Some odd complaining

Some odd complaints about the Sun Belt Tournament.

First there are the complaints about two courts. Hey I agree but here is the deal. The schools loved Hot Springs last year and wanted all the teams to make the trip. There are two choices once you make that decision. Two courts or add two days to the event. Adding two days means greater expense for the teams and eliminating ten teams before Saturday. Anyone care to take odds on how many fans of teams seeded 4-13 arrive for games on Thursday or Friday? How many fans end up HAPPY they get stuck waiting around for a day when their team doesn’t play?

I’ve seen the suggestion it’s some conspiracy. Yes it is. Arkansas State sold its allotment of tickets and then proceeded to sell tickets obtained from other schools. The Convention Center would be lucky to accomodate the ticket holders who have already made their purchase. The conference quite simply isn’t going to sell walk-up tickets to people wanting to see ASU-UALR, let them in the building and tell them “Sorry the fire marshall won’t let you watch the game you want to see, but you can watch WKU rout a team that won’t be Division I next year in the big building.”

This is intercollegiate athletics and despite the preference of the schools to play off-campus, they aren’t going to flush away the chance to generate more dollars. Hot Springs has worked hard to sell tickets locally and they aren’t going to tell those local buyers they can’t see two local teams play because they aren’t holding tickets purchased through a participating school.

The local angle could have worked for others as well. Hot Springs is almost exactly the same distance from Monroe as Jonesboro. If ULM had sold its allotment, the odds are they wouldn’t be playing the Cajuns on the Convention Center floor either.

Contrary to what some believe, the schools didn’t vote to dump home arenas because Diddle was too big of a home court advantage for WKU. From 1994 through 2008 the league played at campus sites and the host team was 1-5, the other NINE times the host failed to make the finals. Yeah WKU won it on their court in 2003 but what happened a year later when WKU hosted? They used that too big homecourt advantage to be eliminated in the first round. Seven times the host was eliminated before the semi-finals. The host won 7% of the NCAA bids and was eliminated before the semi-finals 47% of the time. With WKU out the first round, the tournament drew fewer fans than it did the last time it was in Biloxi. The track record of campus sites with host out is awful.

This isn’t the first time changes have been made. Bracket times were changed to draw better crowds for the host. One year the league changed times on Sunday to give people a chance to go to church.

For the Sun Belt Tournament to be an event that other cities will bid on, this exactly what needs to happen. We need good crowds who aren’t driving across town to be at the event. We need cities to see that there are fans who drive farther than 20 minutes to see their team play when the games are taking place an hour or more away from the closest team.

If you want to see places like Southhaven, MS, Biloxi, Nashville, or Huntsville to be interested, show them what can be done at a neutral site.

If you want to see the tournament on campus sites, that’s tough.Unless there is significant turnover in the league AD and president offices that is unlikely to happen again. Knowing there is a proven 47% chance that the host will bomb and kill attendance means little chance of seeing the old format return.