I have enjoyed my visits to Birmingham.There is plenty to do and I do not have enough time(or $) to tour everything that is of interest.

(02-28-2017 12:00 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  

(02-28-2017 11:12 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  

(02-28-2017 09:50 AM)monarx Wrote:  I think it's important that there are other things to do in the area. Many people are only going to go to the session their team is in, and people need to build a vacation around the event since you're traveling a 1000 miles and taking nearly a week off work. If a person brings their spouse and kids there need to be other attractions other than the tournament. If you're asking fans from Florida, Virginia, West Virginia etc to go to El Paso there needs to be more fun there than the Bahamas since the Bahamas are closer. This conference's hoops tournament just can't stand on its own. The geography is too spread out, the fan bases too small, and the hoops too poor. It needs a great location and other events to prop it up. A parade, battle of the bands, pep rallys, socials, golf tournaments, meet the players/coaches type events, community outreach could all be part of the effort. But then again, no-sizzle Judy is in charge.

Well most with school aged kids like me are not going to pull the kids out of school for Wed-Friday basketball....Spring break is Lexington is not until the first week of April and I know for a fact its the same for Bowling Green....

Why not just grab some friends and make it a guys trip?

My parents go every year mainly for the women's team...

I would make it a guys trip if our men's team ever becomes respectable again which I am hoping starts next season...That's why selfishly I am hoping from Birmingham next year, El Paso is out of the question....Plus even among my friends I am only die hard WKU fan, I might be able to scrap 1 or 2 other fellow WKU alumn's to go but WKU is not big time enough even for most of the people who graduated from WKU and live in BG....Here in this state its all about the Cayats and Cards....Most of my other WKU alumn friends are in Nashville supporting the cayats(sad I know but what else can you do?)...NOw with that being said, when we played UK in Nashville or if we play at LP field again, WKU alumns come out of the woodwork to tailgate and be there...Seems like football make it easier for friends to get together for out of town trips like that...

(02-28-2017 11:59 AM)hooverblazer Wrote:  

(02-28-2017 11:08 AM)stanman505 Wrote:  My point is that people complain that there are no fans in the stands and yet people say they will only be going to the session in which their team plays. Having a "destination" might draw an extra 100 fans to an individual session. The tournament needs to be awarded to the city/location with the highest bid. The conference is too spread out for anything else.

Exactly. The draw of the tournament IS the tournament. When fans skip out on other sessions they are part of the problem for the weak attendance. Granted I live in Bham, but I'm taking off work for 3 days and going to every game of the tournament next week regardless of when or if UAB is playing.

The draw of the tournament is my team.

I went to four conference tournaments when we were in the Sun Belt and I didn't watch MT exclusively, but I didn't watch an entire game at any point other than our two teams.

My friends and I did play a 72 hole putt putt tournament with a green jacket awarded at the end two of those years.

Part of the problem? Nope, we were there to cheer for the Blue Raiders and have a blast elsewhere, not watch Arkansas State vs ULM or UNT vs South Alabama et al.

Of course we were students at the time, so we got in whenever we wanted with student IDs, so we didn't have to worry about buying sessions we had no intention of attending. Perhaps I'd have a different approach now, especially if I had paid for the full book of sessions, but with all due respect, I have little to no interest in watching most of this league play basketball. In case you haven't heard, we aren't very good...as a league I mean.

Until they stop the stupid rule that that there has to be two arena's to hold the mens and womens tourney's at the same time, the CUSA tournament is always going to be played in empty gyms, at uncool towns where one team has a home court advantage.

(02-16-2017 12:55 PM)Thegoldstandard Wrote:  

(02-15-2017 04:51 PM)UTSAMarineVet09 Wrote:  Why not somewhere in the vicinity of Biloxi, Mobile or Pensacola?

Southern miss has bid in the last couple of years. The problem with our situation is the lack of a 2nd facility for the first 2 days of the womens.

Is there no arena in Gulfport or close by? As you know Gulfport is a 10 minute drive from Biloxi.

