musiccitybulldog wrote:No insult here from me. I was serious. I implied the same as Aaaargh mentioned, if WSU is on a run going into Arch Madness it will draw fans that follow basketball in the St. Louis area. Plus Valley fans will probably participate more when there is a more " a heightened media" covered, nationally ranked team involved. They hope their team will knock them off and want to be there to see it, plus just want to see a nationally ranked team play. No doubt in shear numbers the omission of Creighton will be evident but I doubt the excitement level changes.
I believe the Shockers can be as good as last year, so if they pull off another final four.....or even better....I think people could be under estimating what that will do for the Valley and excitement among Valley fans during coming seasons.
You make some fair points, but for each of the last two years, the MVC has had two teams ranked in the top 25 (along with a first team all american) and, outside of the fanbases of those two schools, it really didn't do anything to heighten attendance at the tourney by the other fanbases or the locals in STL.
Unipanther also makes a good point. I don't think the MVC can get into a battle with the SEC over sponsors. The MVC already lost its main sponsor in State Farm before any of this was even announced.
If a local team Mizzou, along with schools like Kentucky, Tenn, etc are also going to be playing in STL on an infrequent basis, I think the MVC tourney will certainly seem like second fiddle in those years and have a hard time generating local interest. I've been pretty vocal over the years about the conference spending so much time and money trying to align itself so closely with STL, instead of alternating the conference tourney between KC and STL to increase exposure. Maybe this new news will cause the MVC to look more seriously at other locales than they have in the past? Hopefully, it is still as appealing to other locations.