For the fans that came to B'ham for the tournament, just curious to hear an outsider's perspective. What did you guys think of the city?

I was there. Of course I would have liked to see ODU win a game or two. I stayed in Northport Tuscaloosa with family. I had one night down at 5 points. It was OK, not a terrible place to hold the tournament.

Great time! Want the tourney back in BHAM soon!!!

On one hand im thinking of moving there. I see less bama stuff on cars than i do here in mississippi.

Wasnt sure what to expect cause i know the age of that arena. But is it a great location.
There is more to do in Birmingham that you have time to do it for a event like this. No limit to good places to eat.

Only negative I can say is the town itself seemed to ignore it. Had to ask in one restaurant Friday night if they could turn one set away from the sec and acc games to the uab la Tech game When they did everyone in that part of the restaurant was glued to it.

Unless the league changes the policy of having both in the same town at the same time i dont see many places who can host.

The tourney needs to be in a destination city.

As for the fans that always ***** and cry about it being close enough to travel to...I doubt if Western (or Middle) had 100 more fans in Birmingham than Hot Springs Ark. Don't know about the championship game for Middle

If you are only going to have 1,000 fans at games (other than home team) have the tourney in S. Fla or New Orleans or any city with a ocean and warm weather. At least give the fans something else to come for...Birmingham has nothing. Checked out of our hotel Thursday at 1pm spent 2 hours driving all over the city and other than the parts south of the city I saw more ghetto housing with burnt out homes, homes falling down, with most of the windows out with in a 5 to 10 minute drive of the arena (in 3 different areas) than in New Orleans.

I thought Birmingham had some good points, and some not so good points. My wife and I stayed in Homewood, which wasn't too far from downtown. We didn't have a problem finding a good place to eat (The Fish Market, Original Pancake House, Flip Burger, etc.). I thought the location for the games was very nice, although old. That being said, it was a little challenging to find something to do in down time. We did venture over to Rickwood Field, since I'm a baseball history junkie, and that was pretty awesome to me. I don't think I ever had my bearings in the city, so without GPS, there's no way I could have found my way around.

All in all, it was a pretty good experience, except for the outcome of the men's game on Thursday for us. All of the fans were very cordial, except for some MTSU fans that decided to yell at my wife as we were walking out the arena on Saturday after the men's championship game (no big deal, every fan base has a few). I would definitely go back to Birmingham if the tournament was held there again.

I see that the city did a terrible job of advertising the Lakeview district, Morris Ave, 5-Points, Railroad park...

Sometimes Birmingham is it's own worst enemy.

Worst treatment I have had from a fan perspective in any of the tourney's I have traveled too...

Most of the BJCC staff was rude and inconsiderate (even though there were a few that went above the call of duty to assist when one had a question) -

Enjoyed, the interaction with the fans from the other schools that were there from Wednesday on, and the few UAB fans that chose to attend the first two days...

I thought UAB missed a prime opportunity to support the tourney the first two days of the event, and show the conference how valuable an asset they were to the conference (not just football but their entire athletic department), but they did not -

El Paso, Tulsa, Lafayette, New Orleans, Little Rock, Vegas, Los Cruces just to name a few really put out the welcome wagon for the fans attending the events

And for those who are wondering, I would be making these same comments even if we had won the event -

Rotate the tournament between Charlotte, Nashville, and KFC city.

Clearly a couple of you didn't understand the question.

(03-16-2015 08:51 AM)GreenMississippi Wrote:  I see that the city did a terrible job of advertising the Lakeview district, Morris Ave, 5-Points, Railroad park...

Sometimes Birmingham is it's own worst enemy.

This. And add to the fiasco on Saturday when you had hundreds of people standing in line for tickets for the CG and yes Birmingham can and always is its worst enemy.

And yes, Uptown is in the ghetto. But so is the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Difference is there is plenty to do in and around the Georgia Dome. Uptown is fairly new and in time will grow into something very special.

So I understand why some liked Birmingham and others didn't. And yes, Birmingham will always be an SEC town, but the city needs to do a better job in advertising events such as the CUSA Tournament.

Now we did enjoy going to the Mercedes plant and Bear Bryant Museum, also did the walking tour of the Sloss Furnaces and checked out Regions Field and the Alabama Sports Museum -

But I go to the tourneys for basketball and lots of basketball -

Didn't do the shuttle to Bartow for the women's games but some of our fans did and said that it wasn't convenient as it could of been -

Parking was easy and the ability to walk up to uptown to eat between sessions was nice

(03-16-2015 09:10 AM)Art Vandelay Wrote:  Rotate the tournament between Charlotte, Nashville, and KFC city.

