ASU fans are excited. They've already bought all the tickets the conference allocated the school for the SBC tournament, and the athletic department is picking up available tickets from other Sun Belt schools.

Looks like a home court advantage for ASU.

If we are going to designate home court advantages why don't we just run with it and give higher seeds home court advantage.

(02-04-2010 05:55 PM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  If we are going to designate home court advantages why don't we just run with it and give higher seeds home court advantage.

The conference can't help it ASU hired Brady and has its fan base excited. Oh! and ASU is the highest seed at the moment, so your statement is true.

It makes sense... ASU and UALR have the shortest to travel. :clap2:

(02-04-2010 05:55 PM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  If we are going to designate home court advantages why don't we just run with it and give higher seeds home court advantage.

Neutral site is the best way to go. no matter where you head there will always be someone with a bit of an edge. we've played our share of tourneys at Western Middle South Al and ULL for an army

(02-04-2010 08:50 PM)troy4ever21 Wrote:  It makes sense... ASU and UALR have the shortest to travel. :clap2:

Actually it is exactly the same distance to Hot Springs from Jonesboro as it is Monroe

(02-05-2010 12:07 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(02-04-2010 08:50 PM)troy4ever21 Wrote:  It makes sense... ASU and UALR have the shortest to travel. :clap2:

Actually it is exactly the same distance to Hot Springs from Jonesboro as it is Monroe

They aren't on top of the standings though.

(02-05-2010 12:18 PM)troy4ever21 Wrote:  

(02-05-2010 12:07 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(02-04-2010 08:50 PM)troy4ever21 Wrote:  It makes sense... ASU and UALR have the shortest to travel. :clap2:

Actually it is exactly the same distance to Hot Springs from Jonesboro as it is Monroe

They aren't on top of the standings though.

So we should wait and see who is atop the standings before we decide where to hold the tourny?

(02-05-2010 12:46 PM)statefanatic Wrote:  

(02-05-2010 12:18 PM)troy4ever21 Wrote:  

(02-05-2010 12:07 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(02-04-2010 08:50 PM)troy4ever21 Wrote:  It makes sense... ASU and UALR have the shortest to travel. :clap2:

Actually it is exactly the same distance to Hot Springs from Jonesboro as it is Monroe

They aren't on top of the standings though.

So we should wait and see who is atop the standings before we decide where to hold the tourny?

No, just stating that ASU is selling out of their tickets because it's within the state, so less traveling is involved. Also you guys are doing great and are on top of the standings... Just like Troy with the GMAC Bowl. It was close by and the Trojans were on top. So therefore more tickets are sold.

Don't recall UALR selling out their allotment last year and they are two hours closer than ASU and were contending in both tournaments.

(02-05-2010 02:31 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Don't recall UALR selling out their allotment last year and they are two hours closer than ASU and were contending in both tournaments.

Apparently their fan base didn't care, every fan base is different. I'm not saying every team will do this, but it makes sense why the sales are so high for ASU. For example, Denver isn't going to sell all of their tickets. Distance is an issue... leave it at that.

Of course distance is a factor. MT and WKU were present in good numbers last year, counting car flags MT took a slight edge.

(02-05-2010 02:38 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Of course distance is a factor. MT and WKU were present in good numbers last year, counting car flags MT took a slight edge.

WKU had more than us, but we had more than UALR (at least for the women).

I thought we also had more than North Tejas.

Get the league good enough to get the bulk of the games on the weekend and see a HUGE spike in attendance across the board.

UALR's mens fan base was on the ropes covering up hoping to survive the round after losing Steven Moore. We all new we were done at that point.

Me and the other hard core fans will be there for the whole tournament again. It is exciting to have the tournament this close. Now, if we left Hot Springs and the Southland started coming to Hot Springs for their tournament, I would go to the whole thing too.

If we left at the end of 3 years, I think Hot Springs would start looking at other conferences to see who would give Hot Springs some business.

Hot Springs had the Division II Women's Elite Eight, I doubt they chase that event again. I am sure that if we leave they will bid on the Southland, not that it has any impact on us if they do so, that's just a reflection of the fact that Hot Springs hustles for business. They were delighted with how last year went so they will continue to explore that tourism niche with us or without us, just as we will pursue what the presidents think is best for the conference.

(02-05-2010 12:46 PM)statefanatic Wrote:  So we should wait and see who is atop the standings before we decide where to hold the tourny?

I think we should have the games on the home court of the higher seed. Makes the regular season mean more and overall attendence would be maximized.

(02-06-2010 10:11 AM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(02-05-2010 12:46 PM)statefanatic Wrote:  So we should wait and see who is atop the standings before we decide where to hold the tourny?

I think we should have the games on the home court of the higher seed. Makes the regular season mean more and overall attendence would be maximized.

That sounds good but there are issues with that. We stopped having the "play-in" games due to last second travel issues, right? A state fan, what was the reason for that?

Costs too much to fly on a last minute basis and schools that have multi-purpose facilities don't want to do it because they have to block those dates and can't hold those vital tractor pulls and concerts on the one in 13 chance they have to host the tournament.

If there is a large event in town there is no assurance there will be sufficient last minute hotel space.

(02-06-2010 11:03 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  If there is a large event in town there is no assurance there will be sufficient last minute hotel space.

Right, because so many Sunbelt fans would travel that this would actually be a problem. Any loss in visiting fans would be more than offset by increased attendance from the home teams.

And which is cheaper flying 13 member teams at the last minute, or thousands of fans traveling to a neutral site?

Louisiana Lafayette, WKU, MTSU, North Texas, South Alabama, and probably UALR, Arkansas State, and Denver are all capable of getting 7000+ for a home game of this significance. That is signicantly more than any game in Hot Springs will draw.

The difference in attendance would pay for the extra travel expenses and the atmosphere and big time look would be good for recruiting (and for building Sunbelt fanbases).