Is it just me or is it absolute BS that Memphis gets to play this tournament at home?

[UofMemphis]

I missed it, I'll go look for it. Thanks.

http://the-boneyard.com/threads/memphis-aac-tourney-trip.48717/

 

[Inyatkin]

In CT, living 3 towns away from someone is considered a foreign land. You can drive to Montreal in 6 hours. It's a different mindset.

Not just CT, though, think how many Big East schools were in easy driving range from MSG.
Just got depressed thinking about it.

 

[UofMemphis]

The fewer reminders that Tulsa is joining this conference the better, thanks. Hartford would be looked at as too far an outlier to host the men's tournament, but Tulsa would be viable?

Tulsa just finished as co-champs of CUSA...not great, but I hope Danny a Manning gets them turned around...I remember Bill Self taking them to an Elite Eight in 2000 or 2001.

 

[Husky Dad]

Memphis is central to all teams. Its also a fun party town.

 

[UofMemphis]

Memphis is central to all teams. Its also a fun party town.

Not to be a homer, but you can't beat a facility like FedExForum that lets out onto Beale Street.

 

[ecasadoSBU]

Kind of ridiculous, no?

Didn't st. Johns get to play at home for years?

Make it a Neutral site by showing up in numbers

 

[Fishy]

Didn't st. Johns get to play at home for years?

No.

Mars was closer to home for St. John's than Madison Square Garden was.

 

[auror]

I suggest Dayton. Has a good track record of hosting neutral events with turnout and seems fairly close to Cincy to ensure sell-out. I'd suggest St. Louis too, but that might overlap with Missouri Valley whose "Arch Madness" had become pretty well branded.

 

[metsfan2323]

I suggest Dayton.

Go to sleep.

 

[Scot-e]

I am looking forward to going. However -I think what they meant at the start of the thread is that the Fed Ex is going to be packed with 95% buzzed up U of M fans the first night- not exactly a neutral floor for a conference tourney game.

Not much the AAC could have done- best choice considering this is a marriage almost no one wanted ( besides maybe U of M)- but that 10 start is going to one huge hostil crowd of on Thursday. Reminds me of going to Detroit for the FF when we played MSU- I could have used an armed escort leaving that place.

 

[Danzz]

This is one of many problems with conference realignment. Compare this to the old BE where all the games were accessible within reason including the BE tournament. The travel has to get really old for the players and coaches.
Memphis is probably the best site; 2nd choice would be Philly.

 

[Ha Who]

Kind of ridiculous, no?

If we sold out our arenas it would help. Showing up when there our two inches of snow instead of whining that Scott Haney said to stay off the roads would help. As much as I hate this road game, their fan base earned it.

 

[upstater]

If we do, might as well hold it at St Johns arena...very few AAC fans could get up there.

Tulane, UCF, USF just don't have the fan base to host.

Memphis, Cincy, Hartford, Dallas, maybe Tulsa, maybe Philly...those are the only viable options.

But it will come done to who offers the biggest $ guarantee to the conference...as it should...gotta pay to play.

Very few could get up to NYC? Might as well just fold the tent now. Memphis to NYC RT is $250. Hotels at $100 a night.

 

[BugsyCT]

Memphis is a generally central location geographically for this tourney, plus they'll probably get a good local draw from the UM contingent, so I have no problem with it. Bad break for us that we're playing them our quarterfinal there in a 4/5er but that's the breaks.

 

[Leebo]

We already beat them when it was a "true" home game, and this crowd will certainly have a lower percentage of Memphis fans than that game, even if only slightly.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Memphis is a seven-hour drive from either Dallas or Cincinnati, so that's a weird definition of "close."

It’s the Midwest and the South, people drive 100 miles (2 hours) just to get to the nearest Walmart. 500 miles (7 hours) is an easy weekend drive. Of course in the Northeast, it took me 7 hours once the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to get from Boston to Hartford, all 130 miles.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

No way UConn gets the American men’s tournament. 1) UConn is the furthest east and not central to everyone else, 2) the XL center is a dump when several schools have better arenas, like Memphis, and 3) its UConn. UConn will get the American women’s tournament because ware are the only school, especially after Louisville and Rutgers leave, who cares about women’s basketball and can draw.

 

[CL82]

of course they have because their 2,000 fans is twice as much as the other 15 teams total in the league travel to their tourneys…….

Of course that was sarcasm. The woman are the biggest draw of the year for most opponents and free very very well at home. It would not surprise me if they out drew the guys last year.

 

[Palatine]

It is a much bigger issue that Duke or UNC play their NCAA games in Greensville almost every year.

 

[freescooter]

Given my view of conference tournaments, that they are a waste of perfectly good basketball for all but about 3 teams, they could play it on the courts beside one of the Memphis dorms and I wouldn't much care. If you haven't established your bona fides by the now, you really don't belong in the NCAA Tournament.

 

[Gregory Koch]

As long as it rotates, I'm fine with it being played at one team's home arena. Play it some years in Memphis, some years in Dallas, Hartford, Philly, etc. That will increase attendance every year, but no team has a permanent advantage. Neutral-site tournaments generally get poorer attendance. The Garden was the exception, but this is not the old Big East and we won't be able to secure a venue with the same prestige as MSG, probably because there is no other basketball venue with the prestige of MSG. People wouldn't go to see a Cincinnati-SMU semifinal at the Garden like they would a Syracuse-UConn semifinal. Remember, next year us and Memphis are going to be the only two prominent programs in the conference. Which means each game except the final is going to involve at least one team that isn't us, and at least two of the quarterfinals will involve two teams that aren't us. No way they sell out the Garden, or any neutral site venue, for that.

I'd also rather play it in a sold-out smaller arena than a half-empty larger one. FedEx Forum seats about 18,000. We'll see how many people are actually in attendance. If it's half-empty, it might make more sense to move it to a smaller arena like Gampel, Moody or Fifth Third where you'll have a sellout, or at least close to one. Gampel seats about 10K, Moody 9K, and Fifth Third about 13K. I think there's a lot more energy in a sold-out smaller arena than in a half-empty larger one, even if there are the same number of fans in both. I'd rather they sell out the larger arena, but that may not be possible, especially next year when Louisville leaves.

 

[freescooter]

I agree with Gregory, htough I'd play it in the Palestra in Philly if possible. It is one of the historic locations for college basketball, and it seats +-9500 which is a perfect size. Philly is an interesting city to spend a day if you need to stay over night but it is also realtively easy to get to from most cities.

 

[HomeKing93]

I have no problem with it in Memphis this year, but I also would like to see a rotation.

On an unrelated note, I just noticed that the PAC-12, Mountain West and WAC tournaments are all in the Las Vegas area this year in three different arenas virtually on the same street. That should be interesting.

 

[Husky25]

No.

Mars was closer to home for St. John's than Madison Square Garden was.

From the mid 80's to the early 2000s, St. Johns was a pretty good program and they played their larger drawing games at MSG. MSG even had separate inserts for the baseline and half court for the Red Storm. Just because they have been terrible in recent years, doesn't mean that the Big East Tournament was not played on their home court.

 

[Fishy]

From the mid 80's to the early 2000s, St. Johns was a pretty good program and they played their larger drawing games at MSG. MSG even had separate inserts for the baseline and half court for the Red Storm. Just because they have been terrible in recent years, doesn't mean that the Big East Tournament was not played on their home court.

You're a little slow on the uptake, aren't you?