Lets get real to the fact that most people on this board complaining about where the tourney will be held...

will not go unless it's a easy 20 to 60 minute drive. Other than that they will keep their butts home in front of the TV. Western fans ***** about the location no matter where it's at. New Orleans, too far. Hot Springs, too far. Little Rock, too far. On HH (Western message board) all we ever heard was Nashville or B'ham and our fans would go. Well from my experience of being at the last 6 conference tourneys for Western....

the same amount of people that made the 8 hour drive to New Orleans and the 9 hour drive to Hot Springs and the 10 hour drive to Denton TX. Fans love to cry about reasons why they can't go.

As I said it will be about the same Western fans that made the long drive that also go to B'ham. A 3 hour drive.

Point is fans want to ***** about reasons why they would go...bu that's mostly all it is. Other than as I said...a drive across town or a hour away.

Biloxi might be able to pull in more families than B'ham or any other place in CUSA other than S. Fla. It's a lot easier talking the wife into using vacation time and money to go somewhere that has a beach, ocean, casinos, many many shows, golf, fishing. And it's a quick 60 minutes away from New Orleans if they really wanted to party. Room rates are better than B'ham, with better hotels, for the most part.

CUSA could do a lot worse than Biloxi

70 miles from S. Miss
5 hours from Tech
4.5 hours from B'ham
7 hours from Middlle
8 hours from Western
6 hours from Houston


Easy to fly into New Orleans (probably best rates) rent a car and make a hour drive.

(02-17-2017 09:29 AM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  I know a lot of folks bitched about it........ but I loved Hot Springs for the Sun Belt tourney. Wouldn't mind going back one day.

Great place to watch basketball and fans get treated like they are wanted. Small arena but 4 to 5k will make it look and sound like 12k. Yes it's "small time" but just in case anyone hasn't noticed, yet. CUSA is no better.

(02-24-2017 10:42 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(02-24-2017 10:19 AM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  

(02-24-2017 10:17 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  I actually hope El Paso gets it then Nashville then back to Birmingham. Still wold not be opposed to one in Biloxi.

Is there anywhere else on the Gulf Coast that is doable ? Pensacola ? Does Mobile have a civic center ?

Not opposed to Biloxi --- just wondering.

Pensacola or Biloxi would both be fun locations.

Pensacola looks like a boring city and it's still a good 20 minute drive to the beaches. Other than the beaches, golf, fishing, not much to do. But any place near the gulf is OK with me. Hotels are way higher in Pensacola than Biloxi and there ways more things to do in the Biloxi/Gulfport area. Not to mention New Orleans is a short drive. But the gulf changes once you get passed Orange beach heading west....

goes from the green/blue...to brown and nasty

(02-28-2017 11:59 AM)hooverblazer Wrote:  

(02-28-2017 11:08 AM)stanman505 Wrote:  My point is that people complain that there are no fans in the stands and yet people say they will only be going to the session in which their team plays. Having a "destination" might draw an extra 100 fans to an individual session. The tournament needs to be awarded to the city/location with the highest bid. The conference is too spread out for anything else.

Exactly. The draw of the tournament IS the tournament. When fans skip out on other sessions they are part of the problem for the weak attendance. Granted I live in Bham, but I'm taking off work for 3 days and going to every game of the tournament next week regardless of when or if UAB is playing.

Lets see..you get in free, correct? Now if you had to buy a ticket for yourself, your wife, little Johnny and a daughter would you still be going? Cost me $74 to attend one session for myself and son. So $148 for 4 x 2. If you are there for both sessions over priced drink and food adds another $50-$100 OK get back to me when you are welling to spend $200 to $$400 just to watch other schools play. And do that for 4 days

(02-28-2017 04:18 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(02-28-2017 11:59 AM)hooverblazer Wrote:  

(02-28-2017 11:08 AM)stanman505 Wrote:  My point is that people complain that there are no fans in the stands and yet people say they will only be going to the session in which their team plays. Having a "destination" might draw an extra 100 fans to an individual session. The tournament needs to be awarded to the city/location with the highest bid. The conference is too spread out for anything else.

Exactly. The draw of the tournament IS the tournament. When fans skip out on other sessions they are part of the problem for the weak attendance. Granted I live in Bham, but I'm taking off work for 3 days and going to every game of the tournament next week regardless of when or if UAB is playing.

