(03-12-2017 05:34 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(03-12-2017 01:46 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  

(03-12-2017 12:41 PM)CoastalAlum2011 Wrote:  

(03-12-2017 12:39 PM)GaSoEagle Wrote:  Just curious if everyone supports all 12 teams in the tourney and keeping it in NO

Having it at a neutral site is a....what's the word...DISASTER.

The higher seed should host each round.

You wouldn't be able to complete the conference tournament in time.

Every conference in every sport with a conference tournament uses a neutral site.

Go back to the old tournament format, and go back to Thursday and Saturday double-headers, please.

Not at all. Most Mid Major Leagues use a host school for their conference tournament. Multiple Leagues actually use higher seed hosting each round. (Patriot, Northeast, American East, Atlantic Sun)

Going through the other leagues this year:

Southland: At Sam Houston State
CUSA: At UAB
Summit: At South Dakota
AAC: At UCONN
Big South: At Winthrop


In fact, if you go through the mid major leagues, most are moving to a higher seed hosts format. Used to no one ever hosted all campus sites, now 4 different conferences use that approach, while many others use a host school.

The leagues that didn't were leagues like the WCC, MVC, and MAC, who have traditionally held their tournaments at the same site every year, and draw really well. We don't have that.

I thought Southland was in Katy. It's been there for a decade and I saw billboards in Houston for it.

(03-12-2017 08:29 PM)MOTIAW Wrote:  A change needs made, but more than for any other reason, to protect the top seed. My opinion, as far as attendence/atmosphere goes, is that neutral sites suck. But the main concern is trying to get a top seed (or #2) through.

Basing semis/finals at highest seeds would help. Also, returning to a double bye like last year would help. Whether or not every team gets a shot is less important to the conference growth/perception than winning games in the Big Dance.

I take nothing away from Troy, I hope both their teams have great experiences. But the goal at this level is win NCAA games. That's a greater possibility with your top dog representing us, rather than Cindarella. If we want a Cindarella, our top dog at a likely 12/13 seed can play that role once there too.

I get that the conference can achieve some measure of growth during the regular season, via winning strong OOC games. But if you don't like the idea of everyone not getting into the Sun Belt tourney, or having to overcome things like home court advantage or double byes, then use that same regular season to do something about it and win.

I still don't understand why everyone is against Higher Seed hosting all the way through. It's extremely doable without missing any more class time than teams miss now tourney week. The biggest obstacle is Arena availability, which is actually only an issue for schools that schedule concerts etc in their arena.

Here's a sample: End Regular Season last Saturday in February, when many other leagues stop.

1st Round: (Played Wednesday/Thursday after regular season, choice of Host Schools)

USA at CCU
ULM at AState
UALR at ULL
App at Troy

2nd Round: (Played Saturday/Sunday after Regular Season, choice of Host School)

USA/CCU at UTA
ULM/AState at TXST
UALR/ULL at GSU
App/Troy at GS

Semifinals are played the following Wednesday at Highest Seed

Finals are then Saturday/Sunday (Whenever ESPN wants) at Highest remaining seed


There's some travel issues. Coastal might have 72 hours to get to UTA in this format, but that's not extremely unusual in College Basketball, and if they don't like it, win more games.

This at least puts pressure on schools to perform better in regular season, but gives them the opportunity to win 3-4 road games and earn the title the hard way, rather than simply getting hot over 4 days in March in an empty arena.

(03-12-2017 08:45 PM)slycat Wrote:  I thought Southland was in Katy. It's been there for a decade and I saw billboards in Houston for it.

It was

I guess the reasons the tourney is in NOLA has to do with the SBC office is headquartered there and it's sort of geographically central. Six schools are located west of New Orleans another six are east. The change the conference should consider is limiting participation to the top 8 seeds-men's and women's, condense the tournament.

I like the fact every school gets in the tourney. Yeah the 6th seed won this year but if the top 8 made then Troy would have still made it in. I do not like the New Orleans location either but unless Smoothie King center is available there really is no other option. I do not know what facilities we could use but Jackson, MS...Bham..or Chattanooga TN would not be bad places. I know Jackson is not that desirable but if we want to keep this as neutral as possible it is a place. UAB holds the C-USA tourney in the Legacy Arena. So it is not a "home court" advantage. There really is no good solution. The SEC moved theirs to Nashville so it could get as many Kentucky fans as possible since they always bring the most.

I think the typical expectations for tournament attendance may be too lofty. Basketball doesn't draw as high as in the past in the south on a regular basis, even major conferences. The average HOME attendance for the league this year was 2140, with Louisiana's high of 3655 to Troy's low of 1285. I don't think a fan base will sit through a whole day of tournament games at their home gym much less a neutral site. Your biggest attendance day would probably have been the first day when eight teams were playing, and if you used the highest home attendance numbers with 100% of your home average you would have had 6593 for the Louisiana vs Little Rock game. I've listed the average home attendance numbers in case some of you may not be aware.

