Do you like it on campus sites or should the ASUN host their basketball tournaments at a neutral site?
If it ever changed, I think I've found the perfect central location and arena. It seems the ATL area (home of ASUN headquarters) would be a pretty central area to host it.
Look at the map and imagine JSU, KSU, and Liberty gone from it. There's a big gap in the center and no one would have a "home game" per se in ATL.
There is an arena near the ATL airport in College Park, GA that's 30 mins from ASUN headquarters. The Gateway Center Arena hosts teams from the NBA G League and the WNBA. It seats 3.5K for basketball and opened in 2019.
(04-13-2023 09:41 PM)unalions Wrote: [ -> ]Do you like it on campus sites or should the ASUN host their basketball tournaments at a neutral site?
If it ever changed, I think I've found the perfect central location and arena. It seems the ATL area (home of ASUN headquarters) would be a pretty central area to host it.
Look at the map and imagine JSU, KSU, and Liberty gone from it. There's a big gap in the center and no one would have a "home game" per se in ATL.
There is an arena near the ATL airport in College Park, GA that's 30 mins from ASUN headquarters. The Gateway Center Arena hosts teams from the NBA G League and the WNBA. It seats 3.5K for basketball and opened in 2019.
In general, I like the *idea* of a central location. Also, having a central location where you don't have to allot time for travel allows ESPN to come in for a few days, set up shop, and televise more than one round. It's more of an "event" that they can plan for and rally around. One thing that I do miss about the OVC is that the semi-finals were on actual television as opposed to streaming.
With that having been said, having the tournament on campus sites is actually a pretty fan-friendly thing to do. Games are crowded. They have great atmospheres. More total fans get to attend the tournament in person. I mean, that arena in college park only holds 3,500. That's barely more than our average crowd for a ho-hum regular season home game.
You don't have to work any of that camera magic like the OVC where they put almost all of the fans on one side of the court to make a 10,000 seat arena look crowded when it's actually less than half-full. You also don't have the expense of renting a facility, and it's a nice reward for the teams that host that makes the regular season seem at least a little more meaningful. Conference tournaments are fun, dramatic, and good for TV exposure, but in terms of determining the most deserving team to get your conference's bid...they leave a lot to be desired. Campus sites at least partially mitigate that.
I guess overall I'd still lean toward a neutral site, but my feelings on that aren't as strong as they were when we first joined the conference for all of the reasons I listed in the previous two paragraphs.
I think 3,500 is the perfect size to create a great atmosphere for traveling fans. As you mentioned, big arenas that are mainly empty look terrible on TV. The Sun Belt has that problem here in Pensacola.
The Gateway Center is basically brand new, too. I just think it could make for a special experience for all players, not just the home teams.
Also, a central location by an airport is nice. Every school can drive there in 8 hours on less all via major interstates while the closest schools are about 4 hours away.
Quote:The Gateway Center is basically brand new, too. I just think it could make for a special experience for all players, not just the home teams.
I don't disagree, but just to play the devil's advocate, it does cut down on the number of fans who will get the chance to experience the tournament in person. Our quarterfinal game against UNA drew 4,574, and I'm sure that number only goes up if we host games in latter rounds.
But I do still overall lean toward the neutral site. It's good optics for the conference. You can put a big ASUN logo in the middle of the court for all of the games.
Quote:The Gateway Center is basically brand new, too. I just think it could make for a special experience for all players, not just the home teams.
I don't disagree, but just to play the devil's advocate, it does cut down on the number of fans who will get the chance to experience the tournament in person. Our quarterfinal game against UNA drew 4,574, and I'm sure that number only goes up if we host games in latter rounds.
But I do still overall lean toward the neutral site. It's good optics for the conference. You can put a big ASUN logo in the middle of the court for all of the games.
Yeah, the quarterfinal at EKU was awesome for EKU players. Not so much for UNA players. They’d just won an OT game there the week or so prior and then had to go right back up there. Just not very D1 to me. Even the GSC in D2 had a neutral site tournament.
I’d prefer 3,500 fans split between the two schools with cheer, pep bands, etc for both schools.
Quote:Yeah, the quarterfinal at EKU was awesome for EKU players. Not so much for UNA players. They’d just won an OT game there the week or so prior and then had to go right back up there. Just not very D1 to me. Even the GSC in D2 had a neutral site tournament.
I’d prefer 3,500 fans split between the two schools with cheer, pep bands, etc for both schools.
Oh, I totally get that. But competitively, you could say that it was awesome for the EKU players because they earned the awesome over the course of an 18-game conference slate. In the next round we had to go to Liberty because they had outperformed us over that same 18-game slate.
There's no right or wrong answer in general. The question you have to ask is what matters more. Is what's fun and most exciting more important, or is having it make competitive sense more important. I'm honestly not sure. Both have their merits.
I enjoyed going to the ASUN Tournament back in the day when it was a 3 day event at a central location. I attended one in Nashville and two in Macon. The only problem is when you have a final that lacks a local team and the crowd is sparse. I usually came in for the semi's and stayed for the final even if JU didn't make it.
An option might be to have the 1st round on campus with the semi's/final being at a central location. This venue in Atlanta looks perfect.
(04-14-2023 04:41 PM)Courtside Wrote: [ -> ]I enjoyed going to the ASUN Tournament back in the day when it was a 3 day event at a central location. I attended one in Nashville and two in Macon. The only problem is when you have a final that lacks a local team and the crowd is sparse. I usually came in for the semi's and stayed for the final even if JU didn't make it.
An option might be to have the 1st round on campus with the semi's/final being at a central location. This venue in Atlanta looks perfect.
How long ago was that? I wasn’t sure how long the ASUN had been using campus sites.
(04-14-2023 04:41 PM)Courtside Wrote: [ -> ]I enjoyed going to the ASUN Tournament back in the day when it was a 3 day event at a central location. I attended one in Nashville and two in Macon. The only problem is when you have a final that lacks a local team and the crowd is sparse. I usually came in for the semi's and stayed for the final even if JU didn't make it.
An option might be to have the 1st round on campus with the semi's/final being at a central location. This venue in Atlanta looks perfect.
How long ago was that? I wasn’t sure how long the ASUN had been using campus sites.
Nashville was 2009, Macon started in 2010 and ran thru 2013 I believe. So campus sites started about 2014 or so.
I like campus sites. Attendance is much better. It also gives a significant reward for the regular season games. I think we had around 6,000 for the final two years ago in Freedom Hall.
ASUN Announces Exploration of Future Basketball Championship Sites
ASUN Conference Commissioner Jeff Bacon announced Tuesday that the league will launch an exploration of neutral-site options for future Men's and Women's Basketball Championships.
![[Image: 2022-Atlantic-Sun-Map.jpg?ssl=1]](https://i0.wp.com/sportleaguemaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022-Atlantic-Sun-Map.jpg?ssl=1)