(03-18-2015 06:40 PM)mjs Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 05:05 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 04:40 PM)panama Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 03:37 PM)mjs Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 03:09 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Wasn't that played in Hartford CT with UConn playing in the finals? That's like a half hour from UConn's campus in a city I'll wager has the highest population of UConn alums. If it had been SMU vs. Tulsa in Hartford do you think it would have been the same?

I would assume that a ULL vs. ULM final would have brought a pretty darn good crowd to Lakefront. Two Ga teams aren't going to do it. If you don't have ULL, ULM, or USA in the final, Lakefront is guaranteed to be more than 80-90% empty. Is there a city in the South where folks really love college basketball and would come out just to see some good midmajor basketball? Kind of like Dayton for the First Four? I don't think there is, but if there was, that's where we should hold our tourney.

Memphis
Birmingham

I've always said the Landers Center in Southaven would be great for the Sun Belt (especially when MTSU and WKU were in). It's out in suburban sprawl land but about halfway between Beale Street and the Mississippi casinos.

It would certainly be great for AState. But, I also think it is a site we should look at. Seems like about as central a location as we could get. I'd like to know if King Karl will be ready to open up discussions about moving it someplace other than New Orleans. I have to admit, I've had fun down there, but it stinks having it in a city that couldn't care less if we were there or not. Also the costs are too much for your average Sun Belt fan.

It's always going to be closer to one school or another. This year it was UL and USA. What good did it do.

So I hear the Greensboro Coliseum will now be open through 2019...

(03-18-2015 06:40 PM)mjs Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 05:05 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 04:40 PM)panama Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 03:37 PM)mjs Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 03:09 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Wasn't that played in Hartford CT with UConn playing in the finals? That's like a half hour from UConn's campus in a city I'll wager has the highest population of UConn alums. If it had been SMU vs. Tulsa in Hartford do you think it would have been the same?

I would assume that a ULL vs. ULM final would have brought a pretty darn good crowd to Lakefront. Two Ga teams aren't going to do it. If you don't have ULL, ULM, or USA in the final, Lakefront is guaranteed to be more than 80-90% empty. Is there a city in the South where folks really love college basketball and would come out just to see some good midmajor basketball? Kind of like Dayton for the First Four? I don't think there is, but if there was, that's where we should hold our tourney.

Memphis
Birmingham

I've always said the Landers Center in Southaven would be great for the Sun Belt (especially when MTSU and WKU were in). It's out in suburban sprawl land but about halfway between Beale Street and the Mississippi casinos.

It would certainly be great for AState. But, I also think it is a site we should look at. Seems like about as central a location as we could get. I'd like to know if King Karl will be ready to open up discussions about moving it someplace other than New Orleans. I have to admit, I've had fun down there, but it stinks having it in a city that couldn't care less if we were there or not. Also the costs are too much for your average Sun Belt fan.

The midpoint of the current SBC membership is a bit NW of Jackson, MS a bit southeast of a town called Kosciusko.

So Southaven, MS isn't terribly far from the middle of the league, though Jackson is closer

(03-18-2015 12:27 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 11:41 AM)wb247 Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 10:46 AM)itsmeagain Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 12:49 AM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  

(03-17-2015 09:10 PM)itsmeagain Wrote:  But again, we're not looking for a nice place to bring your kids up, we're looking for somewhere to hold a tournament that people will actually want to come to. As i said before, if you want to have good attendance, you need to create a vacation with a tournament tucked into it. Nobody is going to go on vacation to the northern Atlanta suburbs, especially when the drive from Atlanta is 30 minutes without traffic, and up to an hour with traffic. If the idea is to have a well attended tournament, Gwinnett is a no-go.

I'm not sure you've been there for a while. Tons of restaurants and bars. Movie theaters, Dave and Buster's and other sorts of entertainment, plenty of retail and an abundance of inexpensive hotels. If the SBC wanted to host in the Atlanta area it is clearly a better choice than Philips.
I don't live in Gwinnett or have a rooting interest in the place, but it would be a less-expensive and more visitor-friendly experience.
Plenty of people will be taking vacations to the northern suburbs when the Braves move to Cobb in 2017.

Sounds great for those of us that live in and around Atlanta. But as i said before, we're trying to get people to not just come for the tournament, but want to come for more than that. We need them to have stuff to do between games and after their team goes out. I'm afraid Gwinnett isn't a tourist destination, it's just not. Fine, at night they can pick a restaurant to go to, but what about during the day? Can those that choose to bar hop around there? Can they park their car and walk around? These are the things you need to think about for a tournament location.