Great idea. There are a few years over the next ten years that the SEC men do not play in Nashville. In those years Thin 2018-19 may be a couple of spots) we are only competing with the Women's teams from the SEC. During SEC week, the Municipal Auditorium would be available. In the other years, if UAB/Birmingham is out let's go with Charlotte/San Antonio on a rotating basis.

For those of you saying that Bham has nothing to offer as a city, you obviously didn't look too hard. Birmingham has great restaurants and bars, beautiful architecture, first class museums, fantastic parks, etc. Do a little research next time.

I thought most fans and arena staff were very friendly.We stayed at the Best Western Plus off Lakeshore Parkway. Very easy drive to both arenas. We ate at Mugshots, Landry's and Jim and Nick's...all good. The BEST thing was the sweet tea..best I've ever had at all locations!

The weather was gloomy and most times drizzling! The scheduling of games was ridiculous with a lot of teams' fans having to chose between whether to go to men's or women's games. Prices of ticket package too high especially when some teams could not see both men's and women's games. The conference dd a poor job of providing info. There should have been a welcome package provided with parking info, more detailed info on the Dart shuttle and maybe solicited discount coupons form some eateries.

The Dart shuttle was fine but you had to change lines and by late afternoon they started running only every 20 minutes making the trip from BJCC to Bartow too long. I saw a sign in front of Bartow for the CUSA tourney shuttle. When I asked I was told it was for conference/team officials. CUSA should have had a shuttle between the two arenas with a reasonable fee.

We did the Sloss furnace tour and a Vulcan Park visit. Tried to get to the Civil Rights district and the Railroad Park but ran out of time and energy. Thought both arenas were fine. But, especially the BJCC was way over-sized for the attendance.

The tourney needs to rotate between 3-4 areas. We would probably never go to El Paso due to distance but would go the Gulf Coast, Florida, Charlotte/other NC locations, Nashville.

(03-16-2015 09:02 AM)DwayneW1 Wrote:  Worst treatment I have had from a fan perspective in any of the tourney's I have traveled too...

Most of the BJCC staff was rude and inconsiderate (even though there were a few that went above the call of duty to assist when one had a question) -

Enjoyed, the interaction with the fans from the other schools that were there from Wednesday on, and the few UAB fans that chose to attend the first two days...

I thought UAB missed a prime opportunity to support the tourney the first two days of the event, and show the conference how valuable an asset they were to the conference (not just football but their entire athletic department), but they did not -

El Paso, Tulsa, Lafayette, New Orleans, Little Rock, Vegas, Los Cruces just to name a few really put out the welcome wagon for the fans attending the events

And for those who are wondering, I would be making these same comments even if we had won the event -

Have you ever take a vacation day and paid $22 to watch utsa play fiu? How many people do you think would? Unfortunately, those of us who work for a living can't always take off 3 days in a row(and now that we are in the tournament, another 2), eepecially to watch games we really don't care about. You could have put that game in San antonio or Miami and the attendance would have been crap at the same time of day. Don't **** on us for that.

I'm not exactly sure what the staff did to you at the BJCC. I simply had to buy a ticket and seat myself. The arena was very clearly labeled, but I had several staff members ask if I needed help finding my seat. It was also easy to purchase tickets, even 45 minutes before tipoff. Care to elaborate on your issues?

And I highly doubt you would have made these statements if you won the tournament. You have been some of the worst losers I have ever seen in my life.

(03-16-2015 02:35 PM)Monarch Homselr Wrote:  I thought most fans and arena staff were very friendly.We stayed at the Best Western Plus off Lakeshore Parkway. Very easy drive to both arenas. We ate at Mugshots, Landry's and Jim and Nick's...all good. The BEST thing was the sweet tea..best I've ever had at all locations!

The weather was gloomy and most times drizzling! The scheduling of games was ridiculous with a lot of teams' fans having to chose between whether to go to men's or women's games. Prices of ticket package too high especially when some teams could not see both men's and women's games. The conference dd a poor job of providing info. There should have been a welcome package provided with parking info, more detailed info on the Dart shuttle and maybe solicited discount coupons form some eateries.