Lets see..you get in free, correct? Now if you had to buy a ticket for yourself, your wife, little Johnny and a daughter would you still be going? Cost me $74 to attend one session for myself and son. So $148 for 4 x 2. If you are there for both sessions over priced drink and food adds another $50-$100 OK get back to me when you are welling to spend $200 to $$400 just to watch other schools play. And do that for 4 days

Not sure how you think I'm getting in free, but I wish that was the case! I bought two $180 all session passes for the wife and I. And yes I'll be eating lunch at the arena Wednesday-Friday and having dinner at Uptown in between the afternoon and evening sessions Wednesday and Thursday.

Here are some pictures of Municipal Auditorium in Nashville setup for the OVC tournament. I really think this venue is the perfect size to host our tournament.

I agree wholeheartedly with MT Fan and neither of us is biased in this opinion. Although, it really would be super convenient for the 20,000+ MT and 5,000+ WesternTopper Folks who live within about 20 miles of Municipal

(02-28-2017 09:50 AM)monarx Wrote:  I think it's important that there are other things to do in the area. Many people are only going to go to the session their team is in, and people need to build a vacation around the event since you're traveling a 1000 miles and taking nearly a week off work. If a person brings their spouse and kids there need to be other attractions other than the tournament. If you're asking fans from Florida, Virginia, West Virginia etc to go to El Paso there needs to be more fun there than the Bahamas since the Bahamas are closer. This conference's hoops tournament just can't stand on its own. The geography is too spread out, the fan bases too small, and the hoops too poor. It needs a great location and other events to prop it up. A parade, battle of the bands, pep rallys, socials, golf tournaments, meet the players/coaches type events, community outreach could all be part of the effort. But then again, no-sizzle Judy is in charge.

What needs to be kept in mind is that El Paso has already hosted two C-USA Tournaments before so it can be done again. Granted there is no more Memphis in this league, there is no more Orlando (UCF) or New Orleans (Tulane) either. Yes some places that have tourist areas such as San Antonio or Miami could be great places to host the tournament............but it also takes fan support attendance to host a tournament and UTEP leads the league in basketball attendance and the tournament is also about making profits to the league.

(03-02-2017 05:20 PM)MT FAN Wrote:  Here are some pictures of Municipal Auditorium in Nashville setup for the OVC tournament. I really think this venue is the perfect size to host our tournament.

Make all seats $20 GM tickets with one exception. The section behind each bench must be cleared after each game and those fans sit else where. So those can go to the fans of the school playing. B'ham is awful about not giving the seats behind the bench to the fans of the schools playing.

I could understand that if they were drawing 15k but it's more like 1500 or under unless a few team are playing. I know if any fans from former SBC schools made the tourney in Hot Springs you will know it works best this way. With the conference they way it is today with very little fan support. You could not beat Hot Springs as a tourney sitting

This horse has been beaten to death... multiple times. I think everyone (including UAB fans) think it's fair for the CUSA tournament to move around a little. Unfortunately there just haven't been any financially feasible or practical/logical alternatives. I do expect at some point that folks will get vocal enough and it will move away from Birmingham. But I also don't think it will take CUSA long to regret that decision once they do.

The "home" advantage argument holds little weight IMO when it doesn't appear to impact the overall outcome. Barring a miracle, in the 3 years of UAB hosting the tournament, only 1 of those 3 years will result in UAB winning the championship. In fact, it's not improbable that UAB could go 0-1 in the CUSA tournament yet again this year.

(03-07-2017 07:23 PM)Blazer85 Wrote:  This horse has been beaten to death... multiple times. I think everyone (including UAB fans) think it's fair for the CUSA tournament to move around a little. Unfortunately there just haven't been any financially feasible or practical/logical alternatives. I do expect at some point that folks will get vocal enough and it will move away from Birmingham. But I also don't think it will take CUSA long to regret that decision once they do.

The "home" advantage argument holds little weight IMO when it doesn't appear to impact the overall outcome. Barring a miracle, in the 3 years of UAB hosting the tournament, only 1 of those 3 years will result in UAB winning the championship. In fact, it's not improbable that UAB could go 0-1 in the CUSA tournament yet again this year.

I don't mind the tournament being in Birmingham as long as the city and school put together the best bid, even taking into account travel expenses. If El Paso/UTEP put up an equal bid vs Birmingham, I would expect the conference to vote for Birmingham because of the extra travel expense to El Paso. But if the El Paso/UTEP bid for any particular year makes better financial sense, then the conference should award it to EP. Or Shreveport or Dallas or Biloxi, etc., etc.