Potential nBE Basketball Tournament Sites

[freescooter]

The problem with almost anyplace is that nobody is going to travel. I mean how many people from Houston or Dallas are coming to New York City for the Big East tournament? New York made sense for the "old" big east largely because it was fairly central...you had teams from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Providence, Philly, Washington all of which are an easy (or easyish) trip, and you have multiple means of getting there as well. Amtrak from the Northeast corridor plus various commuter lines from parts of New York and New Jersey and Connecticut. If you went down for a day and your team lost, well, you blew a day, day and a half at most. And that applied to more than half the teams. With this "new" league, that's not the case at all. I'm not sure there is all that much value in holding it in New York right now.

 

[upstater]

The problem with almost anyplace is that nobody is going to travel. I mean how many people from Houston or Dallas are coming to New York City for the Big East tournament? New York made sense for the "old" big east largely because it was fairly central...you had teams from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Providence, Philly, Washington all of which are an easy (or easyish) trip, and you have multiple means of getting there as well. Amtrak from the Northeast corridor plus various commuter lines from parts of New York and New Jersey and Connecticut. If you went down for a day and your team lost, well, you blew a day, day and a half at most. And that applied to more than half the teams. With this "new" league, that's not the case at all. I'm not sure there is all that much value in holding it in New York right now.

Not going to be true for Catholic league either with teams in Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Virginia.
Not true of the ACC, and many other big conferences.

 

[UCFBfan]

Why is Baltimore even being mentioned as a possible location by folks here? Outside of Whaler saying he liked Tampa and Baltimore I can't see what school is located even in MD in the NBE? (Navy doesn't count because they will only play FB, if at all).

I still think they should just have the higher seeds host and if they feel ambitious, play the semi-finals and finals at a neutral location. However, I think at first, it's best to just play at home arenas.

If they're dead set on a neutral site I agree that it should rotate between Hartford, Cinci, and Memphis. Maybe Philly too. The unfortunate reality is that we are no longer in a Northeast conference and are actually more of an outlier as more of our conference is in the south. Unfortunately for the NBE, we are the highest profile bball school and would be the most likely to fill the stands. However, I can't see many here travelling farther than Philly for the tourny....even that is a stretch.

 

[John]

New Orleans is the most overrated city in the country.

They would be well served to hold the tourney in Hartford. At least they'd sell some tickets.

NOLA is a "you see it once" type of City. It's nice to visit one time - it's interesting, unique, etc...but it's a shithole, esp. after Katrina.

 

[John]

Temple brought a lot of fans to the Garden for the Syraucse game earlier this year.

If they could get a NYC venue, here's how they could run it:

Day 1:
#10 ECU vs. #7 USF 2,000 fans
#9 Tulane vs. #8 SMU 2,500 fans

Day 2:
NIGHT
#8 SMU vs. #1 UConn 11,500 fans
#7 USF vs. #2 Memphis 8,000 fans

DAY
#6 Houston vs. #3 Cincy 5,500 fans
#5 UCF vs. #4 Temple 7,000 fans

Day 3:
#1 UConn vs. #4 Temple 19,000
#2 Memphis vs. #3 Cincy 16,000

Day 4:
#1 UConn vs. #2 Memphis 19,000

my God, those brackets really put things into perspective don't they, Jimminy Crickets that sucks!

 

[junglehusky]

my God, those brackets really put things into perspective don't they, Jimminy Crickets that sucks!

Yep, this thread is pretty craptacular for my mood.

 

[MattMang23]

My suggestions for new BET cities:

Chattanooga, TN
Akron, OH
Norfolk, VA
Gary, IN
Cedar Rapids, IA
Harrisburg, PA
and Birmingham, AL

A bunch of small, random, crappy cities for a bunch of small-time, randomly assembled, crappy schools (except UConn).