Any thoughts on where the women's basketball tournament would be held? It made sense in CT because of the fan support but without UConn does it move to MSG and schedule around the men's?

could see it actually in DC perhaps. Maybe Philly or Chicago even.

(03-18-2013 03:32 AM)trephin Wrote:  Any thoughts on where the women's basketball tournament would be held? It made sense in CT because of the fan support but without UConn does it move to MSG and schedule around the men's?

Newark? It's just across the river from MSG and an actual nice venue. Plus you have 4-5 fan bases that are an easy drive to there.

I LOVED what the A10 did- had their first 3 rounds the prior weekend, then had their tourney final on Saturday night after the men's sf. Think that would be a great idea to do with the women's- kind of surprised they never did that- imagine this past Saturday- say at 1pm- the women's final with Notre Dame and UConn, and then at 8:30 the men's final. (of course, this year, it'd have been tough for the men to beat what the women's final did).

It would make a lot of sense to put the WBB tournament in the west every season, since the men are going to be at MSG for as long as they possibly can.

The A-10's concept with the first three rounds before, then combine with the Men's semis is a good idea, too.

First three rounds in Milwaukee, Chicago, Indy, Cincy, Omaha (or Saint Louis/Dayton if 12 teams).
First Round (Sun)
Quarters (Mon)
Semis (Tues) -- there's few men's tournament games on early in the week on Championship week. Fox can air the Quarters/Semis of the women's tourney.

Play the Final at MSG on Friday at 4:30 before the men's semis.



And by the way, 2013-14 Big East WBB teams this season:
DePaul 20-11
Nova 20-11
SJU 18-12
Creighton 24-7
Marquette 16-15
Georgetown 15-16
Xavier 13-16
Hall 11-20
Prov 7-23

SLU 12-29
Dayton 27-2

We are taking a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE hit in WBB. Losing UConn, ND and Rutgers hurts.

(03-18-2013 03:49 PM)NJRedMan Wrote:  We are taking a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE hit in WBB. Losing UConn, ND and Rutgers hurts.

yeah, and heck, even Syracuse and Louisville are top 25 teams.

Big East has 8 tourney teams according to bracketology- and C7 only has 3 of them.
Villanova 8
St John's 10
DePaul 10

Creighton 11
Dayton 4 if they get in...

I have no idea what constitutes good or average attendance for a women's tourney but I would think that having all the games in one place would make it easier for fans (although attending Newark and then Manhattan wouldn't require any changes). I'd think attendance/support would be a priority and would look for local support without regard to schools. Does the MVC host both men's and women's in St Louis? Does Dayton come out for women's hoops?

The ACC uses the same venue for both (Greensboro). Not sure about the others.

Without UConn involved, the women's tournament might due better as an alternating venue to move around.

Ouch, I just looked at attendance for women's teams, and wow, there is a big drop off here without UConn, Louisville, and Notre Dame:

(03-18-2013 04:20 PM)trephin Wrote:  I have no idea what constitutes good or average attendance for a women's tourney but I would think that having all the games in one place would make it easier for fans (although attending Newark and then Manhattan wouldn't require any changes). I'd think attendance/support would be a priority and would look for local support without regard to schools. Does the MVC host both men's and women's in St Louis? Does Dayton come out for women's hoops?

MVC women's hosts their tourney in St. Charles Missouri a week after the men's. BTW, Creighton WBB gets an at-large bid as a 10 seed and will face 7 Syracuse. They were squarely on the bubble.

(03-18-2013 06:31 PM)Jet915 Wrote:  MVC women's hosts their tourney in St. Charles Missouri a week after the men's.

how is the crowd? is it all school driven or does the local community support it well?

based on adcorbett's individual attendance numbers, the conference might be wise to look at chicago or dayton (if a member). but perhaps NJRedman is on the right trail and the new york metro area is best if they think they can get the greatest aggregate attendance by being near the most schools.

(03-18-2013 06:57 PM)trephin Wrote:  

(03-18-2013 06:31 PM)Jet915 Wrote:  MVC women's hosts their tourney in St. Charles Missouri a week after the men's.

how is the crowd? is it all school driven or does the local community support it well?

based on adcorbett's individual attendance numbers, the conference might be wise to look at chicago or dayton (if a member). but perhaps NJRedman is on the right trail and the new york metro area is best if they think they can get the greatest aggregate attendance by being near the most schools.

I don't know the actual numbers but someone tweeted a picture of the crowd at the women's tourney and Creighton had the biggest following but there probably weren't more than 500 people there.

The WBB selections this season was a farce.

27-3 Toledo is in the WNIT.

(03-18-2013 06:57 PM)trephin Wrote:  based on adcorbett's individual attendance numbers, the conference might be wise to look at chicago or dayton (if a member).

