If not at the Arch... Where?

[Action10]

If the conference has the goal of being considered at or near the same level as the A10 or even the American, they need to stay away from campus sites and at an NBA size arena. Can you imagine Arch Madness in 2006 or 2007 being played in a 10,000 seat building? The revenue from ticket sales would have been down MORE THAN HALF. If the conference wants to be on the level with other quality leagues, it appears that St. Louis is the place.

[hot nuts]

I'm all in on St. Louis...but if it ever moved, Vegas.

[BEARZ77]

There's really nothing close to St Louis in as far as meeting the Valley needs for their tourney. Yeah, there's tons not to like about St Louis the city, but very few of those come into play for a 5 day stay for a tourney, while all the attributes do. One of the smartest things Elgin did, and it will remain so as long as the league uses common sense.

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Nothing says it has to be anywhere. I bet if they did play in Vegas people would most definitely show up. I dont want it to move personally but hell I wouldnt mind them throwing in Hawaii, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angelas, Miami, or a Carribean island once every 5 years. Go to China one year. Theyre crazy about basketball over there.

[Dawgbit]

There's really nothing close to St Louis in as far as meeting the Valley needs for their tourney. Yeah, there's tons not to like about St Louis the city, but very few of those come into play for a 5 day stay for a tourney, while all the attributes do. One of the smartest things Elgin did, and it will remain so as long as the league uses common sense.

Amazingly people show up in droves for Blues and Cardinal games. They must not know what "we" know.

[BEARZ77]

There's really nothing close to St Louis in as far as meeting the Valley needs for their tourney. Yeah, there's tons not to like about St Louis the city, but very few of those come into play for a 5 day stay for a tourney, while all the attributes do. One of the smartest things Elgin did, and it will remain so as long as the league uses common sense.

Amazingly people show up in droves for Blues and Cardinal games. They must not know what "we" know.

Having previously lived in North St Louis county for about 15 years and also growing up about 50 miles outside the city and attending sports activities, going to concerts,dining, & other recreation activities my whole life , St Louis is just like most cities. You can run into trouble , but generally if you are smart about things, you don't. But again, for a 4-5 day stay, when you consider the parks, museums, sports bars,casinos, restaurants, the ease of movement to and around the tournament and local venues etc, and the fact it's a neutral site and the conferences home, i just haven't heard of a better option.

[mvfcfan]

Those of you that are happy with St Louis clearly don't have very high standards. You all want to be "big time" but there has been a black curtain blocking off the upper deck since Wichita left (except this year which doesn't count) due to a severe lack of attendance. The black curtain screams "small time". I buy those cheap Purina tickets and go sit in the 6th row near center court during normal years if that tells you anything.

[Blers]

It will be interesting to see if the conference office stays in St. Louis long term with a new commissioner.

Obviously bias but I'd love having it at Wintrust in downtown Chicago. It's in the heart of the city with tons of stuff around it, pretty nice arena as well. Lots of places to stay and things to do, it's also not oversized at around a 10k seats. The bucks arena in Milwaukee could also be a cool neutral ground, though a bit farther out there.

[VUGrad1314]

Very few conference tournaments sell out or even anywhere close to it in most years. Aren't you the one advocating for it to move to like Evansville or some place like that? If your solution is to move it to a smaller city and smaller venue that is not as centrally located for the whole of the conference (which will hurt attendance from far flung schools) because being in St Louis is "small time" what kind of solution is that exactly? Wouldn't that look pretty darn "small time?" I have a feeling attendance will be better for awhile in future years because we saw how easily things like this can be taken away from us this year. But what we really need to do is continue to get better and stronger as a league so that we have more big time matchups with greater implications. I would imagine Arch Madness would be a pretty popping place if we had a shot at say being a 3-4 bid league, which we might next year if everyone comes back for their extra year (and I hope they do).

I'm all in on St. Louis...but if it ever moved, Vegas.

Why Vegas? So we could be one of the 5-6 conference tournaments already played there on a regular basis?

[Action10]

[quote="VUGrad1314"]Very few conference tournaments sell out or even anywhere close to it in most years. Aren't you the one advocating for it to move to like Evansville or some place like that? If your solution is to move it to a smaller city and smaller venue that is not as centrally located for the whole of the conference (which will hurt attendance from far flung schools) because being in St Louis is "small time" what kind of solution is that exactly? Wouldn't that look pretty darn "small time?" I have a feeling attendance will be better for awhile in future years because we saw how easily things like this can be taken away from us this year. But what we really need to do is continue to get better and stronger as a league so that we have more big time matchups with greater implications. I would imagine Arch Madness would be a pretty popping place if we had a shot at say being a 3-4 bid league, which we might next year if everyone comes back for their extra year (and I hope they do).
Very good post. I'm not sure moving the tournament to any venue that is smaller and in a smaller city would have any benefit. I think you are right on the money.