Since we're a bunch of newbies to the conference, maybe some vets can fill us in on your conference tournament and what to expect. The Shockers travel strong and we've been playing in the hell hole town of St. Louis forever. The town is ok, but we're getting sick of it. Speaking for myself, and probably a lot of others, we're looking forward to a change of scenery. Are the tournament games heavily attended? What schools bring the most fans? In Orlando, do most of the fans stay near the arena or are the team hotels in another part of town?

I was wondering about Storrs as well, do most people stay in Hartford and drive in for the games or can Storrs accommodate with their hotels?

(04-03-2017 09:07 PM)Shockem Wrote:  Since we're a bunch of newbies to the conference, maybe some vets can fill us in on your conference tournament and what to expect. The Shockers travel strong and we've been playing in the hell hole town of St. Louis forever. The town is ok, but we're getting sick of it. Speaking for myself, and probably a lot of others, we're looking forward to a change of scenery. Are the tournament games heavily attended? What schools bring the most fans? In Orlando, do most of the fans stay near the arena or are the team hotels in another part of town?

I was wondering about Storrs as well, do most people stay in Hartford and drive in for the games or can Storrs accommodate with their hotels?

No our tournament sucks...

He asked for basketball fan advice - you don't count

tournament are decently attended, our 2 biggest fan-bases are down right now, with bad future prospects (uconn and memphis), so less than average right now

but a good uconn and memphis and it could be sold out...

uconn and memphis bring the most, cincy not to far behind..
80% of the AAC locations are directly in destination cities (dallas, cincinatti, houston nola, memphis, tampa, orlando etc..)so i dont think hotel should be that big of a deal and depends on what you want to do

Storrs is the exemption and i think most just stay around the arena

They are currently rethinking the conf tourney and whether to pick a couple of cities to rotate it to. What they are concerned with is geography. If its too far from the midpoint of the conference, it lessens attendance. Several solutions have been suggested including Tulsa and the BOK which just hosted the NCAA 1st/2nd Rounds.

But the good part is that most of the schools are located in larger cities with large city owned-operated venues. Now, that will hopefully include Wichita (Intrust Bank Arena). Also, I think one of the problems might be that some of our cities with pro teams have the venue, but also have a pro team that can create a scheduling conflict. Neither Tulsa nor Wichita have a pro team and thus would have no conflict.

I'm curious about the report that Tulsa may be in play now.

I definitely think Tulsa would be heavily attended.

I also like Attacks suggestion of New Orleans.

It will be interesting to see how they book future tournaments with the West becoming more stout

Just have it here in Louisville so I don't have to travel...plus, It's kind of in the middle of everyone!!
I kid, I kid...would be nice though!!

Yeah, if they really wanted to do a midpoint, you would think Memphis or Cincy would be the best locations. As it is they picked the furthest Northeast and almost furthest southeast locales. Storrs makes no sense whatsoever unless they're just trying to appease UConn.

(04-03-2017 10:22 PM)Shockem Wrote:  Yeah, if they really wanted to do a midpoint, you would think Memphis or Cincy would be the best locations. As it is they picked the furthest Northeast and almost furthest southeast locales. Storrs makes no sense whatsoever unless they're just trying to appease UConn.

The YUM! Center here in Louisville would work out nice...no pro team, and UL would be playing in the ACC tourney in Brooklyn. It will never happen, but would be a nice place to have it....

(04-03-2017 10:34 PM)Wushock37 Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 10:22 PM)Shockem Wrote:  Yeah, if they really wanted to do a midpoint, you would think Memphis or Cincy would be the best locations. As it is they picked the furthest Northeast and almost furthest southeast locales. Storrs makes no sense whatsoever unless they're just trying to appease UConn.

The YUM! Center here in Louisville would work out nice...no pro team, and UL would be playing in the ACC tourney in Brooklyn. It will never happen, but would be a nice place to have it....

SMU fans do not have a good memory of the Bucket of Chicken Center

My vote would be for Memphis.

(04-03-2017 11:05 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  My vote would be for Memphis.

I was at the first conference tourney in Memphis in 2014. Aside from the round where Memphis played and was bounced by UConn, and the championship game between Louisville and UConn which looked about like 10,000, the other games didn't draw at all. It would be interesting to know the attendance totals for each of the four tourneys.

