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Atlantic 10 Tournament Site Preference?


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How about corn country, Olean, New York? Not a chance huh...

Good sites might be Philly, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Buffalo, or St. Louis. Just a thought!....

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Orlando or New Orleans. A two-hour flight is a two-hour flight. Might as well go someplace fun and warm. :)

This is what the West Coast Conference does. No teams in Vegas or even Nevada, but they make it a destination event in Las Vegas.

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This is what the West Coast Conference does. No teams in Vegas or even Nevada, but they make it a destination event in Las Vegas.

Charleston could be a bit like that for the A10. I think the best way to sell tickets would be DC. Without Temple, Philly doesn't have much cache.

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This is what the West Coast Conference does. No teams in Vegas or even Nevada, but they make it a destination event in Las Vegas.

The A-10 tried that with Atlantic City and it was a failure (and I say that as someone who went 3 times). Other cities might but better but I think cities with fans would be better (no problem with Philly or DC but why not Springfield, MA or Hartford, CT or Halifax, NS) ;) ?

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Vegas or New Orleans.

Realistically, DC or Atlantic City. AC was always a blast and dirty :)

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No matter where you go, you're going to be a vagabond. So it really doesn't matter from a league's perspective, attendance will likely be the same no matter where we go. There might have been a bounce in NYC but I doubt it. I know I talked to a few Brooklynites who were there in the arena just to fulfill their basketball junkie habit. It wasn't that much but it will likely peak there.

We lived through this in various stages over the past two decades. When we were in the MCC and the site was the old Market Square Arena, attendance mimicked what one saw in AC and Brooklyn. If a title game was between Detroit and Loyola, few showed. If it involved Xavier (which it always seemed to) maybe half the arena would be filled.

Then in the Great Midwest and CUSA, we went to a rotational aspect that worked for some, not others. St. Louis hosted at Savvis in Jeff Harris' senior year and with a bad team, we bowed out early and the overall attendance was not good. But play it in Cincinnati or Louisville or Memphis and it was much different. Of course, this gave home court advantages to those teams but those teams also traveled well. The year we went to Birmingham was similar to St. Louis ---- but warmer so it was golf when we bowed out early there.

Dayon got like three straight tournament hostings and that led to the eventual breakup of the GMW. Even with mediocre teams, Dayton was still playing at home and still getting an unfair advantage with th epotential prize a trip to the Dance.

With one team in Ohio, I doubt Columbus is even considered. Plus it's Buckeye territory. St. Louis is the far western outpost -- forget it. And if both Dayton and Saint Louis up for "greener" pastures, the A10 would be foolish to move it past the Pennsylvania state line. Duquesne is inconsequential in Pittsburgh. Richmond might be too far south as St. Louis is west. W/o NYC, either Philly or DC becomes the A10's center of gravity. And Philly even less with Temple long gone. One also has to wonder what if any role the league HQ being in Norfolk plays? Probably not much but the first letter in A10 is "Atlantic."

No matter the site, if you judge success by attendance, I think you lose. If you judge by amentities for fans, I'd go AC, DC, NYC and Philly. I think in that scenario, AC has the smallest costs to the traveller in terms of hotel rooms and all. Of course, you can't get there from here via air. Of course, this same issue exists in the current Big East in terms of remoteness for SLU fans because they are locked in at MSG.

In the per diem wars I engage in, some of the cheapest cities for air fare and hotels are Vegas and Orlando. Of course, go there and the perception becomes "Sin City" and "Disney World."

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Agree TAJ, its not going west of the Alleghenies. I always get this impression that the A10 treats us and Dayton like we have one foot out the door. This was evident when A10 selected Davidson over any number of schools west the Alleghenies (ie Belmont). Through the 90s I watched a lot of SoCon basketball, fun to watch among themselves but it is bad basketball. We have more of a chance landing a Larry Hughes level player then Davidson landing another Stephen Curry. I am happy that I will be able to catch a same day up and back game at Davidson.

Best places for the A10 Tourney: First choice, Verizon Ctr, DC (if its available). Back up, bring it back to Atlantic City.

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