No one here , zero atmosphere .Maybe tomorrow ? What would motivate you [assuming you are not here] to attend ?

As for me 1- winning team with a good basketball history

2- slightly closer venue; say, Birmingham, Montgomery, Jackson Ms or even Chattanooga or Nashville.

Winning b-ball team.

Rotate between Greensboro for east site
And a city in West. I would go every other year once I retire and not living in DC area

pop5app wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 03, 2023 4:01 pm

As for me 1- winning team with a good basketball history

2- slightly closer venue; say, Birmingham, Montgomery, Jackson Ms or even Chattanooga or Nashville.

Nix Jackson Ms due to city water issues.
https://abcnews.go.com › US › jacksons-water-problems-deeper-pipes-experts › story?id=89973457
Water problems in Jackson, Mississippi, go deeper than pipes, experts ...
Sep 21, 2022In August, historic flooding in Mississippi damaged a major pump at the O.B. Curtis Water Plant, the main water treatment facility in Jackson, which left around 150,000 of the city's mostly Black residents without drinkable water.
https://www.foxnews.com › us › jackson-mississippi-preparing-go-without-water-periodically-for-up-10-years-crisis-continues.

Nix SoCon cities.

How 'bout Jacksonville, FL; Roanoke, VA (Not certain how many games VMI plays there each season)?
Birmingham, Montgomery and Nashville OK w/me.

I vote for Biloxi, MS.

Winning team and bigger/more regional city. Pensacola is close to only Southern Miss

Nashville or Atlanta needs to be option 1/2.(wherever SEC isn’t)
Charlotte (if ACC is greensboro), easy flights, multiple arenas.
Charleston (actual destination with great arenas)
Birmingham (pretty center of all teams)
New Orleans/Memphis last ditch efforts

Honestly, and I know this won't happen, but make the MBB and WBB tournaments separate (or even same sites in the same city like the SoCon does it in Asheville) so you can do it in 4 days (cut the bottom two off to avoid the extra day) instead of spacing games out over a whole week with alternating MBB/WBB days Wednesday through Saturday.

The league just needs to do a better job of promoting and marketing the tournament. And so do the universities.

Try Pensacola for a few years, then in say 2027-28 if it isn't working, then see what else is out there.

The tournament doesn't need to go back to NOLA. Been there done that, it was a disaster.

Greenville, SC. Would be a great location for the SBC BB tournament.

Stonewall wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 03, 2023 3:54 pm

No one here , zero atmosphere .Maybe tomorrow ? What would motivate you [assuming you are not here] to attend ?

As much as I hate to recommend this.....we should look at the schools producing the most attendance and locate it as central driving distance as can from those schools. I don't see people flying to a basketball tournament. If I was retired and had nothing but time, I would go to this year's tournament but the way they had it spread out and playing the championship game on Monday night to make ESPN happy is bad for tournament attendance. I think we need to drop the Monday night championship game and make it Thursday thru Sunday. There really is not a good choice. I do like the Biloxi suggestion from 94(because I like to place wagers..it would make the other games interesting). My first choice would be Alabama Birmingham.

Alternate between center of east and center of west each year would probably be the best for attendance. (Charlotte/NewOrleans) would probably have cheapest flights. I don't believe people/fans will fly to a basketball tournament....too expensive.

311neers wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 03, 2023 7:33 pm

Winning team and bigger/more regional city. Pensacola is close to only Southern Miss

Nashville or Atlanta needs to be option 1/2.(wherever SEC isn’t)
Charlotte (if ACC is greensboro), easy flights, multiple arenas.
Charleston (actual destination with great arenas)
Birmingham (pretty center of all teams)
New Orleans/Memphis last ditch efforts

USA is closest to Pensacola…essentially a home game for them…not that it matters. Their attendance was pretty bad at home, so I doubt many fans followed them to Pensacola, unless of course they make a deep run.