Additionally, very few people are going to voluntarily take a 4-day trip to a place that is the same as, or has fewer options, than the place they live all year. Who in their right mind is going to travel 400 miles to drink Miller Lite at a Chili's?

Ever BEEN to a conference tournament?

The middling Tex-Mex place across from Summit Arena did a booming business between sessions. Old guys drinking Mich Ultra and their wives drinking margaritas who raved about what a great place it is.

You don't sell to 30 year olds thinking like a 50 year old and you don't sell to the 50+ crowd thinking like a 30 year old.

This isn't the local food, craft beer crowd, posting pics of their food on Instagram.

Correct unless the drive is close enough for a down and back the SBC (also CUSA) tourney will have a mixture of 70% in their mid 40s up of couples and 20% late 30s down with a wife and a kid or two and 10% single male.

So 85- 90% of the crowd will be looking for family type actives and that includes beaches, music, shopping, gambling, food and a drink. Not many will be there for the young type actives of 100 different types of beer or pick up joints.

I loved Hot Springs and I also think Biloxi would be prefect for the SBC and CUSA tourney. Tons of reasonable price rooms in all price ranges and if you want to party New Orleans is 1.5 hours away

The BJCC (19,000) was way too large for the CUSA tourney even with UAB in the championship game. Hot Springs is just the right size for the SBC tourney. But if you go look at the attendance when the conference tourney was in Mobile you will see southern coast cites draw fans....beaches no matter the time of the year is a draw. Just going off memory I think there was 5,000 at the championship game when Western played MUTS Mobile, AL 2007-08 and less than 1,000 when ASU played UNT at the Cajundome the year before .

you have 7 schools with in a 6.5 hour drive of Biloxi and 4 of those under 4 hours..

getting 750- 1,000 rooms booked for 2 to 4 days means a whole lot more to this city than it does to New Orleans

(03-19-2015 03:47 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 12:27 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 11:41 AM)wb247 Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 10:46 AM)itsmeagain Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 12:49 AM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  I'm not sure you've been there for a while. Tons of restaurants and bars. Movie theaters, Dave and Buster's and other sorts of entertainment, plenty of retail and an abundance of inexpensive hotels. If the SBC wanted to host in the Atlanta area it is clearly a better choice than Philips.
I don't live in Gwinnett or have a rooting interest in the place, but it would be a less-expensive and more visitor-friendly experience.
Plenty of people will be taking vacations to the northern suburbs when the Braves move to Cobb in 2017.

Sounds great for those of us that live in and around Atlanta. But as i said before, we're trying to get people to not just come for the tournament, but want to come for more than that. We need them to have stuff to do between games and after their team goes out. I'm afraid Gwinnett isn't a tourist destination, it's just not. Fine, at night they can pick a restaurant to go to, but what about during the day? Can those that choose to bar hop around there? Can they park their car and walk around? These are the things you need to think about for a tournament location.

Additionally, very few people are going to voluntarily take a 4-day trip to a place that is the same as, or has fewer options, than the place they live all year. Who in their right mind is going to travel 400 miles to drink Miller Lite at a Chili's?

Ever BEEN to a conference tournament?

The middling Tex-Mex place across from Summit Arena did a booming business between sessions. Old guys drinking Mich Ultra and their wives drinking margaritas who raved about what a great place it is.

You don't sell to 30 year olds thinking like a 50 year old and you don't sell to the 50+ crowd thinking like a 30 year old.

This isn't the local food, craft beer crowd, posting pics of their food on Instagram.

Correct unless the drive is close enough for a down and back the SBC (also CUSA) tourney will have a mixture of 70% in their mid 40s up of couples and 20% late 30s down with a wife and a kid or two and 10% single male.

So 85- 90% of the crowd will be looking for family type actives and that includes beaches, music, shopping, gambling, food and a drink. Not many will be there for the young type actives of 100 different types of beer or pick up joints.

