A century after playing championships inside State Gym, the IHSAA State Basketball Tournament will move to James H. Hilton Coliseum starting in 2027.
An initial five-year agreement with support from Discover Ames will place the five-day, 32-team boys’ tournament inside Hilton Coliseum as the first-of-its-kind multi-use CyTown district is developed at the Iowa State Center and slated to come online in 2027.
ISU will make facilities at Hilton and the attached and updated Scheman Building available for the IHSAA event. Opened in 1971, ISU Athletics installed a new state-of-the-art video board, LED ribbon boards and an audio system ahead of the 2024-25 season, and has also completed upgrades to its team locker rooms within the facility. The Scheman Building is in the midst of a significant renovation which has created new hospitality spaces for Cyclone contests as well as other special events that the facility attracts.
The surrounding CyTown district – announced in 2022 and expected to be up and running in 2027 – will feature space for retail, food and beverage, common areas, and a 200-room hotel.
Ames played host to the IHSAA’s basketball tournament six times between 1917 and 1926, all inside then-Iowa State College’s State Gym. The most recent edition featured a small-school round robin, with Irwin topping Keystone, Grandview, and Lake View for the 1926 Class B title.
The IHSAA concluded its 2025 championships on Friday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, where the tournament has been hosted since 1963.
