Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

[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.

[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.)

[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.

[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.

[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?

[filbert]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

Let's smack in the appropriate place, ok?

[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....

[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!

[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.

[joeboo22]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

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

yeah but its about 40 years newer then the arena.... I don't think seating is the issue with Sioux Falls, its the fact that its a 50 year old arena, with wood chairs, and a curved roof...

[jack power]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

yeah but its about 40 years newer then the arena.... I don't think seating is the issue with Sioux Falls, its the fact that its a 50 year old arena, with wood chairs, and a curved roof...

I understand that,but i was responding to Nighthawk who said it was "significantly larger that the Sioux falls arena".

[NightHawk78]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

I understand that,but i was responding to Nighthawk who said it was "significantly larger that the Sioux falls arena".

Thanks for the correction; I had read in the past about how the Tyson Events Center was larger than the Arena, but I didn't realize that the basketball capacity was only 6300.

Rep points for your observation!

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

Another nice option Sioux City could provide would be playing out the whole tournament for places 1-8 with the smaller facility right next door.

This would give out of area fans a better reason to come watch their team, they could book hotels for 5 nights and know they were going to get to watch 3 games. In the current format, they book hotels and "hope" their team makes the finals or rush into town at the last minute (which doesn't work too well when there is a blizzard between Sioux Falls and Fargo).

Don't know if there are any NCAA rules against playing the tourneys out, and the Sioux City facility could be tough to get this time of year with the NAIA tournament locked in down there.

[JACKGUYII]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

Why in the world would they take the tournament to a dump like Sioux City which has no connection to the tournament and virtually no air service?

[GoJacks]

Re: Will Summit tourney stay in Sioux Falls?

KELOLAND is looking at the economic impact the Summit League Tournament brought to Sioux Falls.

It airs twice on Sunday 10:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m.