I loved Hot Springs and I also think Biloxi would be prefect for the SBC and CUSA tourney. Tons of reasonable price rooms in all price ranges and if you want to party New Orleans is 1.5 hours away

The BJCC (19,000) was way too large for the CUSA tourney even with UAB in the championship game. Hot Springs is just the right size for the SBC tourney. But if you go look at the attendance when the conference tourney was in Mobile you will see southern coast cites draw fans....beaches no matter the time of the year is a draw. Just going off memory I think there was 5,000 at the championship game when Western played MUTS Mobile, AL 2007-08 and less than 1,000 when ASU played UNT at the Cajundome the year before .

you have 7 schools with in a 6.5 hour drive of Biloxi and 4 of those under 4 hours..

getting 750- 1,000 rooms booked for 2 to 4 days means a whole lot more to this city than it does to New Orleans

I'm comfortable with Biloxi, Mobile (provided there is a spot that isn't USA home court) and Pensacola.

Tupelo I believe has hosted the SEC women before and is about at the epicenter of the league (though less to do presumably, I've only stopped once). Huntsville is also quite near the league center.

The unacceptable Gwinnet facility in Georgia has been able to handle multiple SEC women's tournaments.

There are places that will work if someone does the groundwork.

(03-18-2015 12:34 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 11:41 AM)wb247 Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 10:46 AM)itsmeagain Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 12:49 AM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  

(03-17-2015 09:10 PM)itsmeagain Wrote:  But again, we're not looking for a nice place to bring your kids up, we're looking for somewhere to hold a tournament that people will actually want to come to. As i said before, if you want to have good attendance, you need to create a vacation with a tournament tucked into it. Nobody is going to go on vacation to the northern Atlanta suburbs, especially when the drive from Atlanta is 30 minutes without traffic, and up to an hour with traffic. If the idea is to have a well attended tournament, Gwinnett is a no-go.

I'm not sure you've been there for a while. Tons of restaurants and bars. Movie theaters, Dave and Buster's and other sorts of entertainment, plenty of retail and an abundance of inexpensive hotels. If the SBC wanted to host in the Atlanta area it is clearly a better choice than Philips.
I don't live in Gwinnett or have a rooting interest in the place, but it would be a less-expensive and more visitor-friendly experience.
Plenty of people will be taking vacations to the northern suburbs when the Braves move to Cobb in 2017.

Sounds great for those of us that live in and around Atlanta. But as i said before, we're trying to get people to not just come for the tournament, but want to come for more than that. We need them to have stuff to do between games and after their team goes out. I'm afraid Gwinnett isn't a tourist destination, it's just not. Fine, at night they can pick a restaurant to go to, but what about during the day? Can those that choose to bar hop around there? Can they park their car and walk around? These are the things you need to think about for a tournament location.

Additionally, very few people are going to voluntarily take a 4-day trip to a place that is the same as, or has fewer options, than the place they live all year. Who in their right mind is going to travel 400 miles to drink Miller Lite at a Chili's?

I think you forget that very few young people attend conference tournaments. They are mostly meant for older adults who are retired and have time to travel for several days for these things. They aren't looking for a bar. Going to sit at a local Chili's is perfectly fine to them.

This isn't college football

Gwinnett Transit WILL take you to downtown ATL...and connects to the Doraville station.

This trust me there is really nice places to eat around Sugarloaf Country Club which basically borders Gwinnett Arena. It is also far from just chain restaurants in that area. For the person that wants to make it a mini vacay I am they might prefer additional attractions but jeez Duluth is about 30 from ATL by car and again you CAN ride transit to the Marta and even downtown. Like I said plus and minuses for both but neither is superior to the other overall.

(03-19-2015 08:27 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(03-19-2015 03:47 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 12:27 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 11:41 AM)wb247 Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 10:46 AM)itsmeagain Wrote:  Sounds great for those of us that live in and around Atlanta. But as i said before, we're trying to get people to not just come for the tournament, but want to come for more than that. We need them to have stuff to do between games and after their team goes out. I'm afraid Gwinnett isn't a tourist destination, it's just not. Fine, at night they can pick a restaurant to go to, but what about during the day? Can those that choose to bar hop around there? Can they park their car and walk around? These are the things you need to think about for a tournament location.

Additionally, very few people are going to voluntarily take a 4-day trip to a place that is the same as, or has fewer options, than the place they live all year. Who in their right mind is going to travel 400 miles to drink Miller Lite at a Chili's?

Ever BEEN to a conference tournament?

The middling Tex-Mex place across from Summit Arena did a booming business between sessions. Old guys drinking Mich Ultra and their wives drinking margaritas who raved about what a great place it is.

You don't sell to 30 year olds thinking like a 50 year old and you don't sell to the 50+ crowd thinking like a 30 year old.

This isn't the local food, craft beer crowd, posting pics of their food on Instagram.

