium operations manager Steve Tebbs. Grant moved to Division I this year following a section realignment.

“I think for any high school athlete to be able to play at a major university for (their) championship game, it’s a big deal,” Tebbs said.

Tebbs says Hornet Stadium’s “actual” capacity is 21,995.

“With the teams and other personnel there in the press box and on the sideline, that’s how they were able to get a little over 22,000.” Tebbs said. “I think (at the 1999 Causeway Classic there was) 21,900 and I think we brought in some extra bleachers as well in the end zone…brought some extra bleachers at the South End, and that’s how it got us to a sellout.”

The sellout provided a college-level atmosphere for last year’s Division II championship game.

“It was a nice experience to play in front of a big crowd. It’s a nice facility,” Grant head coach Mike Alberghini said. “It was a great atmosphere. It was the biggest crowds (Sac State’s) ever had.”

Alberghini said that he regrets that their long-awaited Sept. 3 rematch against Long Beach Poly, which LBP won 24-23 by a blocked extra point, couldn’t be played at Sac State.

“It could have been another special day in high school sports, but that was their decision,” Alberghini said.

Tebbs would like to see Hornet Stadium be for high school football what Power Balance Pavilion is for high school basketball. Power Balance Pavilion (formerly ARCO Arena) hosts the prep state basketball championships every year and California high schools make T-shirts that boast their teams’ chances of making it there.

Tebbs said if that started happening with Hornet Stadium for football, it would be “not only a little promotional tool for us when they’re walking around campus, high school campuses, but you know, it’s great for the football community as well.”

He said that hosting the championship games brings out local high school students that otherwise might not visit the Sac State campus.

“They haven’t seen The Well, they haven’t seen the Broad, they haven’t seen the new field turf, they haven’t seen some of the new buildings on campus… It’s great for these high school teams to see what Sac State has to offer.”

Tebbs said that it is a great recruiting tool for Sac State football program, putting the players in contact with coaches and scouts.

Tebbs anticipates that the three games will bring in $10,000 to $15,000 per year to Sac State, money that will go in a maintenance fund for the stadium. Tebbs said last year the facility made about $5,000 hosting the Division I, II and III championships after $8,000 was spent on updates needed to accommodate the capacity crowd of the Grant-Folsom game.

“They say those fields only last anywhere between 10 and 20 years depending on how much use (they get),” Tebbs said. “And so every amount of money that we can collect on these types of events, we’re just putting into a maintenance fund that will go into, you know, improving the field in future years.”

The plan for Sac State to host the championship games is set to be signed within the next few weeks and will include one Friday night game and two Saturday games.

Katie McMillin can be reached at [email protected].