Jeff Jacobs is reporting on Twitter the conference is close to returning it to Hartford despite being scheduled for Orlando.

Guess ticket sales are miserable for this year

The Hartford Courant is saying the NCAA Tournament games scheduled for Orlando on March 16 and 18 might be a factor in the potential shift of sites.

I'm sure ticket sales have something to do with this too. It will be very hard to garner high attendance without the home team making the finals.

@NoEscalators
If we are all in this shithole together can't we do the right thing and host the tournament in New Orleans. It's all Tulane's good for.

@shaydio 21m21 minutes ago
@NoEscalators It could be the permanent home for the tournament. Home court advantage would be negated by the fact that it's Tulane.

(02-18-2016 02:59 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  @NoEscalators
If we are all in this shithole together can't we do the right thing and host the tournament in New Orleans. It's all Tulane's good for.

@shaydio 21m21 minutes ago
@NoEscalators It could be the permanent home for the tournament. Home court advantage would be negated by the fact that it's Tulane.

I'd rather it rotate through the cities between east and west. Like it would have been cool to have it in Memphis this year. Especially if SMU hadn't cheated.

(02-18-2016 02:55 PM)DSquiz Wrote:  The Hartford Courant is saying the NCAA Tournament games scheduled for Orlando on March 16 and 18 might be a factor in the potential shift of sites.

I'm sure ticket sales have something to do with this too. It will be very hard to garner high attendance without the home team making the finals.

The highlighted part makes no sense, unless the AAC is planning its tournament during the NCAA tournament.

Someone in the ADs office said only UCONN bid on it

Yeah, I'm biased but the tournament should be somewhere where there is a chance at decent attendance. That probably makes Hartford, Philly, and Cincy the logical options for the time being.

Still think DC is perfect.

The only way this conference was going to get 3 bids was if someone other than UCONN or Cincy won the tournament. There went that idea....

I want to go but I have to either by the entire 4 day package at $350 (not bad) or with food and drink $650 (not bad either). I need to go with somebody who really likes basketball that's the problem.

(02-18-2016 02:59 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  @NoEscalators
If we are all in this shithole together can't we do the right thing and host the tournament in New Orleans. It's all Tulane's good for.

@shaydio 21m21 minutes ago
@NoEscalators It could be the permanent home for the tournament. Home court advantage would be negated by the fact that it's Tulane.

well played, gentlemen.

(02-18-2016 04:19 PM)firmbizzle Wrote:  I want to go but I have to either by the entire 4 day package at $350 (not bad) or with food and drink $650 (not bad either). I need to go with somebody who really likes basketball that's the problem.

Secondary market should be way cheaper

Greensboro has hosted both the men's and women's ACC tournament and NCAA first and second round games in the same year on many occasions. I don't buy for a minute that the move is because of 2017 NCAA tournament games being in Orlando.

I've been reading for several years now how the conference tournament is an idea that's come and gone, with attendance and interest dwindling for most, not just the AAC's.

(02-18-2016 03:31 PM)HartfordHusky Wrote:  Yeah, I'm biased but the tournament should be somewhere where there is a chance at decent attendance. That probably makes Hartford, Philly, and Cincy the logical options for the time being.

With Hartford now set for March 2017 AAC Tourn, I mentioned years ago when the new Big East/AAC was developed, the Palestra in Philly would be the perfect "right size" arena...plus a great reason for many AAC fans to make their first ever trip to that historic building. (Temple might be upset that they wouldn't be able to host with their 10,000 seat on-campus arena but the Palestra IS a historic arena, one most hoop fans still haven't been to, let alone ESPN would love the views/story of the arena if the tourn would go there)

Put the March 2018 AAC Tourn at the Palestra.



Cinci's new "right size" Fifth Third Arena (decreasing from 13,176 to around 11,000 or so after renovation) will be a great location once that arena is finally renovated. Also, since that arena is owned by AAC member UC, it would probably be the "cheapest/least expensive" to secure and one that would probably have the best "advanced" tix sales, as UC will see a large bump up in season tix sales when it opens.

Renovated UC Arena will open in Fall 2018..so it could host the AAC Tourn in 2019



Here's the timeline to the situation in Orlando:

City of Orlando/Amway Center bid/won the AAC Tourn for 2016 and 2017 in April 2014.

Orlando didn't know they won to host the NCAA 1st/2nd Round NCAA Tourn for 2017 till November 2014.

Orlando spent $$$ on AAC Bid, not knowing they would be able to host the NCAA Tourn just days after the scheduled 2017 AAC Tourn would end.

NCAA Tourn games in Orlando (at old Arena and even at Amway) have had a hard time selling out...but that event would still bring in more $$$ (cost most to bid/host), than obviously the AAC Tourn.