Correct unless the drive is close enough for a down and back the SBC (also CUSA) tourney will have a mixture of 70% in their mid 40s up of couples and 20% late 30s down with a wife and a kid or two and 10% single male.

So 85- 90% of the crowd will be looking for family type actives and that includes beaches, music, shopping, gambling, food and a drink. Not many will be there for the young type actives of 100 different types of beer or pick up joints.

I loved Hot Springs and I also think Biloxi would be prefect for the SBC and CUSA tourney. Tons of reasonable price rooms in all price ranges and if you want to party New Orleans is 1.5 hours away

The BJCC (19,000) was way too large for the CUSA tourney even with UAB in the championship game. Hot Springs is just the right size for the SBC tourney. But if you go look at the attendance when the conference tourney was in Mobile you will see southern coast cites draw fans....beaches no matter the time of the year is a draw. Just going off memory I think there was 5,000 at the championship game when Western played MUTS Mobile, AL 2007-08 and less than 1,000 when ASU played UNT at the Cajundome the year before .

you have 7 schools with in a 6.5 hour drive of Biloxi and 4 of those under 4 hours..

getting 750- 1,000 rooms booked for 2 to 4 days means a whole lot more to this city than it does to New Orleans

I'm comfortable with Biloxi, Mobile (provided there is a spot that isn't USA home court) and Pensacola.

Tupelo I believe has hosted the SEC women before and is about at the epicenter of the league (though less to do presumably, I've only stopped once). Huntsville is also quite near the league center.

The unacceptable Gwinnet facility in Georgia has been able to handle multiple SEC women's tournaments.

There are places that will work if someone does the groundwork.

Biloxi was a great venue back in the early 90's for the SBC conference.

I wouldn't mind it moving back there!

With Biloxi you have plenty of casino's in the area that offer entertainment and pretty inexpensive rooms. If you want to get a little further away, there are plenty of chain hotels for less than $75 per night along I-10.

(03-17-2015 11:06 AM)Atlanta Trojan Wrote:  I think Atlanta would be a much better location.

If Ga State, Troy, GS or App are in it it will be highly attended.... Not to mention there's larger alumni bases in Atlanta than New Orleans and bigger city.

Or USA. Southern Alabamans, including Mobile and Baldwin Counties attend Atlanta sporting events (Falcons, Hawks, Braves, etc.) well. Also when Bama or Auburn play in the Atlanta area. Back when South was always a contender in SBC basketball (and it will happen again very soon) they played tournament game in the Omni and beat Alabama in an the opening round we had an impressive contingent on hand. It's only a 5-hour drive from Mobile to downtown Atlanta, interstate all of the way.

(03-18-2015 08:54 PM)07pantheralum Wrote:  So I hear the Greensboro Coliseum will now be open through 2019...

I approve of this. Full disclosure - I live 20 min from the Coliseum and as a taxpayer to the city I don't want it sitting empty.

ACC women have pretty much a permanent home there so it may not be open actually the weekend the SB would like to have it.

(03-19-2015 05:50 PM)McLeansvilleAppFan Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 08:54 PM)07pantheralum Wrote:  So I hear the Greensboro Coliseum will now be open through 2019...

I approve of this. Full disclosure - I live 20 min from the Coliseum and as a taxpayer to the city I don't want it sitting empty.

ACC women have pretty much a permanent home there so it may not be open actually the weekend the SB would like to have it.

I was just joking. The Blue Bloods (Dukies, Heels) wouldn't approve of us playing there even if it was totally open and we had the cash.

(03-17-2015 12:36 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  

(03-17-2015 11:38 AM)StanMolsonMan Wrote:  

(03-17-2015 11:30 AM)panama Wrote:  

(03-17-2015 11:27 AM)StanMolsonMan Wrote:  

(03-17-2015 11:18 AM)panama Wrote:  $$$

Ahhh. This is the King Creole Karl Benson you are talking about. It is all about Louisiana all the time.

I am sure UNO's arena cost less than an NBA arena. So if Atlanta were an option would it be in Phillips or Gwinnett?

Gwinnett is the wrong place. Yes. Philips would be more, but that is where you need to do it. If the Big East can figure out how to afford Madison Square Garden, the Sun Belt needs to figure out a lease with Philips Arena or Smoothie King Center. Or don't come to Atlanta via Gwinnett and don't play on UNOs court.