ApST 1347
ARST 3384
LR 2938
GS 1927
GST 1588
LA 3655
ULM 1516
SA 2043
UTA 2327
TXST 2003
Troy 1285
CC 1676

I went to the finals game yesterday so I got my first taste of a tournament game in Lakefront.

The venue is fine. As far as neutral sites go, New Orleans is probably as good as any other city.

Attendance is pretty pathetic though. I like the idea of neutral site if you can draw fans, if not something else probably needs to be done. Before and during the game the concourse was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Also if you walked into the concourse it was possible to walk 100 feet before seeing another person. Maybe 1,500 people at the game. Probably closer to 1,000.

Everything seemed well produced by the Sun Belt, it's just nobody is there. Something has to be done. Better play from our teams would sure help also. Hopefully we continue to get collectively better in the coming years.

(03-12-2017 08:14 PM)trapdrawApp Wrote:  

(03-12-2017 06:17 PM)Tealblood Wrote:  Don't be surprised to see the Myrtle Beach area make a run at hosting especially if it keeps the ACC women's the weekend before back to back conference tourneys would be cool

What's the capacity of the convention center?

Don't think convention center is available

CCU would host

Nothing says low-major like the conference tournament on campus sites. Only six conferences do it, so this would be your peer group:

America East, Atlantic Sun, Big South, Northeast, Patriot and SWAC.

A campus site might help attendance if the host is good, but how do you award it? Pre-determined? And is that fair to the other league teams? Regular Season Champ's place? Higher seed? None are going to get good attendance on short notice.


The Southland did a double bye - the #1 and #2 seeds are placed in the Semi's. The other teams fight for the remaining two spots.

The reason I say don't be surprised to see this here in a few years is because of the MB chamber

This year the MB chamber was a sponsor of the sun belt tourney- the ACC tourney- and was the title sponsor of the MAC tourney

They would love to move into a roll of title sponsor of the Sun Belt tourney and host it at CCU

Having been to few games a week ago of the ACC women's tourney you wouldn't even know it was at CCU almost all logos were covered and the floor they brought in was theirs

Just like if CCU hosted I'm sure Sun Belt would bring the court with them

I'm surprised MB hasn't built their own arena by now. The number of events they could host would be unending. The land where the old amusement park sat off of 501 would be a good site.

If it's campus sites and it goes to bid, I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two teams hosting it every year.

I know a lot has changed since the conference was formed, the biggest being the competition we see from technology, but here are some numbers to show what we have seen in different locations. Obviously some fanbases are no longer part of our conference anymore, but I included them for perspective.

Tournament per game attendance:
8,320 - UAB (BJCC) -- hosted 5 times
7,724 - Hampton, VA (about an hour from Richmond) -- hosted 1 time
7,709 - Richmond (Richmond Coliseum) -- hosted 1 time
6,356 - Charlotte (Charlotte Coliseum) -- hosted 5 times
5,958 - South Alabama (Mobile Civic Center/Mitchell Center) -- hosted 3 times
5,815 - WKU (EA Diddle Arena) -- hosted 4 times
5,088 - Jacksonville (Jacksonville Coliseum) -- hosted 1 time
4,105 - Summit Arena Hot Springs -- hosted 5 times
4,060 - Little Rock (Alltel Arena, Barton Coliseum) -- hosted 4 times
3,914 - Louisiana (Cajundome) -- hosted 3 times
3,898 - MS Gulf Coast Community Center, Biloxi, MS -- hosted 2 times
2,576 - MTSU (Murphy Center) -- hosted 1 time
2,226 - UNT (Super Pit) -- hosted 1 time
1,497 - Lakefront, New Orleans -- hosted 3 times*

* this year not reflected yet.

I did not include the year Lakefront hosted when UNO was a member
4,033 - Lakefront with UNO in conference

(03-13-2017 01:22 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  I know a lot has changed since the conference was formed, the biggest being the competition we see from technology, but here are some numbers to show what we have seen in different locations. Obviously some fanbases are no longer part of our conference anymore, but I included them for perspective.

