Rapid City Hosting Tourney

[joeboo22]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

I've thought about it as Rapid City has 10 times the facility that Sioux Falls has, with an actual convention center, 2 arena's a concessions area, just a really nice complex all the way around.... could have an actual media room, a players/personal room, practice gym on site....

The problem with Rapid City is they really book the convention center with trade shows, concerts and so on... Also it would hurt Fargo Fans.... could be an option if Denver or UNC ever joined the Summit.... Also wouldn't be a bad idea to have either Rapid or Sioux City try to get in the bidding as it would give the area cities a better chance at getting it.... could also force Sioux Falls hand in building a new arena sooner rather then later....

Peoria or Moline kinda blows my mind, unless they are thinking that IUPUI, IPFW and WIU would all support the tournament well.... and the Brookings and Fargo crowd will travel pretty well also.... could work but I still don't know.... like previously said Sioux Falls is that one place where every year they'd drawl good and nobody would get board....

[West-River_Jack]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

I've been told that the folks at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center were definitely aware of the tournament in Sioux Falls and have been discussing what they had to do to get that bid. That's not saying that Rapid City will ever bid the event. It could be that the RPCC staff is using the Sioux Falls bidding process as an educational tool for the future.

[JimmyJack]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

I've thought about it as Rapid City has 10 times the facility that Sioux Falls has, with an actual convention center, 2 arena's a concessions area, just a really nice complex all the way around.... could have an actual media room, a players/personal room, practice gym on site....

Plus, then maybe ESPN wouldn't say Mt. Rushmore is in the northern part of the state.

[zooropa]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

Plus, then maybe ESPN wouldn't say Mt. Rushmore is in the northern part of the state.

Pfffft. Like they'd know where they were in the state???

The thing about RC is it might come down to cheap plane tickets.

You can drive from Detroit to Sioux Falls, but Rapid City is, if my spitball estimates are accurate, about a third again as far as Sioux Falls is from Detroit. That might be enough to make the Detroit folks say, "screw it, we're flying".

From ORU, it might be pretty close to 6 of one, half a dozen of the other, if it weren't for the fact that all the good roads lead to Sioux Falls.

But it would be a nice place to have the tournament.....

[jackmd]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

I'm finding out its damn near impossible to get a flight into Lubbock, TX on a weekend. I can't imagine how frustrating it might be to find a flight to SF or even worse RC. Maybe I'm naive.

[West-River_Jack]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

It would really shock me if the Summit even gave any consideration to having the tourney in Rapid City if the Civic Center were to try to bid for it. I was at some of the State A Boy's Tournament games there yesterday and I sat and looked around the arena. There are some deficiencies. The most glaring, and probably the easiest to fix, is that there is no college 3-point line on the floor. The seating on the north end of the court is portable aluminum bleachers. They look awful in there. There is no scoreboard on either end of the playing floor, only the one suspended over mid-court and the one on the front of the scorer's table. There are no displays for individual or team statistics in the arena. There are two video display boards on opposite corners of the arena but none overhead. The shot clocks were not present for this tournament but I think that the ones that are mounted on top of the backboards display only the shot time and not the game time.

There is no home team playing in this arena right now and therefore, not much incentive for improvements. The management has indicated that there will probably be no effort to recruit a minor league basketball team in the immediate future because it would be bad business to try and recruit competition for the hockey team which plays in the brand new ice arena in the complex.

However, in response to Joeboo, even though there are a lot of events in the Civic Center (yesterday there were 5 separate events going on), many of them do not use the Don Barnett arena. Just because there is a hockey game and a state pool tournament going on doesn't mean there isn't room for a basketball tournament too.

In response the jackmd's concern about getting to Rapid City compared to Lubbock, Lubbock has flights to and from several airports, but since most of those are already a two flight connection from here, or service only on specific days it becomes difficult. Rapid City has flights to and from Mpls/St Paul, Denver, and Salt Lake City multiple times daily, and Chicago on a seasonal basis.

But, as I said in the beginning of this post, I don't think such a bid will ever see the light of day.

[zooropa]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

OTOH, The Civic Center's problems can be solved by donated equipment from Dak ('donated' in exchange for mentions every 4 minutes during games). The three-point line is no concern at all. They may have put two in at the SF Arena, unless they've got the HS/WBB 3-pointer as a permanent part of the floor.

My concern would be that the Summit League presidents, as a group, would consider Rapid City less accessible for their fans than Sioux Falls.

If some of the better WBB programs in the Rocky Mountain region decided to have an MTE 'hosted' by SDSU, the Civic Center might be a good venue (Montana, Wyoming, SDSU, maybe Gonzaga, Utah, etc.)

[West-River_Jack]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

My concern would be that the Summit League presidents, as a group, would consider Rapid City less accessible for their fans than Sioux Falls.

Exactly! Geography is a tough thing to change.