Although low, I would expect that the Memphis tourney drew as well as the others. I'm surprised that the city wasn't included in the recent reports of possible future sites. It's mostly driveable from Wichita, Tulsa, New Orleans, Dallas, and Cincy.

There's never been any conflict with the Grizzlies schedule. They accommodated the Cusa tournament for years.

(04-03-2017 09:07 PM)Shockem Wrote:  Since we're a bunch of newbies to the conference, maybe some vets can fill us in on your conference tournament and what to expect. The Shockers travel strong and we've been playing in the hell hole town of St. Louis forever. The town is ok, but we're getting sick of it. Speaking for myself, and probably a lot of others, we're looking forward to a change of scenery. Are the tournament games heavily attended? What schools bring the most fans? In Orlando, do most of the fans stay near the arena or are the team hotels in another part of town?

I was wondering about Storrs as well, do most people stay in Hartford and drive in for the games or can Storrs accommodate with their hotels?

Ahhh, basketball games in St Louis........

Old fans of WSU, Tulsa, Cincy, along with the Tigers can remember a couple of arenas that hosted games there other than St Louis U's arena, which I suppose must be pretty new.

Kiel, The Arena, St Louis Arena, Checkerdome and on and on. Perhaps 2 arenas with multiple names.

I think Kiel was known as a big draw for wrestling along with taping some Roller Derby matches with Joni Weston, Charlie O'Connell and Ronnie Robinson, the fastest man on skates.

I think that there were only 2 until the university built a real on-campus arena; but new names and new facades to old arenas kept popping up. :)

Following basketball being played in St Louis has some interesting memories for old MVC/metro fans.

(04-04-2017 06:05 PM)oldtiger Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 09:07 PM)Shockem Wrote:  Since we're a bunch of newbies to the conference, maybe some vets can fill us in on your conference tournament and what to expect. The Shockers travel strong and we've been playing in the hell hole town of St. Louis forever. The town is ok, but we're getting sick of it. Speaking for myself, and probably a lot of others, we're looking forward to a change of scenery. Are the tournament games heavily attended? What schools bring the most fans? In Orlando, do most of the fans stay near the arena or are the team hotels in another part of town?

I was wondering about Storrs as well, do most people stay in Hartford and drive in for the games or can Storrs accommodate with their hotels?

Ahhh, basketball games in St Louis........

Old fans of WSU, Tulsa, Cincy, along with the Tigers can remember a couple of arenas that hosted games there other than St Louis U's arena, which I suppose must be pretty new.

Kiel, The Arena, St Louis Arena, Checkerdome and on and on. Perhaps 2 arenas with multiple names.

I think Kiel was known as a big draw for wrestling along with taping some Roller Derby matches with Joni Weston, Charlie O'Connell and Ronnie Robinson, the fastest man on skates.

I think that there were only 2 until the university built a real on-campus arena; but new names and new facades to old arenas kept popping up. :)

Following basketball being played in St Louis has some interesting memories for old MVC/metro fans.

And of course the men's NCAA basketball championship game at St. Louis Arena in 1973 between Memphis and UCLA.

I'll be perfectly happy to never have to go to STL ever again.

I have fond memorirs of the St Louis Arena/Checkerdome.

I would be in favor of rotating the tournament annually between New Orleans and Memphis. This would give Western and Eastern teams a chance to have the tournament reasonably nearby 1 in every 2 years. At a minimum UConn should never be allowed to host.

I'd be for New Orleans. Considering Tulane would be knocked out int he first round, it's really a neutral site for everyone.

(04-05-2017 06:24 AM)WhoseHouse? Wrote:  I would be in favor of rotating the tournament annually between New Orleans and Memphis. This would give Western and Eastern teams a chance to have the reasonably nearby 1 in every 2 years. At a minimum UConn should never be allowed to host.

lol so true. It should be in Memphis.

I would like a 4 year rotation of NOLA, Orlando, Memphis, Cincinnati. large markets, NBA quality arenas (and I'm giving the renovated Shoemaker credit) and geography are in our favor here. we should take advantage.