AAC knew the tourn wouldn't draw many fans for the games in Orlando, but the City gave them a very attractive deal...but its still a gamble for any city to host (i.e. #21 SMU isn't even eligible for this year's tourn, local teams not doing well, etc...).

For those that don't remember, last year's AAC Tourn was held at the XL Center in Hartford. The tourn "lucked" out with the local team playing on Day 1 (helped that days attendance as a #6 seed as Top 5 received byes) and then made it all the way to the Championship Game).

Here's the daily announced attendance figures for last year's tourn:

Day 1: 5,431 announced attendance (3 games: #9 UCF vs #8ECU, #10 Houston vs #7 Tulane and #11 USF vs #6 UCONN)

Day 2:
Session 1: 7,056 (2 games: #8 ECU vs #1 SMU and #5 Memphis vs #4 Temple)
Session 2: 9,514 (2 games: #10 Houston vs #2 Tulsa and #6 UCONN vs #3 Cinci)

Day 3: 10,114 (2 games: #1 SMU vs #4 Temple and #6 UCONN vs #2 Tulsa)

Day 4: 13,365 #1 SMU 62, #6 UCONN 54

(02-19-2016 08:46 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(02-18-2016 03:31 PM)HartfordHusky Wrote:  Yeah, I'm biased but the tournament should be somewhere where there is a chance at decent attendance. That probably makes Hartford, Philly, and Cincy the logical options for the time being.

With Hartford now set for March 2017 AAC Tourn, I mentioned years ago when the new Big East/AAC was developed, the Palestra in Philly would be the perfect "right size" arena...plus a great reason for many AAC fans to make their first ever trip to that historic building. (Temple might be upset that they wouldn't be able to host with their 10,000 seat on-campus arena but the Palestra IS a historic arena, one most hoop fans still haven't been to, let alone ESPN would love the views/story of the arena if the tourn would go there)

Put the March 2018 AAC Tourn at the Palestra.



Cinci's new "right size" Fifth Third Arena (decreasing from 13,176 to around 11,000 or so after renovation) will be a great location once that arena is finally renovated. Also, since that arena is owned by AAC member UC, it would probably be the "cheapest/least expensive" to secure and one that would probably have the best "advanced" tix sales, as UC will see a large bump up in season tix sales when it opens.

Renovated UC Arena will open in Fall 2018..so it could host the AAC Tourn in 2019



Here's the timeline to the situation in Orlando:

City of Orlando/Amway Center bid/won the AAC Tourn for 2016 and 2017 in April 2014.

Orlando didn't know they won to host the NCAA 1st/2nd Round NCAA Tourn for 2017 till November 2014.

Orlando spent $$$ on AAC Bid, not knowing they would be able to host the NCAA Tourn just days after the scheduled 2017 AAC Tourn would end.

NCAA Tourn games in Orlando (at old Arena and even at Amway) have had a hard time selling out...but that event would still bring in more $$$ (cost most to bid/host), than obviously the AAC Tourn.

AAC knew the tourn wouldn't draw many fans for the games in Orlando, but the City gave them a very attractive deal...but its still a gamble for any city to host (i.e. #21 SMU isn't even eligible for this year's tourn, local teams not doing well, etc...).

It's funny because i was going to suggest the Palestra yesterday when this thread started. Personally i would like to see it become the tournaments permanent home, start some tradition like the Big East did with the garden.

The positives, at 8500 seats it wont look or sound bad in the early round games. Philly is an easy airport to get and and out of and as a US Air hub it has some pretty cheap flights. ESPN loves the history of the Palestra and can play up the whole birth place of America angle. Philly is not a bad city to spend a weekend in, there is plenty to do besides basketball.

The negatives, the weather may not be great, and to say the Palestra is antiquated from a creature comforts standpoint is a huge understatement. Not the most comfortable place to watch a game.

(02-19-2016 06:25 AM)PirateJP Wrote:  Greensboro has hosted both the men's and women's ACC tournament and NCAA first and second round games in the same year on many occasions. I don't buy for a minute that the move is because of 2017 NCAA tournament games being in Orlando.

The Big East before the split had some pizzazz but I think you're mostly right. Even the A-10 could capture some magic by keeping it in the Atlantic City/Philly/DC/Newark corridor but that's about it.

2017: UCONN
2018: Dallas or Houston
2019: New Orleans
2020: Philly
2021: Memphis
2022: Orlando
2023: Cincy
2024: Oklahoma (Tulsa or Wichita State if they join)
2025: Miami or Atlanta

The continue rotating between the north/northwest, more western, and southern locations. For better or worst we have some of the best large markets. Just choosing one to visit annually isn't really using that advantage.


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