[joeboo22]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

Exactly! Geography is a tough thing to change.

The only thing is that the airport in Rapid has roughly the same flights as Sioux Falls.... Rapid's airport grew the most last year....

As far as the Arena.... Lets put it this way, they could make some little improvements to the one in Rapid and have an arena twice what the one in Sioux Falls is.... so I don't think that not having good enought bleachers is what would keep Rapid from having the tournament....

The way i see it is if bid for bid if they are roughly the same as Sioux Falls, you would have to go with Rapid because its a better facility... I think that Summit League presidents would rather have a more nuetral court pressence then when they are in Sioux falls and 95% of the fans are from 2 schools....

The problem I see with Rapid is I don't think that they can get the corporate sponsership sioux falls can....

[zooropa]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

The only thing is that the airport in Rapid has roughly the same flights as Sioux Falls.... Rapid's airport grew the most last year....

The way i see it is if bid for bid if they are roughly the same as Sioux Falls, you would have to go with Rapid because its a better facility... I think that Summit League presidents would rather have a more nuetral court pressence then when they are in Sioux falls and 95% of the fans are from 2 schools....

I disagree with that, as I believe most fans got to Sioux Falls by car/bus/etc.--except ----maybe---- the Oakland fans, maybe, and almost certainly the IUPUI and SUU fans flew.

I think that switching to Rapid would mean more fans flying, meaning fewer fans overall, meaning that the site would skew more heavily in favor of SDSU & NDSU while decreasing overall attendance.

The problem I see with Rapid is I don't think that they can get the corporate sponsership sioux falls can....

Good point....

[DakotaKid]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

I have always thought that Rapid city would be a great preseason (or during season) tournament location for something like the High Plains shoot-out. Could try to grab as many schools in ND, SD, Neb. Mont, Wyo, Colo, Neb, Kansas, etc.... you get the point. Could even do a Summit/Big Sky shootout.

I think they would draw real well.

[joeboo22]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

I have always thought that Rapid city would be a great preseason (or during season) tournament location for something like the High Plains shoot-out. Could try to grab as many schools in ND, SD, Neb. Mont, Wyo, Colo, Neb, Kansas, etc.... you get the point. Could even do a Summit/Big Sky shootout.

I think they would draw real well.

I think that could work.... I don't think it could do any worse then most of those pre-season tournaments.... Las Vegas that ususally has atleast 2 top 25 teams is only half full..... and the arena they play in is about the same size....

I like Rapid City a lot, I think the RPCC is as good as any mid-size market arena and facilities.... The major problem with Rapid is they don't have the corporate sponsers (Sanford, Avera, First Premier) that Sioux Falls does....

[JACKGUYII]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

The other issue among many with Rapid City is the demographics and economics are much different than Sioux Falls and I honestly don't think your going to find the same # of people willing to shell out that much money for an all-tournament pass. I also don't think the Jacks and Bison fans would travel well to the western part of the state. It's a moot point anyway as it's never going to happen for a Summit League Torunament. I like the idea of some kind of pre-season or holiday tournament with Big Sky Teams.

[zooropa]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

The other issue among many with Rapid City is the demographics and economics are much different than Sioux Falls and I honestly don't think your going to find the same # of people willing to shell out that much money for an all-tournament pass. I also don't think the Jacks and Bison fans would travel well to the western part of the state. It's a moot point anyway as it's never going to happen for a Summit League Torunament. I like the idea of some kind of pre-season or holiday tournament with Big Sky Teams.

Not just Big Sky--WAC & MWC--Wyoming's close, Utah isn't -far-, etc.

The thing is, I doubt that SDSU would be willing to sponsor it. You'd need local boosters to sponsor it.

[TeaJackrabbit]

Re: Rapid City Hosting Tourney

[quote]I've thought about it as Rapid City has 10 times the facility that Sioux Falls has, [quote]
Really? What am I missing? Did you guys do a total remodleing job? Neither are anything to be proud of, but "10 times the facility"?

Peoria or Moline kinda blows my mind, unless they are thinking that IUPUI, IPFW and WIU would all support the tournament well...

Actually, and I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but Rapid City blows my mind. The closest school to RC in SDSU, and then NSU and those two are 4.5 and 7+ hours away. Plus, RC has a hard time supporting events. They couldn't keep their CBA or indoor football team, they have no major college nearby, I don't think their interest in SDSU is anywhere near that of the Sioux Falls area, they are less than half the population, they don't have a guy who used to run NCAA Regional Tourneys working for them and they don't have near the corporate support that SF does. The Quad cities makes sense b/c it is somewhat in the area of Oakland, IUPUI, IPFW, WIU and not a bad drive from UMKC, not to mention it's close enough that the NDSU and SDSU fans would easily travel there. That's 7 schools out of 10 that would have a good reason to be in attendance. Right now it's Sioux Falls, Fargo and Quad Cities and I just can't see anywhere else.