HELENA — The Montana High School Association distributed more than $400,000 to its member schools from money earned at the 2025 basketball, swimming and wrestling postseason events, according to documents obtained by MTN Sports.
Of the winter sports championships, the state wrestling tournaments at First Interstate Arena in Billings generated the largest profit, bringing in $77,530.05 after expenses, according to the financial reports. The event grossed $141,466.00 in ticket sales but had $14,336.00, $26,100.00 and $23,499.95 in administrative, facility and officials expenses, respectively.
Those numbers are similar to the 2024 marks that saw the all-class tournaments net $77,210.73.
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The 2025 reports indicate the Class AA seeding meets both lost money — $1,969.25 at the Eastern AA in Bozeman and 424.90 at the Western AA in Kalispell — while the Eastern B/C ($6,739.16), Western B/C ($5,309.61), Eastern A ($3,101.27) and Western A ($77.82) divisional tournaments made small profits.
The data also show the basketball tournaments weren’t as profitable in 2025 as they were during a record-breaking 2024, but all the state tournaments and some divisional tournaments still finished in the black.
According to the reports, the Class B combined tournaments in Missoula grossed $139,864 for a total profit of $68,189.24. The Class A tournaments in Billings were the next most-profitable with $42,151.73, followed by Class AA in Bozeman with $36,937.97 and Class C in Butte with $2,522.15. The Class C tournament grossed $82,200 from ticket sales but had $60,732.50 in team expenses.
View the 2024-25 report summaries: Basketball | Wrestling | Swimming
The 2024 profits, which were previously reported, were: $107,807.80 at Class B, $79,114.33 at Class AA, $52,316.78 at Class C and $43,337.71 at Class A.
The Eastern A and Southern B divisional tournaments, both of which are played in Billings and annually rank among the highest-grossing tournaments each winter, had another profitable year, according to the records.
The Eastern A netted $46,507.19 after expenses, and the Southern B grossed $137,391 in ticket sales to profit $4,489.87 after expenses. The Southern B’s $75,750.64 in facilities and administrative expenses is the highest of any tournament.
The records also show profits for the Western A ($2,294.69), Northern C ($14,624.08) and Southern C ($12,227.45) divisional tournaments as well as the Class AA playoff games, which replaced divisional tournaments this year. The other divisional tournaments — the separate Northern B boys and girls tournaments and Western B, Eastern C and Western C combined tournaments — all lost money, according to the reports.
The financial reports also show accounting for the district tournaments. Of those, only Districts 2B, 3B, 4B and 6C made a profit. The rest all lost money, with the District 13C tournament in Frenchtown finishing $40,115.47 in the red after accounting for expenses, including $42,100 in team expenses.
The state swim meet earned $10,289.00 in ticket sales and accounted just $2,482.64 in administrative and facilities expenses, resulting in a profit distribution of $7,806.36 to the attending schools.
Related: Dates and sites for the 2025-26 high school sports championship events
All profit, which is earned from ticket sales at postseason events, is distributed back to member schools. Expenses include costs for trainers, tournament managers, ticket takers and other personnel as well as ticket-printing costs, signage and other equipment like bracket boards, nets and clock rentals. Costs for officials and team expenses (mileage and per diem) are calculated in separate columns.