I thought so at first too, but man there is no one fanbase that drives numbers like before. Cincinnati or Dayton might work because they are the geographic center of the conference, but realisitically I don't know that one place will work without UConn.

Someone suggested this before on the old board, but it may actually work here. The Big East, A10, and Conference TBD should all host their conference tournaments in the same city, maybe Philadelphia (NY and Cincinnati are also possible) where all three conferences have teams. Host the preliminary games at various schools around town, and have the Championship games all a central location (well Fargo Center/US Bank/Barklays) on the same day. Maybe you invite a fourth nearby conference and have a day night double header. That might be the best option.

(03-19-2013 03:56 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  

(03-18-2013 06:57 PM)trephin Wrote:  based on adcorbett's individual attendance numbers, the conference might be wise to look at chicago or dayton (if a member).

I thought so at first too, but man there is no one fanbase that drives numbers like before. Cincinnati or Dayton might work because they are the geographic center of the conference, but realisitically I don't know that one place will work without UConn.

Someone suggested this before on the old board, but it may actually work here. The Big East, A10, and Conference TBD should all host their conference tournaments in the same city, maybe Philadelphia (NY and Cincinnati are also possible) where all three conferences have teams. Host the preliminary games at various schools around town, and have the Championship games all a central location (well Fargo Center/US Bank/Barklays) on the same day. Maybe you invite a fourth nearby conference and have a day night double header. That might be the best option.

If there is one thing that Omaha does well, it's putting asses in seats for a big sporting event...from hockey to men's basketball to Olympic swimming trials to NCAA wrestling championships to Women's NIT Championship to College World Series baseball...Omaha loves a show...

I wonder if ANY women's basketball tournament breaks even financially without the hotbed schools like UConn, Tennessee, ND etc.

I think the idea of sharing the spotlight with other conferences is too radical. The tournaments are one of the few times a year a conference shows its pageantry etc. and I don't think any conference wants to share whatever public/media focus there might be.

Just looking at the top 20 list of attendance, I'd say the Big Ten (6 of the top 20) and the Big XII (5 of the top 12, 7 of the top 25) do. Truth be told, with Louisville, Notre Dame, and DePaul the current Big East could have made money hosting it in Louisville or Chicago, meaning they had two places they could make money.

I sort of agree with you on sharing the spotlight, but if it's the difference between 5,000 people in the stands for one tournament, and a sellout 20,000 fans for multiple tournaments, it could be a big deal, big time event that would make it worthwhile.

(03-19-2013 04:56 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  I sort of agree with you on sharing the spotlight, but if it's the difference between 5,000 people in the stands for one tournament, and a sellout 20,000 fans for multiple tournaments, it could be a big deal, big time event that would make it worthwhile.

I've always wondered why some conferences don't just stagger games.

Let's say you did Wed-Sat at MSG for the men.

You could play the WBB first round and quarters at St. John's.

On Friday, you play at MSG:
Noon: Women's Semifinal
2:30: Men's Semifinal
6: Women's Semifinal
8:30: Men's Semifinal

Saturday at MSG:
5:15: Women's Final
8:30: Men's Final

You'd get bigger crowds for the women that way, and save the expense of getting a WBB venue.

(03-20-2013 03:50 PM)JPSchmack Wrote:  On Friday, you play at MSG:
Noon: Women's Semifinal
2:30: Men's Semifinal
6: Women's Semifinal
8:30: Men's Semifinal

Saturday at MSG:
5:15: Women's Final
8:30: Men's Final

You'd get bigger crowds for the women that way, and save the expense of getting a WBB venue.

Three problems:

1) you get a bigger crowd to watch the women's games than you otherwise may get, but you will also get smaller crowds for the men's games overall. Plus you may have a large portion of disinterested fans during the women's games.

2) The team who wins the daytime semifinal will have a 6 hour rest advantage over the team winning the night semifinal on a one day turnaround for both games.

3) you mess up TV coverage for the men's games

4) The courts have to have decals for men;s and women's, drainign sponsorship opportunities, and cluttering the court with multiple 3 point lines.

If you want to do that, you can have the women;s semi's during the day, since you are aready renting the venue anyway, and do the same the next day, having them in separate sessions. But even still, I don't think it's fair to the women to share a court with the men's who sell out on their own already. The other conferences that do them together (the MVC) don't sell out the arena for the final, so this gets more people in.

Jet915 reported that the MVC had their tournaments in separate venues and dates. The point remains that combining both men and women may serve to generate larger attendance for some conferences. While I'm not a huge fan of women's basketball, I'd think the teams might think it was a disservice or disrespect to have to play as the opening act to the men rather than have their own distinct venue/times etc.