A Tournament that stops short

For high schools across the country, March is traditionally the time for crowning state basketball champions. Not in Massachusetts, at least not this year. Hit by Proposition 21/2 tax cuts, schools throughout the state agreed to shorten this year's tournament (along with those in other sports) in a one-year experiment. The field was boiled down to four regional winners, then play awkwardly terminated. The cost of transporting teams cross-state supposedly makes continuing too expensive. But in a state the size of Massachusetts, shouldn't the cost of conducting semifinal and final games be recovered in gate receipts? If not, why start what you can't finish?