Interesting feed back ...Well , not alot of people at the womens games , a few parents and school administrators .The SoCon tournaments in the old days put this to shame.Tomorrow should be better .I don't know how this event isn't hemorrhaging money.

T-Dog wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 03, 2023 7:41 pm

Honestly, and I know this won't happen, but make the MBB and WBB tournaments separate (or even same sites in the same city like the SoCon does it in Asheville) so you can do it in 4 days (cut the bottom two off to avoid the extra day) instead of spacing games out over a whole week with alternating MBB/WBB days Wednesday through Saturday.

The league just needs to do a better job of promoting and marketing the tournament. And so do the universities.

Try Pensacola for a few years, then in say 2027-28 if it isn't working, then see what else is out there.

The tournament doesn't need to go back to NOLA. Been there done that, it was a disaster.

Good take. Make the Men’s tourney Thursday-Sunday and the fanbases could plan a long weekend.

Alternate it between Pensacola and North Charleston or Chattanooga

The other option would be to go to home arenas for the first two rounds, then share a site with another conference. Fans could see two automatic bids determined on the final day, which might fill otherwise vacant arenas

When you have a one-bid conference stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the middle of Texas, there's no great location to have a neutral-site basketball tournament.

No western Sun Belt member will ever vote for Charleston. Maybe Charlotte because of the easy flights, but the Big South is already at Bojangles and the Spectrum Center is used by the Hornets. Maybe Asheville the week after the SoCon, but again, try selling that to ULM, Texas State and Louisiana.

FWIW, the SEC tournament is in Nashville for the next several years. The ACC is rotating between Greensboro, Brooklyn and DC.

T-Dog wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 03, 2023 11:43 pm

When you have a one-bid conference stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the middle of Texas, there's no great location to have a neutral-site basketball tournament.

No western Sun Belt member will ever vote for Charleston. Maybe Charlotte because of the easy flights, but the Big South is already at Bojangles and the Spectrum Center is used by the Hornets. Maybe Asheville the week after the SoCon, but again, try selling that to ULM, Texas State and Louisiana.

FWIW, the SEC tournament is in Nashville for the next several years. The ACC is rotating between Greensboro, Brooklyn and DC.

Greensboro is not going to be in the mix much more going forward based on local reports for the men. The women seemed set in Greensboro for this weekennd.

T-Dog wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 03, 2023 11:43 pm

When you have a one-bid conference stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the middle of Texas, there's no great location to have a neutral-site basketball tournament.

No western Sun Belt member will ever vote for Charleston. Maybe Charlotte because of the easy flights, but the Big South is already at Bojangles and the Spectrum Center is used by the Hornets. Maybe Asheville the week after the SoCon, but again, try selling that to ULM, Texas State and Louisiana.

FWIW, the SEC tournament is in Nashville for the next several years. The ACC is rotating between Greensboro, Brooklyn and DC.

What Eastern conference member voted for Pensacola? Same thing. Maybe alternate between the two if we can’t do the Nashville ATL, CLT because all the arenas are used up.
Charleston has 2-3 arenas capable in a 4 mile radius. Birmingham would be a solid location option but not sure if they have the arena for it. No one wants to travel to Memphis but that could be a well located option.

For me:
1) need to have a location that is drivable
2) need to have games on back to back days
3) need to have a team good enough to last more than 1 game.

CoachRob wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 04, 2023 10:03 am

For me:
1) need to have a location that is drivable
2) need to have games on back to back days
3) need to have a team good enough to last more than 1 game.

#1 doesn’t work for the majority of the member fan bases. Given that, a destination location is the only option that makes the most sense.

How about the the East playing on campus during the week. Then using some tournament format that sends top two to Birmingham for example. The west doing the same. 4 teams play for weekend championship.

Black and Gold dominating the arena today.Just not ours , of course.USM has traveled with high expectations.

There's a fanfest today and people there are saying it feels like a real conference tournament.