The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Lets not forget that there needs to be 2 arenas in proximity to one another - one for the men and one for the women. So, there are very few options currently. Birmingham and El Paso may be the only "home" teams that meet this requirement currently. The ODU area is going to build a new arena so maybe(they actually could host, I think, except for the MEAC tournament that uases one of them)...

I got to say my peace to Judy about basketball ;-)

(03-12-2017 07:22 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  I got to say my peace to Judy about basketball ;-)

what was her response???

(03-11-2017 11:51 PM)CourtsideBlazer Wrote:  Arguments about when the tournament should take place are moot. The league is going to schedule whenever tv tells them to play.

Arguments about New Orleans or Nashville are also moot. the league has looked into NOLA and the Smoothie King Arena (where the Pelicans play) is not available for the money the league is willing to pay and has a pretty full event schedule. The only other major facility is the Lakefront Center ar UNO and the Sun Belt tournament is already locked in there. The SBC league office is in NOLA. Same basic scenario with Nashville as far as the Bridgestone Center (or whatever its called this week).

Shreveport might be a possibility. I would like the league to give it a swing if they so desire and see how it would work. I doubt they will be nearly as happy as they are here.

The rest of the league might not like to hear it, but Birmingham has an excellent infrastructure for hosting these events and does a damn good job of it. I expect to see it here on a regular basis.

Although I dont think S'-port is a good town for tourists, it is a pretty easy drive for several of the conference teams ( S Miss, La Tech, Rice, N Tx, UTSA, even UAB ), but it would be a stretch for the rest of em.

(03-13-2017 08:30 PM)CourtsideBlazer Wrote:  

(03-12-2017 07:22 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  I got to say my peace to Judy about basketball ;-)

what was her response???

A shocked look like why would someone even ask me that. She then smiled and said nothing. There were witnesses. :-)

It will never work, but how about the winner of the Conference host the tournament. Would like to see the tournament in another city, since nobody supports the conference tournament, in B-ham. That was a dismal participitation from the city of the Birmingham. Just Gross. The AAC was about as poorly supported. Move it to Charlotte see what they can do with it.

I saw a bunch of empty arenas when the home school was not playing. That said Birmingham and uab fans did not step up and show up. Only a small sampling of Blazers and most post here.

Conference games in the early rounds are most times poorly-attended unless the home team (or one in proximity) is playing. The hope is that the tournament is in a location that would allow a good championship game attendance(weekend). This is typically done by having the championship game in a central, easy-to-get-to location, or in a popular destination. This is also a large consideration in assigning the tournament(along with having two arenas, also in proximity to one another). With that in mind Birmingham is still probably the best location for the C-USA tournament. More teams can attend their team's championship game than any other place in the conference. I can see some type of rotation, such as, eastern location, B'ham, western location, B'ham, eastern, B'ham, western,...

(03-15-2017 06:30 PM)BirminghamJoseph2770 Wrote:  It will never work, but how about the winner of the Conference host the tournament. Would like to see the tournament in another city, since nobody supports the conference tournament, in B-ham. That was a dismal participitation from the city of the Birmingham. Just Gross. The AAC was about as poorly supported. Move it to Charlotte see what they can do with it.

It'll never work because of the logistics of the thing. Hosting a tournament is a lot more than just having the courts on which to play. Its having the hotel rooms blocked out, transportation made available, volunteers to work with 28 teams (!) and a myriad of other details that cannot be put together in 1 weekend. Birmingham is such a good host because we have done it so many times over the years that much of this infrastructure is already in place.

We have hosted more conference & NCAA tournament games than any other city in the conference...except maybe Charlotte and their building isn't available.