T-Mobile Center (formerly Sprint Center)

[beautyfromashes]

The reason you've seen the change on Grand is because they have more sponsor interest now than ever before. So they've gotten rid of activations that didn't make them money, like the basketball court in favor of other activations where the sponsors will pay more for the space.

I'm not saying it's better because I think this year's grand setup was a bit lame as far as fan experience goes.

This makes sense and was honest about some of the shortcomings this year. I was expecting it to be really crazy crowded and busy that week, but it wasn't. I thought that you would have all the new teams coming in to see the new conference, but it was actually kind of sparce. It might have just been that the local teams were not as strong this year, but I wonder if having the final on Sunday instead of Saturday would be better. This would give two games on Saturday and four on Friday. We need to work to have a more party atmosphere next year in the Crossroads and throughout downtown.

[DColeKC]

The reason you've seen the change on Grand is because they have more sponsor interest now than ever before. So they've gotten rid of activations that didn't make them money, like the basketball court in favor of other activations where the sponsors will pay more for the space.

I'm not saying it's better because I think this year's grand setup was a bit lame as far as fan experience goes.

This makes sense and was honest about some of the shortcomings this year. I was expecting it to be really crazy crowded and busy that week, but it wasn't. I thought that you would have all the new teams coming in to see the new conference, but it was actually kind of sparce. It might have just been that the local teams were not as strong this year, but I wonder if having the final on Sunday instead of Saturday would be better. This would give two games on Saturday and four on Friday. We need to work to have a more party atmosphere next year in the Crossroads and throughout downtown.

Downtown has been very lucky with how things have worked out most years but this year was the combination of all the worst factors. Mostly speaking about what teams made it deeper into the tournament. If you get to Friday with no Iowa-State, KU or K-State, it's not good. By Friday, they were down to Arizona, Houston, BYU and Texas Tech. BYU had a good amount of fans show up but they're not into the party scene.

[KCPowercat]

I've worked very closely with the conference and they are all in on KC. They know they won't get the buy in like they do here in any other market. They're working closer with the city, sports commission and PNL than ever before. They sell more tickets than almost any other conference tournament which they attribute to having the best overall tournament location in the country due to symmetry with PNL and downtown. The new schools have expressed nothing but positive responses to the city and overall tournament.

The reason you've seen the change on Grand is because they have more sponsor interest now than ever before. So they've gotten rid of activations that didn't make them money, like the basketball court in favor of other activations where the sponsors will pay more for the space.

I'm not saying it's better because I think this year's grand setup was a bit lame as far as fan experience goes.

That's why I've been more shocked in it doesn't appear there are many corporate sponsors at all. Phillips was like the only real company this year. I was surprised in not seeing more.

[DColeKC]

I've worked very closely with the conference and they are all in on KC. They know they won't get the buy in like they do here in any other market. They're working closer with the city, sports commission and PNL than ever before. They sell more tickets than almost any other conference tournament which they attribute to having the best overall tournament location in the country due to symmetry with PNL and downtown. The new schools have expressed nothing but positive responses to the city and overall tournament.

The reason you've seen the change on Grand is because they have more sponsor interest now than ever before. So they've gotten rid of activations that didn't make them money, like the basketball court in favor of other activations where the sponsors will pay more for the space.

I'm not saying it's better because I think this year's grand setup was a bit lame as far as fan experience goes.

That's why I've been more shocked in it doesn't appear there are many corporate sponsors at all. Phillips was like the only real company this year. I was surprised in not seeing more.

There were a bunch more than that including WhatsApp who did a huge buy with them.

[TheUrbanRoo]

I'm not really why the Big 12 doesn't just run it from Wed-Sun so that way one of either Friday, Saturday & Sundays game can almost assuredly get one of the local Big 12 teams playing? I don't really get the appeal of holding the champ game on Saturday night. Big 10 does there's Sunday too.

[grovester]

I'm not really why the Big 12 doesn't just run it from Wed-Sun so that way one of either Friday, Saturday & Sundays game can almost assuredly get one of the local Big 12 teams playing? I don't really get the appeal of holding the champ game on Saturday night. Big 10 does there's Sunday too.

They were worried that a game too close to selection time for the ncaa would affect seedings.

[KCPowercat]

It's well established that fear is unfounded and the bracket is done by Friday for the most part. They should move back to Thursday to Sunday but they can't now with BYU.

[KCPowercat]

I've worked very closely with the conference and they are all in on KC. They know they won't get the buy in like they do here in any other market. They're working closer with the city, sports commission and PNL than ever before. They sell more tickets than almost any other conference tournament which they attribute to having the best overall tournament location in the country due to symmetry with PNL and downtown. The new schools have expressed nothing but positive responses to the city and overall tournament.

The reason you've seen the change on Grand is because they have more sponsor interest now than ever before. So they've gotten rid of activations that didn't make them money, like the basketball court in favor of other activations where the sponsors will pay more for the space.

I'm not saying it's better because I think this year's grand setup was a bit lame as far as fan experience goes.

That's why I've been more shocked in it doesn't appear there are many corporate sponsors at all. Phillips was like the only real company this year. I was surprised in not seeing more.

There were a bunch more than that including WhatsApp who did a huge buy with them.

It was underwhelming at best. I expected much more given the new teams and media markets exposed by those new teams..maybe it grows as this was year 1. I've been going to the tournament every year since Kemper days and expected better. I remember better corporate exposure first years at sprint center

[DColeKC]

It's well established that fear is unfounded and the bracket is done by Friday for the most part. They should move back to Thursday to Sunday but they can't now with BYU.

Excellent point on BYU. They will not, under any circumstances, play on Sunday. Not sure how that would work if they landed on a Sunday in the NCAA tourney.

[KCPowercat]

The NCAA schedules around them to never have to