Future of MVC Tournament (w/o Creighton)

by **unipanther99** » March 4th, 2013, 11:08 am

If Creighton goes, as MVC Chris tweeted, one of the biggest losers will be the downtown St. Louis community. They bring thousands every year, and if they leave, does that change the math for the future of the conference tournament?

It almost takes Kansas City out of the running all together, because without Creighton, why would we put it there? If it's only for the benefit of Shocker fans, why not just host it at Intrust in Wichita? Or for that matter, would the conference consider other arena's in cities with MVC teams like Wells Fargo in Des Moines? Possibly the iWireless Center in the Quad Cites would be an option, being a 2 hour drive for Rebird, Braves, Panthers, and Bulldog fans? If we were to add Bellmont or Murray State, would we consider Nashville or Memphis? If Dayton jumps in would Cincinnati or Louisville make sense?

I really hope we never consider hosting it on campus sites, but we might want to start getting creative. A mostly empty Scottrade in a city that is getting a little tired for most MVC fans might not be the best option in a post-Creighton environment.

**Sponsor**

by **BCPanther** » March 4th, 2013, 11:15 am

I believe the contract goes until 2016, so we are going to know exactly what the league looks like by the time a decision has to be made.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Bradley and SIU are definitely on the upswing. When they've been good they've sold a bunch of tickets. I don't realistically see it moving out of StL after 23 years because one of the furthest away teams is leaving the league.

Selfishly, Des Moines would be awesome, but the arena is too far away from everything else to make it a really cool atmosphere and I don't think the state association would be too terribly willing to move the Boys State Basketball Tournament (again) to accommodate The Valley.

by **valleychamp** » March 4th, 2013, 11:16 am

The tournament will be fine, and it will more than likely always be in STL. Its one of the more successful conference tournaments in the country as is, and without Creighton it will still be just fine. They didn't always bring 4K fans to STL...

A few more empty seats, at least in the short term, is not going to be such a major issue that you need to rethink the whole tournament model. Have you ever watched other conference tournaments on TV? Tons and tons of empty seats, and that includes every single major BCS conference tournament.

by **SalukiBand** » March 4th, 2013, 11:29 am

When Barry brings us back to the Promise Land, Southern will take care of those 4,000 seats and bring even more.

Seriously, I heard on local radio on the way to work today that the Valley Tournament weekend brings over $10 million a year into the St. Louis economy. It's not an insignificant amount of money. The Valley has spent 25 years making the St. Louis event one of the best in the country. It's going to take a lot to move it away from there. I suspect that Kansas City's shot has been lessened if Creighton does leave. I think the only other schools that are closer are Wichita and MoState. I think the Iowa schools are about a wash between STL and KC. I am sure that it's going to depend on who is in the conference when these negotiations come up again.

by **CaseyGarrisonforPrez** » March 4th, 2013, 11:38 am

In an ideal world I'd still much prefer Kansas City. Much better basketball culture there in my opinion. And if we conflict with the Big XII and they are using Sprint Center, we could use Kemper or even Municipal Auditorium which is the home of UMKC and the NAIA national championship.

by **musiccitybulldog** » March 4th, 2013, 11:45 am

Saw some billboards around St Louis advertising Arch Madness. Saw one close to the MLK bridge in Illinois. Maybe I just didn't notice in the past.

by **unipanther99** » March 4th, 2013, 11:47 am

CaseyGarrisonforPrez wrote:In an ideal world I'd still much prefer Kansas City. Much better basketball culture there in my opinion. And if we conflict with the Big XII and they are using Sprint Center, we could use Kemper or even Municipal Auditorium which is the home of UMKC and the NAIA national championship.

I went to a tractor pull inside Kemper a year ago (no joke). That's about the classiest kind of event that place should be hosting these days. It's a dump and it's not exactly a walkable part of Kansas City anymore. Municipal Auditorium is a relic that holds 7,000 people. That might hold the Shocker fans, where will the rest of us sit?

by **shocktheheart** » March 4th, 2013, 11:50 am

CaseyGarrisonforPrez wrote:In an ideal world I'd still much prefer Kansas City. Much better basketball culture there in my opinion. And if we conflict with the Big XII and they are using Sprint Center, we could use Kemper or even Municipal Auditorium which is the home of UMKC and the NAIA national championship.

Forget Kemper or Municipal as those places are dumps. Leave it in St Louis if you can't have it at the Sprint Center

by **DUBulldog** » March 4th, 2013, 11:59 am

SalukiBand wrote:I think the only other schools that are closer are Wichita and MoState. I think the Iowa schools are about a wash between STL and KC.

Might be true for UNI, but Des Moines is much closer to KC than St Louis....about 3-3.5 hour drive vs 5.5-6 hours drive. Drake also has a lot more alumni in KC.

by **KingTut** » March 4th, 2013, 12:00 pm

unipanther99 wrote:A mostly empty Scottrade in a city that is getting a little tired for most MVC fans might not be the best option in a post-Creighton environment.

Why would St. Louis be getting tired for MVC fans? The downtown used to be crap and tourist traps. It's developing into a legitimate downtown.
The quality and quantity of eating and drinking establishments downtown this year is definitely better than it was last year, and I think I could say that for the past several years.

If it's getting tired, stop going to the same places. There are plenty of choices.