The Dart shuttle was fine but you had to change lines and by late afternoon they started running only every 20 minutes making the trip from BJCC to Bartow too long. I saw a sign in front of Bartow for the CUSA tourney shuttle. When I asked I was told it was for conference/team officials. CUSA should have had a shuttle between the two arenas with a reasonable fee.

We did the Sloss furnace tour and a Vulcan Park visit. Tried to get to the Civil Rights district and the Railroad Park but ran out of time and energy. Thought both arenas were fine. But, especially the BJCC was way over-sized for the attendance.

The tourney needs to rotate between 3-4 areas. We would probably never go to El Paso due to distance but would go the Gulf Coast, Florida, Charlotte/other NC locations, Nashville.

For the most part none of our fans travel...

we all have a couple thousand that will tell you they will if the drive was a few hours closer. They won't, it's just a excuse as to why they don't in the first place. Now if that drive is 3 hours maybe a couple hundred (extra) out of those will make the trip...then a couple hundred more if you advance to the championship. But for the most part under 500 fans will get off their butts to make a 3 hour drive to a conference tourney. Push that distant to 5+ hours and it drops by 50% and 7+ hours to a couple hundred max for each of us.

Now if you add in a beach, warm weather, gambling, large trendy city, or a tourist attraction those numbers goes up. I would be shocked if other conference fans were different than Western fans...

give them something other than a basketball tourney and it's easier to get more that will drive the longer distant and to justify spending "vacation" type money to show up.

For what Birmingham had to offer there is NOTHING there that would make someone on the fence go. CUSA fanbases need that something else and even then it will not be in large numbers....

but higher than without the beach, warm weather, gambling, large trendy city, or a tourist attraction.

To be fair I've been to Birmingham several times and always enjoy it. I had a blast this weekend as well. We drove up early Friday morning and left Saturday after we lost in the MBB game. We did the following and had a great time...

Vulcan Park and Museum
The J Clyde
Trim Tab Brewing
Carrigan's Public House (see a trend?)
16th St Church/Civil Rights park/statues
Rickwood Field (expected it to be great but was blown away at how great of shape they keep it. best part of the weekend outside of beating UTEP and worth the trip if you are a baseball fan whatsoever)
Good People Brewing

Honestly I look for every reason to head to Birmingham any chance I can get. At the end of the day if you thought there was nothing to do you clearly need to do your own research.

(03-16-2015 09:02 AM)DwayneW1 Wrote:  Worst treatment I have had from a fan perspective in any of the tourney's I have traveled too...

Most of the BJCC staff was rude and inconsiderate (even though there were a few that went above the call of duty to assist when one had a question) -

Enjoyed, the interaction with the fans from the other schools that were there from Wednesday on, and the few UAB fans that chose to attend the first two days...

I thought UAB missed a prime opportunity to support the tourney the first two days of the event, and show the conference how valuable an asset they were to the conference (not just football but their entire athletic department), but they did not -

El Paso, Tulsa, Lafayette, New Orleans, Little Rock, Vegas, Los Cruces just to name a few really put out the welcome wagon for the fans attending the events

And for those who are wondering, I would be making these same comments even if we had won the event -

I second that.

(03-16-2015 03:20 PM)MTowho Wrote:  To be fair I've been to Birmingham several times and always enjoy it. I had a blast this weekend as well. We drove up early Friday morning and left Saturday after we lost in the MBB game. We did the following and had a great time...

Vulcan Park and Museum
The J Clyde
Trim Tab Brewing
Carrigan's Public House (see a trend?)
16th St Church/Civil Rights park/statues
Rickwood Field (expected it to be great but was blown away at how great of shape they keep it. best part of the weekend outside of beating UTEP and worth the trip if you are a baseball fan whatsoever)
Good People Brewing

Honestly I look for every reason to head to Birmingham any chance I can get. At the end of the day if you thought there was nothing to do you clearly need to do your own research.

Now go home and sell your wife on spending the vacation money on doing those things. See how that turns out.

I can find things to do in any city (or town) in America. Hell I can spend a few hours stopping at a country store in a one store town and just talking bull and local history with the old folks over a bologna sandwich and a coke. I doesn't mean I would choose to spend vacation type money doing that.

I know the OP asked about the city but I also think it needs to be in context on why we are all there. As far as the city goes I had no problem finding where I needed to be and 80% of the time I didn't use my GPS. No one was rude to me and my biggest surprise was how poor it was around 3 sides of the downtown area and 3 to 5 miles out. It's not a place I would go without having another main reason to be there.