Talk of anchoring Big 12 championships

[KCMax]

Great post wildcat. I think most everyone is in agreement, starting the tourney on Wednesday is an epic fail.

[jlbomega]

Great post wildcat. I think most everyone is in agreement, starting the tourney on Wednesday is an epic fail.

The whole arguement for moving the tournament was to allow the committee to take the Big 12 Championship game into consideration.  I think it is pretty obvious that the outcome of this tournament had no effect on their decision.  Move the championship back to Thursday-Sunday and play the championship game at noon.

[Highlander]

Therein lies the problem for Kansas City.   The two Oklahoma schools have, for whatever reasons, decided to cast their lots with the 4 schools in Texas.   That at minimum gets them a 50-50 split when it comes to any votes.   They voted to move the HQ to Dallas (over the North's objection) as well as to vote against Bob Frederick for first Big 12 commish when the league was founded.


I haven't seen any evidence yet to suggest they've changed.   And if it means voting for Dallas to have the fb/bb tourneys every so often in order to get their turn in the bb rotation, they'll definitely do it.

Getting football in Dallas on a full time basis should sweeten the pot for the southern schools.  It's basically a home game every year for the southern team but I think the northern schools would accept the trade-off to get the basketball tourney in KC permanently.  

If the Oklahoma schools vote with the Texas schools, it's to keep Oklahoma City in the rotation.  I understand that this year's tourney was not a big success for OKC and I could see support for OKC among the Texas schools wane as a result.  I could see the empty seats on the TV games I was able to watch and the women's tourney attendance was abysmal.  The tournament needs a tradition and that tradition is in KC.  

I still believe OKC's populace has lost interest in the tourney with the appearance of the NBA.  They may be nuts about college sports but really they are just nuts about college football.  With an NBA team, college basketball takes a back seat and college basketball without a local team in the championship (or the women's game) does not even get on the radar scene.    

[GRID]

I went to the Big XII tourny in OKC this year.  It was pretty much awful.  Many factors.  economy, scheduling (wednesday game was terrible idea), and weather (it snowed).  Their Bricktown district was depressing at best.  I went to the OKC tourny two years ago, when the district was pretty new, and many bars and restuarants were open.  Fastforward to 2009 and many of those bars were boarded up, vacant, or replaced by embarrasing tenants.  Overlooking their "river-walk" was a National Guard recruiting center, a haunted house, two boarded up spaces, a "coming-soon" dualing piano bar, and an art gallery. 

We went out on Wednesday night, Thursday morning, and Thursday mid-afternoon.  The place was a ghost town. 

This tournament needs to be in Kansas City for four reasons:

(1) Tradition
When I think about the Big East Tournament, I think of MSG/NYC.  The fans feel the same way.  The tradition fosters nostalgia, which has the potential to make the tournament a bit more coveted and emotional.  I think it cheapens it to rotate it year after year.  Sterile. 

(2) Proximity
KC is 30 minutes from KU, 1.5 hours from KSU, 2 hours from MU, 3.5 hours from NU, 4 hours from ISU.  OKC is close to OSU and OU, but everybody else is at least 5-6 hours away.  Fans from CU, Tech, A&M, UT, Baylor are so far away that they have to fly to either location.  KC is the logical choice.

(3) $$$
Because of the proximity, tradition, and quality of city (KC has much more to do than OKC, IMO), KC has and will draw a LOT more people than OKC.

(4) Football tradeoff
If the Big XII North schools would agree to trade football for basketball, I would bet the South schools like UT, OU and A&M would vote for the tradeoff. 

Great post.

[Maitre D]

Getting football in Dallas on a full time basis should sweeten the pot for the southern schools.  It's basically a home game every year for the southern team but I think the northern schools would accept the trade-off to get the basketball tourney in KC permanently.

Maybe, maybe not.  KU is definitely up for that, but do football schools like Nebraska and Colorado want to see the Title Game in Texas' backyard each year?  I suspect they don't.  Before this past 2 months, I'd be Mizzou would also prefer the rotation.  Probably KSU too since they won it at CamaroHead in 2003.   


I don't presume that all the North schools are into hoops and the South schools merely football. 

