PAC 12 BASKETBALL TOURNEYS MOVING

[EPJr]

Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament
Moving To Las Vegas


The Pac-12 basketball tournament is finishing up its final season at the Staples Center. The Los Angeles site has always been criticized for its generally poor attendance, particularly when the LA schools are not competitive or involved in the final few contests.

That's about to change, and probably for the relative benefit of all the programs and their fans. Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News has more.

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Pac-12 moving 2013 women's basketball tournament
to The Seattle Key Arena


The Pac-12 will play its women's basketball tournament in Seattle in 2013, the conference announced today.

Under the new agreement, the tournament will be held at KeyArena through 2015. The championship game will be shown on ESPN2.

In moving the tournament from Los Angeles — its home since 2009 — the league hopes to tap into a solid women's basketball market. The WNBA's Seattle Storm averaged 8,658 fans per game last season.

Read more: Pac-12 moving 2013 women's basketball tournament to Seattle - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_2 ... z1ovvOQzxQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bluehenbillk]

Pac 12 tourney will be fun - put that on the bucket list!!

[93henfan]

I thought the NCAA was staunchly opposed to having tournament games in states with sports wagering.

[Grizalltheway]

I thought the NCAA was staunchly opposed to having tournament games in states with sports wagering.

They were for it before they were agin it.

[dbackjon]

I thought the NCAA was staunchly opposed to having tournament games in states with sports wagering.

Both Mountain West and WAC had there tourneys in Vegas this year.

[SuperHornet]

I don't like it.

1. Splitting the tournaments loses the logistical economies of scale. When you co-locate the tournaments, you only have one set of location staff, equipment, etc., to worry about. Essentially, you need one on-site conference team to rig and secure and one fleet of trucks to transport the gear. Split the tournament, and you screw all that up.

2. Sending one tournament to a point outside the conference footprint says that they don't care about attendance. There will be too many distractions for fans there.

3. The same distractions will be on the players and coaches, and that will be worse. They'll have to have coaches STRICTLY enforcing curfew to keep the players off the alcohol and out of the casinos. This is a NCAA violation waiting to happen.

4. Sending the other to the Pac-NW will kill attendance (outside of the local schools) because fewer fans will travel to an area notorious for rain.

I know CO and UT may be playing into this, but either establishing a traditional site where the tourneys are co-located or rotating it amongst SF/LA/PHX/DEN/SLC with the location announced ahead of time would be the way to go. Each of these locations have NBA-caliber arenas with adequate hotels and parking. All it would take would be a little coordination with the NBA schedulers to get the local team out of town for the duration of the tournament.

[Shellin]

I don't like it.

1. Splitting the tournaments loses the logistical economies of scale. When you co-locate the tournaments, you only have one set of location staff, equipment, etc., to worry about. Essentially, you need one on-site conference team to rig and secure and one fleet of trucks to transport the gear. Split the tournament, and you screw all that up.

2. Sending one tournament to a point outside the conference footprint says that they don't care about attendance. There will be too many distractions for fans there.

3. The same distractions will be on the players and coaches, and that will be worse. They'll have to have coaches STRICTLY enforcing curfew to keep the players off the alcohol and out of the casinos. This is a NCAA violation waiting to happen.

4. Sending the other to the Pac-NW will kill attendance (outside of the local schools) because fewer fans will travel to an area notorious for rain.

I know CO and UT may be playing into this, but either establishing a traditional site where the tourneys are co-located or rotating it amongst SF/LA/PHX/DEN/SLC with the location announced ahead of time would be the way to go. Each of these locations have NBA-caliber arenas with adequate hotels and parking. All it would take would be a little coordination with the NBA schedulers to get the local team out of town for the duration of the tournament.

The Women's tournament was only in LA for two years, and it was played at the Galen Center, not Staples. It drew reasonably well when they played it up in the Bay Area (because Stanford and Cal are always good) but had absolutely abysmal attendance when they moved it to LA. Seattle is an interesting choice, but it should draw better than LA still. I think the rotating arena idea is a good idea for the Women's tournament. It is never going to be a particularly big event, so let a bunch of different areas and fans have a shot at hosting.

As for the Men's tournament, no one goes to Los Angeles for it. The only times they had even mediocre attendance was the three year run of Final Fours UCLA had. Vegas gives people another reason besides just basketball to go, honestly every single Pac-12 fan that I know absolutely loves the decision to move the tournament.

[SuperHornet]

Yeah, Shellin. I know EXACTLY what's going to happen.

Dude tells his wife and his boss he's going to the Pac-12 tournament. He arrives in Vegas and flees the tournament and spends his days in the casinos and his nights looking for "escorts." After all, what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas.

[pantherrob82]

I thought the NCAA was staunchly opposed to having tournament games in states with sports wagering.

Both Mountain West and WAC had there tourneys in Vegas this year.

And the WCC

[bluehenbillk]

I don't like it.

...or rotating it amongst SF/LA/PHX/DEN/SLC with the location announced ahead of time would be the way to go. Each of these locations have NBA-caliber arenas with adequate hotels and parking. All it would take would be a little coordination with the NBA schedulers to get the local team out of town for the duration of the tournament.

Huh? MGM Grand is high-caliber, adequate hotels in Vegas? You're kidding me right? Parking? You probably don't even need a car & if you do you can park valet for free at any Vegas casino. Cmon, sounds like you're against it because the wife goes with you....

[SuperHornet]

BlueHen: I'm not married, so that argument doesn't fly. Well, not all the way, anyway.

The problem with Vegas hotels isn't oppulence. It's the distraction of the casinos and strip joints. Hotel availability would be an issue because of the presence of their "normal" clientele. They'd have to block off large segments of the available rooms with no guarantee that they'd be sold. That's easier to deal with in places without scads of out-of-towners coming in to lose their life savings on the slot machines and poker tables.

And then there's the problem of the books....