Why is the Gwinnett Civic Center not an option? Nice facility, good-sized, right off of the highway with plenty of hotels and restaurants nearby. I think folks coming from most Sun Belt towns would prefer it to being downtown. And it would certainly be cheaper than Philips.

I agree the Gwinnett Center would be a great venue for the SBC tourney, but I'm sure there are those who would oppose because it isn't to their liking. Is there a perfect place, probably not, but IMO, it's better than most suggested on this thread.

I second (or 55th?) Biloxi, MS. I cannot think of too many other places that could offer what the SBC needs for a conference tourney home.

(03-18-2015 08:54 PM)07pantheralum Wrote:  So I hear the Greensboro Coliseum will now be open through 2019...

There isn't a better set up in the country for holding a conference tournament, even a smaller one. The upper level can be concealed by a curtain for a 9,000 seat arena. The annex houses three exibition halls for fan activites and a 4,500-seat mini-arena. The exibition hall is connected to the arena via a concourse lined with 8 meeting rooms that can serve as hospitality suites. The 2,400-seat War Memorial Auditorium, 300-seat Odeon Theatre and the Pavilion located adjacent to the Special Events Center. Not to mention there are about 6,000 on site parking spaces. I attended alot of SoCon tournaments and the two held there were by far the best run and had the most big time feel to it. You can tell the staff has decades of experience in hosting big time tournaments.

(03-19-2015 08:07 PM)JoeJag Wrote:  

(03-17-2015 12:36 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  

(03-17-2015 11:38 AM)StanMolsonMan Wrote:  

(03-17-2015 11:30 AM)panama Wrote:  

(03-17-2015 11:27 AM)StanMolsonMan Wrote:  Ahhh. This is the King Creole Karl Benson you are talking about. It is all about Louisiana all the time.

I am sure UNO's arena cost less than an NBA arena. So if Atlanta were an option would it be in Phillips or Gwinnett?

Gwinnett is the wrong place. Yes. Philips would be more, but that is where you need to do it. If the Big East can figure out how to afford Madison Square Garden, the Sun Belt needs to figure out a lease with Philips Arena or Smoothie King Center. Or don't come to Atlanta via Gwinnett and don't play on UNOs court.

Why is the Gwinnett Civic Center not an option? Nice facility, good-sized, right off of the highway with plenty of hotels and restaurants nearby. I think folks coming from most Sun Belt towns would prefer it to being downtown. And it would certainly be cheaper than Philips.

I agree the Gwinnett Center would be a great venue for the SBC tourney, but I'm sure there are those who would oppose because it isn't to their liking. Is there a perfect place, probably not, but IMO, it's better than most suggested on this thread.

I went and looked it up, it's good enough for SEC women's hoops.

I was excited when I saw it had an attached convention center but the ceiling height could be an issue. It's 28 feet, the generally suggested minimum depending on who you ask is 40 to 50 feet for high school gyms though I've read that the NCAA only requires a minimum of 25 feet.

Google Maps shows three hotels within less than a half mile and 9 restaurants within less than a mile ranging from fast food to fast casual and casual based on description.

Don't see any significant concerns other than may have to stick with current format.

(03-19-2015 06:10 PM)07pantheralum Wrote:  

(03-19-2015 05:50 PM)McLeansvilleAppFan Wrote:  

(03-18-2015 08:54 PM)07pantheralum Wrote:  So I hear the Greensboro Coliseum will now be open through 2019...

I approve of this. Full disclosure - I live 20 min from the Coliseum and as a taxpayer to the city I don't want it sitting empty.

ACC women have pretty much a permanent home there so it may not be open actually the weekend the SB would like to have it.

I was just joking. The Blue Bloods (Dukies, Heels) wouldn't approve of us playing there even if it was totally open and we had the cash.

And I know it will never happen as the location is not good for enough people. Though Greensboro is big enough to offer some night-life and activities and the coliseum is more than big enough and we have an attached building that is set up to be a basketball court with signage and scoreboards. It is where most Guilford County public schools hold high school graduation. It alone seats a few thousand. Location sucks for the rest of the conference but it really could get the job done with both men's and women's playing concurrently.

The SoCon had their tourney there a few years (95-99) and the ACC men's was the next weekend. In 2000 the ACC women came to town and out went the SoCon. I think the SoCon had men's, women's and wrestling at the same time.

I think Greensboro will sell the first born of each family to get a permanent home for the ACC tourney but we don't have that and never will, and as such I don't think the ACC would block anything, but again the location is just too far away from the center of the conference geography,