(02-19-2012 02:41 PM)insideualr Wrote:  I like the mvc model of having a fixed site. The moving site is a bad thing, imo. When the host school goes out the crowd does too.

I don't know that there is a better city for the tournament.

Nt can drive over
Ualr and stAte can drive over
Ulm short drive

Everyone else has to travel to come but flights to little rock (45 minutes to hot springs) or direct to hot springs exist.

The 45 minute drive from the airport to the arena is no worse then any other "major" city that would host the tournament. Pick a city. NO? Dallas? Nashville (already has 2 tournaments)? Is the airport within 45 minutes of the arena?

It is a great site and i don't see anyone else asking us to drop by and host the tournament.

Nashville's Bridgestone Arena is located a little less than 15 minutes away from the airport. It'd be a great venue, IMO. But since the SBC is so spread out... It might be a challenge for some schools to travel well.

I'm not going to say that Hot Springs isn't a good site for us, or that they haven't welcomed us, or anything like that. But disregarding Denver, ONLY UNT has to drive East. That means that ASU, FAU, FIU, MTSU, Troy, UALR, ULL, ULM, USA, and WKU all have to drive westward. That tells me that Hot Springs probably isn't in the BEST location for our conference to grow in.

(02-19-2012 03:55 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  I'm not going to say that Hot Springs isn't a good site for us, or that they haven't welcomed us, or anything like that. But disregarding Denver, ONLY UNT has to drive East. That means that ASU, FAU, FIU, MTSU, Troy, UALR, ULL, ULM, USA, and WKU all have to drive westward. That tells me that Hot Springs probably isn't in the BEST location for our conference to grow in.

Agreed. I like Nashville a lot better. Without doing any calculations or whatever, I'd assume it's more reasonable for schools to go, and it's really close to MT and WKU, fairly close to stAte, Troy, UALR, ULM, and USA, and not terribly far away from ULL, UNT, FAU, and FIU. But Bridgestone already hosts the OVC tournament. It could be at a different date though. Chances are the overall attendance if held at Bridgestone would skyrocket compared to that at Hot Springs.

Are there any appropriate venues in Mississippi? Seems like a fair compromise geographically in a neutral state.

(02-19-2012 07:13 PM)Tiguar Wrote:  Are there any appropriate venues in Mississippi? Seems like a fair compromise geographically in a neutral state.

Don't really associated big cities with Mississippi so most likely not. But with Denver leaving the SBC tourney in Denver doesn't make sense considering students will pretty much never get to go.

I would love to see the tourney moved to Nashville or Birmingham. Much easier trip for everyone unless we add those three Texas teams. If that was the case a Louisiana venue could be a better option.

(02-19-2012 07:13 PM)Tiguar Wrote:  Are there any appropriate venues in Mississippi? Seems like a fair compromise geographically in a neutral state.

Southhaven, just outside Memphis

I agree. Southhaven or Birmingham would be ideal locations, but as we know the fans aren't the ones that submit the bids. Nashville already hosts the OVC, Atlantic Sun, and women's SEC tournament. I don't have the figures in front of me, but I would venture to guess that MT, WKU, USA, and UNT have consistently had the highest attendance over the past few years, and the current location really only caters to one of those schools. Birmingham would put MT, WKU, USA, and Troy within a 4 hour drive. stAte, ULM, and UALR within 5.5 hours. Louisiana's drive would get about 45 minutes worse. That's about as good as you can get considering North Texas and the Florida schools will always be geographical outliers.

I did a comparison a couple years ago with several cities including Hot Springs, New Orleans, Mobile, Birmingham, Pensacola, Biloxi, and Jackson, MS. I'm not sure what other cities I included, but I want to say I included Huntsville, AL as well. The ideal city in terms of location seemed to be Jackson, with Biloxi being a very good choice as well. I know Biloxi is only an hour away from South, but that is geographically a centralized location fair to the outliers on each side.

(02-19-2012 10:33 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  I did a comparison a couple years ago with several cities including Hot Springs, New Orleans, Mobile, Birmingham, Pensacola, Biloxi, and Jackson, MS. I'm not sure what other cities I included, but I want to say I included Huntsville, AL as well. The ideal city in terms of location seemed to be Jackson, with Biloxi being a very good choice as well. I know Biloxi is only an hour away from South, but that is geographically a centralized location fair to the outliers on each side.

I haver got to admit that I loved Hot Springs even with the long drive from Lafayette---great to have 2 courts right there together---The back needs another hot bath and towel with massage--great!!!!

(02-19-2012 10:33 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  I did a comparison a couple years ago with several cities including Hot Springs, New Orleans, Mobile, Birmingham, Pensacola, Biloxi, and Jackson, MS. I'm not sure what other cities I included, but I want to say I included Huntsville, AL as well. The ideal city in terms of location seemed to be Jackson, with Biloxi being a very good choice as well. I know Biloxi is only an hour away from South, but that is geographically a centralized location fair to the outliers on each side.

Hell, Biloxi has casinos. At least if your team checked out early, you wouldn't have to.

Hot springs has plenty of gambling and a horse track.