[StL_Dan]

It's bad enough that the Texas schools are now in "our" conference....why in the heck would we want "our" conference championship played in their state?  I'd rather see it stay in KC, or indoors in StL where it was originally played, if more favorable, consistent weather conditions are a consideration.  Screw Texas.

[WoodDraw]

It's bad enough that the Texas schools are now in "our" conference....why in the heck would we want "our" conference championship played in their state?   I'd rather see it stay in KC, or indoors in StL where it was originally played, if more favorable, consistent weather conditions are a consideration.   Screw Texas.

Hah, I agree.  I love the idea of anchoring basketball here; I just want football too. 

I'd get behind a long-term rotation, though.  Maybe 4 years in KC, one year in Texas for basketball, with the opposite for football?

[AllThingsKC]

This tournament needs to be in Kansas City for four reasons:

(1) Tradition
When I think about the Big East Tournament, I think of MSG/NYC.  The fans feel the same way.  The tradition fosters nostalgia, which has the potential to make the tournament a bit more coveted and emotional.  I think it cheapens it to rotate it year after year.  Sterile. 

(2) Proximity
KC is 30 minutes from KU, 1.5 hours from KSU, 2 hours from MU, 3.5 hours from NU, 4 hours from ISU.  OKC is close to OSU and OU, but everybody else is at least 5-6 hours away.  Fans from CU, Tech, A&M, UT, Baylor are so far away that they have to fly to either location.  KC is the logical choice.

(3) $$$
Because of the proximity, tradition, and quality of city (KC has much more to do than OKC, IMO), KC has and will draw a LOT more people than OKC.

(4) Football tradeoff
If the Big XII North schools would agree to trade football for basketball, I would bet the South schools like UT, OU and A&M would vote for the tradeoff. 

(5) The CBE.
Having the CBE as part of the Sprint Center can only help the game day experience.  GREAT PLACE for fans to hang out, learn about college basketball, and have some fun playing the various game.  As far as I know, OKC has nothing like the CBE...at least, not joined with their arena.

[Maitre D]

It's bad enough that the Texas schools are now in "our" conference....why in the heck would we want "our" conference championship played in their state?   I'd rather see it stay in KC, or indoors in StL where it was originally played, if more favorable, consistent weather conditions are a consideration.   Screw Texas.

STL had the 2nd title game, and failed miserably as a host town.  They sold something like 5K tix on their own, so they're booted from the rotation now.

But that's beside the point - what is your point exactly?  Of course we'd all like to have KC host both events every year.  Ain't possible.  I'm sure they don't want titles played in KC either.

[KCPowercat]

Basketball has never been played in St. Louis.

[KCPowercat]

More talk at media day

http://nebraska.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=969777

give the new Dallas mega stadium the football, we'll take the basketball and the big 12 would be happy I think.

[NDTeve]

As mentioned..only one with a gripe to this format would be Oklahoma City. But don't they already host baseball? The weakest of the 3 but they are the smallest city.

[KCPowercat]

Yeah base/softball is already anchored there.  They would probably be mad but they also don't want to give up baseball. 

Even though they are central overall, they only have 2 schools REALLY close that can help fill up extra seats vs. Who has 5 under 3 hours and dallas who has 4-5 within that distance? (kinda guessing on that)

Okc is a good bball host...I just think we're great at that event

[KCMax]

Big 12 to announce future tourney sites in June, but no permanent homes

The Big 12 will be looking to line up future championship sites by June, commissioner Dan Beebe said Monday, but it appears Kansas City won't become the permanent home for the basketball tournament this time around.

The conference will announce then where it will play its men's and women's basketball tournaments, football championship game and baseball tournaments, probably for a five-year period beginning with the 2011-12 school year.

But Beebe said not to expect any city to hold the event for the entire period.

Open seats cost Oklahoma City

Although previous tournaments in 2007 and 2009 were acceptable successes, they were trumped this week in Kansas City....

Fans packed the streets this week in Kansas City. More important, fans packed the Sprint Center (18,879).

Technically, every Big 12 men's tournament has been a sellout because each host organization is committed to buy all available seats that don't go to the institutions.

It's one thing to buy the seats. It's another thing to fill those seats, and too many unoccupied seats could be a potential deal-breaker in the future for Oklahoma City.

