Pensacola

[T-Dog]

What Eastern conference member voted for Pensacola?

All of them.

[Stonewall]

Good crowd of disappointed people wearing green.TS fans enjoying the moment.Both of them.

[Appst86]

A Florida city makes sense for a March tournament but you must acknowledge, Sun Belt BB fans don't show up for games in their own gym (except Marshall). The biggest issue with Pensacola is the lack of direct flights for those that live further than a 6-hour car ride. Tampa would be better. Pensacola is convenient for the West side of our conference and the Ga schools on the East side, being a half-day drive or less for 7 teams. With a conference that spans from Norfolk Va, to central Texas, there is no site that is convenient for all. We have >3800 (registered) alumni in the state of Florida; only NC, VA, and SC have more; we should be able to show better than we did.

[AppSt94]

A Florida city makes sense for a March tournament but you must acknowledge, Sun Belt BB fans don't show up for games in their own gym (except Marshall). The biggest issue with Pensacola is the lack of direct flights for those that live further than a 6-hour car ride. Tampa would be better. Pensacola is convenient for the West side of our conference and the Ga schools on the East side, being a half-day drive or less for 7 teams. With a conference that spans from Norfolk Va, to central Texas, there is no site that is convenient for all. We have >3800 (registered) alumni in the state of Florida; only NC, VA, and SC have more; we should be able to show better than we did.

To be fair, Pensacola is a half day drive from anywhere in Florida.

[Stonewall]

Watching games across the country in comparison , Belt doesn't stack up.They need to do something different , whatever it might be.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

Watching games across the country in comparison , Belt doesn't stack up.They need to do something different , whatever it might be.

My uneducated idea would be to alternate between New Orleans and somewhere like Charlotte or Atlanta.

[311neers]

Watching games across the country in comparison , Belt doesn't stack up.They need to do something different , whatever it might be.

My uneducated idea would be to alternate between New Orleans and somewhere like Charlotte or Atlanta.

Nashville and Charlotte/Atlanta. Go where the ACC/SEC isnt that year. If they want to do destinations.... Keep the west happy with Pensacola and rotate with Charleston every 3 years or so. To my knowledge, Charleston doesn't host any conference tourneys and has 2 great arenas to host with.

[agentpaul001]

I think just Quarterfinal teams should travel. Run tournament over three days. Have the earlier rounds complete on campus a few days prior. It's a more compelling proposition to travel when you know your team will be playing and have the possibility to watch every game.

If you're going to have it be a "destination" then have it be a real destination. Or swing the other way and have something fairly close to the fanbases that travel. Pensacola is neither.

Agreed. Nashville/Charleston probably land on both.

[Stonewall]

Good ideas .It will interesting to see what they do.I can't see any recruit excited about this atmosphere , and the water is way too cold to enjoy. They should at a minimum change the format next season , if they don't they are letting us know it's not important.This one day off , one day on the next just won't draw from any distance.If we are stuck with the arena for a couple more years by contract , which I am sure we are.

[beav910]

I've heard the argument that "Pensacola pulls out the red carpet for the Sun Belt". Problem is they are pulling it out for 15 people. It's gotta move somewhere else.

[hapapp]

Just looking at driving distances between Charlotte, Nashville, and Pensacola.
Charlotte is closest for 6 schools
Pensacola is closest for 6 schools
Nashville is closest for 2 schools.

Nashville is the second closest for eleven schools, Charlotte for one, Pensacola for 2.

Given those results, Nashville would be the best location. Even though only two schools would be closest to Nashville, eleven other conference schools would find Nashville next closest. Of course, all that would be predicated on Nashville being available and interested. Ga State would be the closest school to Nashville.

Charlotte would be the furthest school for any one school to travel in Texas State (18:16). Pensacola is the closest for any one school in USM (:56). Charlotte is at least 10 hours for four schools. Pensacola is at least 10 hours for six schools. Nashville is at least 10 hours for two schools.

[Stonewall]

I've heard the argument that "Pensacola pulls out the red carpet for the Sun Belt". Problem is they are pulling it out for 15 people. It's gotta move somewhere else.

I didn't see any red carpet .The arena is in need of update .I did eat good seafood .

[AppOrange]

Need an 8-10k venue, somewhat central to the SB footprint, and some sort of destination spot . . . very few will make the trip exclusively for bball. I like the on campus idea, but that adds a lot of travel for some teams. As for the dates of the champ game, I seriously doubt we have any choice to move it off of ESPN's preferred schedule. Got to have those championship games every night during the week to call it "Championship Week".

[HurricaneYosef]

think travel is an issue for all schools regardless of location. I think it would interesting to consider going all in for a great crowd for the conference championship game, but making the first 3 rds all neutral site.

So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday in Pensacola, FL. Championship game on Sunday at the home of the higher seed. I'm sure some saw how fun/electric the Kennesaw St / Liberty ASUN final was. Doing host site for entire tourney is too costly and a logistical nightmare for the Sun Belt to consider, but maybe this alternative gives the best of both worlds

[BambooRdApp]

Watching my undergrad school, U-Dub, playing in semis of CAA..not a bad crowd. No where near capacity... but you a team from Wilmington NC and NY playing each other in DC

[Stonewall]

In any event , a lot of room for improvement.Best of luck Cajuns.

[spacemonkey]

I am glad Louisiana won. Maybe the Sunbelt will be a 13 seed.....my guess is 14 but would be Happy to see us (Sunbelt) get some recognition with a 13 seed and more importantly a chance to win a game.

[wb247]

Campus sites during the week to whittle down the field to 4. Maybe pods? 3 day round robin tourney. Last day is championship game and 3rd place game. Have tie-ins with the other post-season tourneys for even the 3rd place school to get an invite. Fans might be more likely to travel if they know they'll get to see their school play 3 times, no matter what. Not sure anything really makes a difference though. We all have to fix attendance at home games first. I'm guessing 15% of any school's average attendance is going to the conference tourney. Maybe 25% if they're expecting to win. Those are pretty abysmal numbers, across the board, in the Sun Belt. Outside the box? Scrap the tourney and give the autobid to the per game average attendance leader.

[APPdiesel]

Hilarious that so many here are complaining about the location. It was put there under the same reasoning that Asheville hosts the SOCON tournament…small town destination that will go all out as hosts. Everyone loved the reasoning at the time. Now people want to change it back to a big city with no atmosphere. It’s been in a big city with no atmosphere before. People are never happy. Expecting it to grow into a spectacle event in just 2 years is unreasonable.

[hapapp]

Hilarious that so many here are complaining about the location. It was put there under the same reasoning that Asheville hosts the SOCON tournament…small town destination that will go all out as hosts. Everyone loved the reasoning at the time. Now people want to change it back to a big city with no atmosphere. It’s been in a big city with no atmosphere before. People are never happy. Expecting it to grow into a spectacle event in just 2 years is unreasonable.

That's a fair point. However, its current location is a long stretch for many in the conference. Attendance looked pretty decent last night because Mobile is only 50+ miles away. I wonder what a JMU-ODU final would have produced. In terms of a central location, Atlanta probably works best but I doubt it would get the attention it gets in Pensacola. I agree there is more to selecting a location than proximity to the mid point of a conference.