Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

[jack power]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

I was just thinking about Sioux City; they have a fairly new arena that is significantly larger than the SF Arena. Once USD becomes tourney-eligible and a Summit League member, Sioux City may decide that hosting a D-1 tourney would be more attractive than the NAIA event that's going on there right now . . .

Rep points for you, joeboo!

The Arena in Sioux City is nice but only seats 6300 for basketball, about the same as Sioux Falls.

[NightHawk78]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

I was just thinking about Sioux City; they have a fairly new arena that could possibly host the tourney. Once USD becomes tourney-eligible and a Summit League member, Sioux City may decide that hosting a D-1 tourney would be more attractive than the NAIA event that's going on there right now . . .

Rep points for you, joeboo!

[joeboo22]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

Didn't Fargo just build a hockey arena? could that work?

Here is what I have listed for possible cities and arena's to bid that are geographically in range.

SUU- (Cedar City) I'm pretty sure the only thing they have is what the University plays...
Las Vegas could work, but I don't know if the Conference officials would want to have it there. Orem maybe, but its around 3 hours away and I suspect that not to many people in SLC and Orem care too much about SUU.... could work if Utah Valley joined the conference, but they play in the McKay Center which would be the best place to play the tournament... So I'd say the chances of SUU hosting the tournament to be pretty slim

Centenary- (Shrevport LA)- CenturyTel Center would be the only thing that could host it and its a 14,000 seat arena.... I also don't see Centernary bothering with hosting the tournament.... I put it at fairly slim that they'll ever host the tournament...

IPFW- Fort Wayne IN- the best facility is the Allen County War Memorial that they play at... could move it to South Bend, but I don't think there is a facility that could hold it

Oakland- the Palace would be the best place but would it be worth operating for a small conference tournament? Kalamazoo has Wings arena which is a little bit smaller then the SF Arena 5,100.... and is roughly about the same distance as Fort Wayne..

WIU- Quad Cities would be the best place for it to be and the only place that seems interested. there too far from Rockford or any other city that would work for them

IUPUI- I don't see Indianapolis biding it and I really don't see IUPUI caring...

NDSU- FargoDome- or if they have a hockey arena which I really don't know.

SDSU- Sioux Falls-- hypothetically speaking, could Sioux City bid it and have SDSU host it or does the school have to ok the bid?

UMKC- Eventually I could see them biding for the tournament but not with the state there programs are in now...

ORU- Tulsa- the problem with Tulsa is they have Tulsa University, a Dleague team, plus OU and OSU which are a bigger deal in March then ORU... plus its a pretty big city with like 3 or 4 pretty decent sized arenas plus where ORU plays.... plus they have had it before and it never drew that well....

[filbert]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

Let's smack in the appropriate place, ok?

[zooropa]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

I was really disapointed in the # of Bison fans who showed up for the Bison Women games

That absolutely cheesed me off.

I went to the semi-final against Oakland (2:30 in the afternoon) with the VERY NEXT GAME being another Bison contest, and the Bison fans were almost non-existent.

And you KNOW those fans were in town.

---

I don't want to hear a single Bison FAN complain about Monday night games unless they were IN Sioux Falls and AT that game.

No excuse. NONE. What the heck else did you twerps have to on your schedule?

[1bunnies]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

I disagree with you on one point and that is more people would have showed up for a SDSU/Bison final. I was really disapointed in the # of Bison fans who showed up for the Bison Women games as it had to be a 1/3 of the Mens games. It tells me many stayed at BWW and drank rather than show up and support the Women while they were in town.

And to think just a few years ago the Bison women were a bigger draw than their men.

[JACKGUYII]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

Despite one of the comments to the article, the size of the arena did hamper the attendance. I think there were at least two sections that would have had greater attendance if the building could have handled it. The men's final would have also been a near sellout had the blizzard not stranded Bison fans in Fargo. If you waited until Tuesday morning to make your decision, there was no way to get to Sioux Falls short of a snowmobile. Of course, having almost the perfect scenario play out sure didn't hurt matters. Out of 14 games, a Dakota school played in 10 of them(the max). The only way it could have been better was if the NDSU women and the SDSU men had made it to the finals for a double-Dakota showdown.

I disagree with you on one point and that is more people would have showed up for a SDSU/Bison final. I was really disapointed in the # of Bison fans who showed up for the Bison Women games as it had to be a 1/3 of the Mens games. It tells me many stayed at BWW and drank rather than show up and support the Women while they were in town.

[filbert]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

One of my hopes is that next year, there will be some additional sponsors stepping up (Hi, Mr. Sanford!) to put the Summit League games on a better slot on the ESPN networks. Heck, get enough sponsors together, and ESPN might even put the semifinals up on one of the networks.