[KC-wildcat]

There are better fan combinations closer to Kansas City. The Sprint Center will fill up for KU, KSU, MU, ISU (and possibly Nebraska, which traveled well for the women?s team this week).

The Ford Center, however, will struggle if anyone other than OU, OSU, KU (and possibly KSU) is on the court. Big 12 North schools travel much better in basketball than South teams.

Don't be a dumbass Beebe.  Cut your puppet strings and do what's best for the conference, for once.  KC blows OKC out of the water. 

[LenexatoKCMO]

Don't be a dumbass Beebe. 

Are the league executive jobs on contract or term at will?  Its long past time that they cleaned that whole office out from top to bottom.  Even if we make it out of the next 12 months without shedding and teams, it will be TV renewal time here before long and there is no way we can afford to have these same idiots running things this time around. 

[KCMax]

NCAA official backs bill to create tax incentives for sports events in Missouri

Legislation in the Missouri Senate would provide a tax credit equal to 100 percent of the eligible costs incurred by local organizers or 50 percent of the increased tax revenues attributable to the sporting event, whichever is less. A similar House bill would offer tax credits of up to 90 percent of the increased tax revenues.

The incentives could be used not only for collegiate championships, but also for Olympic competitions, World Cup soccer and Davis Cup tennis matches, amateur golf events or national youth sporting events.

But its prospects appear bleak in the Missouri Senate, where some lawmakers are looking to curtail - not expand - state tax credits. Gov. Jay Nixon has acknowledged that his proposed 2011 budget faces $500 million shortfall, partly because of slumping state tax revenues.

[Spartan65]

It's time to end the experiment with OKC.  Keep basketball permanently in KC and football in Dallas. 

The problem with this logic is that the "experiment" with OKC has been nothing but positive. That's not to say OKC doesn't have problems it needs to deal with, primarily adding downtown hotel rooms. The reality though is that even KC has problems with that, and there will still be people having to stay in Overland Park, just as people in OKC had to stay in Edmond or Norman.

OKC has been just as competitive with the basketball tourney as KC has. We haven't "failed" at anything, and at least we never had any coaches complain about our city, like A&M's coach was complaining about KC. Come on, 3,000 for the women's championship? Yikes..

[KCMax]

The problem with this logic is that the "experiment" with OKC has been nothing but positive. That's not to say OKC doesn't have problems it needs to deal with, primarily adding downtown hotel rooms. The reality though is that even KC has problems with that, and there will still be people having to stay in Overland Park, just as people in OKC had to stay in Edmond or Norman.

OKC has been just as competitive with the basketball tourney as KC has. We haven't "failed" at anything, and at least we never had any coaches complain about our city, like A&M's coach was complaining about KC. Come on, 3,000 for the women's championship? Yikes..

Yea, the 4,340 OKC drew last year for the women's championship blew our attendance number out of the water. &&&

[Highlander]

The problem with this logic is that the "experiment" with OKC has been nothing but positive. That's not to say OKC doesn't have problems it needs to deal with, primarily adding downtown hotel rooms. The reality though is that even KC has problems with that, and there will still be people having to stay in Overland Park, just as people in OKC had to stay in Edmond or Norman.

OKC has been just as competitive with the basketball tourney as KC has. We haven't "failed" at anything, and at least we never had any coaches complain about our city, like A&M's coach was complaining about KC. Come on, 3,000 for the women's championship? Yikes..

For how many years was the tournament in KC (we are talking Big VIII, the SWC is irrelevant)?  OKC is indeed an experiment.  No great complaints but no rave reviews.  It serves the big XII well to put the tournament one city permanently.  It creates a tradition that is not going to be created by moving it around every year and people visiting know what to expect on a year to year basis.  If you want to move it around, open it up to Denver, San Antonio, St Louis, Omaha, Houston (god forbid) and other cities in the big XII and OKC is almost never going to get it.  KC has the tradition and it should stay that way.  There may be complaints from southern teams about the bias but you won't see them minding that the football tourney would be permanantly in Dallas. 

As for women's basketball attendance, it's a non issue.  I wish it was more a popular sport (I'm the father of a HS female athlete) but it's not and attendance is going to suffer regardless of where the tourney is held.  The attendance will be simply a function of who is in the final and how proximal it is to the location and how well the mens team did (so fans would stick around to watch the women's game).