Tournament per game attendance:
8,320 - UAB (BJCC) -- hosted 5 times
7,724 - Hampton, VA (about an hour from Richmond) -- hosted 1 time
7,709 - Richmond (Richmond Coliseum) -- hosted 1 time
6,356 - Charlotte (Charlotte Coliseum) -- hosted 5 times
5,958 - South Alabama (Mobile Civic Center/Mitchell Center) -- hosted 3 times
5,815 - WKU (EA Diddle Arena) -- hosted 4 times
5,088 - Jacksonville (Jacksonville Coliseum) -- hosted 1 time
4,105 - Summit Arena Hot Springs -- hosted 5 times
4,060 - Little Rock (Alltel Arena, Barton Coliseum) -- hosted 4 times
3,914 - Louisiana (Cajundome) -- hosted 3 times
3,898 - MS Gulf Coast Community Center, Biloxi, MS -- hosted 2 times
2,576 - MTSU (Murphy Center) -- hosted 1 time
2,226 - UNT (Super Pit) -- hosted 1 time
1,497 - Lakefront, New Orleans -- hosted 3 times*

* this year not reflected yet.

I did not include the year Lakefront hosted when UNO was a member
4,033 - Lakefront with UNO in conference

I'd be curious about the years for those hostings.

(03-13-2017 12:19 PM)JTApps1 Wrote:  I'm surprised MB hasn't built their own arena by now. The number of events they could host would be unending. The land where the old amusement park sat off of 501 would be a good site.

I haven't heard much chatter on this - not sure if the City of MB / Horry County, or the Chamber want to take this on. I do agree though, there are multiple sites that would be perfect for a larger arena and I think the area really could use it. With the MB Mayor running the Beach Ball Classic you would think he would be in favor of it.

There were plans a while back for a local minor league hockey team to partner with Coastal and they would build an arena to seat around 6,000. That deal fell through when the economy tanked in 2008.

You see hightlights from the WCC (St Marys, Pepperdine, Gonzaga) and they are all playing in tiny gyms (like 5000 capacity). It looks full on TV but also feels smalltime. A place like Northwest Florida State College (outside of Destin, FL) has a 2,200 person gym and hosts the Emerald Coast preseason tournament. 1500 could look nice in a 2,200 or 3,000 person gym


QUESTION FOR THE USER BASE
From a national TV and branding perspective, does it look for worse for the league to play in a mostly empty Lake Front Arena (capacity 10,000) or fill up a smaller (sub 3500 capacity) college gym?

(03-13-2017 03:39 PM)chrisattsu Wrote:  You see hightlights from the WCC (St Marys, Pepperdine, Gonzaga) and they are all playing in tiny gyms (like 5000 capacity). It looks full on TV but also feels smalltime. A place like Northwest Florida State College (outside of Destin, FL) has a 2,200 person gym and hosts the Emerald Coast preseason tournament. 1500 could look nice in a 2,200 or 3,000 person gym


QUESTION FOR THE USER BASE
From a national TV and branding perspective, does it look for worse for the league to play in a mostly empty Lake Front Arena (capacity 10,000) or fill up a smaller (sub 3500 capacity) college gym?

It looks better playing in a filled arena with a smaller capacity than an empty looking one.

(03-12-2017 05:34 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  Not at all. Most Mid Major Leagues use a host school for their conference tournament. Multiple Leagues actually use higher seed hosting each round. (Patriot, Northeast, American East, Atlantic Sun)

Going through the other leagues this year:

Southland: At Sam Houston State
CUSA: At UAB
Summit: At South Dakota
AAC: At UCONN
Big South: At Winthrop

Sam Houston State is in Huntsville, Texas... not Katy, Texas.

The Southland tournament has been in Katy, Texas for 10 years and it's a nice little venue. The tournament does well when SHSU, SFA are in the finals which for the better part of the last 10 years - that's been pretty regular occurrence. Before that it was in Houston's Aldine area.

(03-13-2017 12:02 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  Nothing says low-major like the conference tournament on campus sites. Only six conferences do it, so this would be your peer group:

America East, Atlantic Sun, Big South, Northeast, Patriot and SWAC.

A campus site might help attendance if the host is good, but how do you award it? Pre-determined? And is that fair to the other league teams? Regular Season Champ's place? Higher seed? None are going to get good attendance on short notice.


The Southland did a double bye - the #1 and #2 seeds are placed in the Semi's. The other teams fight for the remaining two spots.

The SWAC played first round games on site and then moved everyone to the Toyota Center, which is the home arena of the NBA's Houston Rockets and not the SWAC's Texas Southern.

The SWAC made this change since it costs them $100k a day for Toyota Center per SWAC Commish interview. Said it was $60k a day without even bringing in the staff, etc. Not sure if they'll look elsewhere, but they did save a day or two's worth of pay by playing on campus sites in opening round.

Someone brought up Columbus Ga with a 10,000 seat arena...That would be a good location. Close to several SBC schools and Columbus has a airport which everyone can fly delta into.

Columbus would take that game and make it a big event.

Driving distance for. Troy, USA, GA State, GA southern, Coastal, App st