I know the crowd for the women's final was about as good as it gets . . . I just watched it again via the magic of DVR, and it looked 100% like a big-time college tournament atmosphere.

But getting some more sponsors, and putting some $ on the table for the WorldWideLeaderInSports is what it would take to raise the league's TV profile.

(I'm still amused that the ESPN people were asking the SDSU fans on the end bleachers to storm the court after the women's championship game, and our fans basically said "no, no thanks, that's not what we do at SDSU." Too funny.)

[rabidrabbit]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

In watching other BB conference tourneys, only the NEC, held in the 1st place Robert Morris arena (capacity maybe 2K) was ANYWHERE as filled as the Summit tourney.

However, for a neutral court set up, none were better than SF Arena crowds.

[TeaJackrabbit]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

Friend of mine said that before the game started ESPN and the Summit told and/or let fans sit down behind the two benches b/c they it to be filled up back there, have the appearance of a full arena.

So when you watch these Conference Championship games where there is few people in the stands (like last nights Mont State-Portland State game) you know there really isn't ANYBODY there! I thought the Summit Championship games looked just fine on TV and better than most of these other small-mid major games and early round BCS conference games.

[Hammersmith]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

Despite one of the comments to the article, the size of the arena did hamper the attendance. I think there were at least two sections that would have had greater attendance if the building could have handled it. The men's final would have also been a near sellout had the blizzard not stranded Bison fans in Fargo. If you waited until Tuesday morning to make your decision, there was no way to get to Sioux Falls short of a snowmobile. Of course, having almost the perfect scenario play out sure didn't hurt matters. Out of 14 games, a Dakota school played in 10 of them(the max). The only way it could have been better was if the NDSU women and the SDSU men had made it to the finals for a double-Dakota showdown.

[rabidrabbit]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

In a word YES

From the attendence article by TV at the ARGUS LEader

Sioux Falls shattered conference sponsorship records prior to the Summit League basketball tournament and attendance records during the event. Yes, the city was successful in its first foray into hosting an NCAA Division I tournament.


The four men's sessions drew a total of 17,682 fans, the most since 1994.


The four women's sessions attracted 16,999 fans, more than doubling the previous mark of 7,037 that was set in 2007 in Tulsa, Okla.

http://www.argusleader.com/article/2...40/1002/SPORTS

[NightHawk78]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

The only thing Detroit has going on this time of the year is a car show downtown that doesnt draw much. All the big things are done. Only conflict would be with the Detroit Pistons and their schedule. And hey, when the Jacks aren't playing why not see the Red Wings.

Doesn't Michigan and Michigan State dominate the sports coverage in the Detroit Media (or at least what's left of it)?

[SturgisJeff]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

Some thoughts:

1) I can't see the Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls for more than four years; it simply isn't fair to the rest of the conference to have one city/school dominate the tournament. Both ORU teams won three of the last four tournamants (held in Tulsa).

2) That said, Sioux Falls likely will be on a regular-cycle to host, particularly after USD joins the conference (just a matter of when, not if). Sponsorship dollars and attendance don't lie and Sioux Falls has that category covered quite well.

3) Kansas City has the geography and facilities, but UMKC has a light fan base and the event can easily get overshadowed by the Big XII and the Missouri Valley.

4) The Quad Cities may have been OK a dozen years ago, but the league has changed dramatically since then. WIU has weak support and residents may be more likely to ignore the tournament. (I'm sure there are more Hawkeye and Illini fans there than WIU backers; if WIU can improve its fan base, it would be OK to have the tourney there.)

5) Fargo would be fine if they could ever get their facilities squared away.

6) The tournament would likely be overshadowed in the Detroit or Indianapolis areas.

7) Tulsa makes it the Oral Roberts Invitational and I've read how some schools are not that fond of ORU . . .

Finally, would the Summit League consider separating the mens and womens tournaments? I would like that separation because the current format automatically places the womens tournament as the undercard with all of the afternoon games. The other upside to this plan is that Sioux Falls likely would host one of the tournaments almost every year.

The only thing Detroit has going on this time of the year is a car show downtown that doesnt draw much. All the big things are done. Only conflict would be with the Detroit Pistons and their schedule. And hey, when the Jacks aren't playing why not see the Red Wings.

[valleyrabbit]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

Well, the gauntlet has been thrown down as to what it is going to take to get the tourney away from Sioux Falls. This can only be good for all those involved.

Just imagine how many more sponsorships might come along once USD is in the league. It may be tough to take it away from Sioux Falls after that.

With current economic conditions, I'm not betting that those numbers will increase. I think there is also the possibility that sponsers wanted to wow the league in the first year. We will see though.