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Basketball Conf Tournament moving to Huntsville, Al

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BlueAlpha

Blue Raider Fan
Aug 24, 2015
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On a 2-year deal, with an option to extend. Granted, I rarely give the league office props, but I can’t find a lot to quibble about here. I used to occasionally travel to Huntsville on business and always found it enjoyable. I confess I am still not sure what the future footprint of this far-flung league will look like, but it certainly helps MT, W KY & Jax St.
Credit to the league office, based in Dallas, for being able to look at alternative options outside D-FW.
 
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This is absolutely ideal as a 'neutral' location. Closer than B'ham.

Lived in the Hsv area for a couple of decades, great town. I attended concerts and college and minor league hockey there. Nice arena and not a freaking cavernous barn of a facility.
 
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ewglenn said:
Absolutely the best case scenario for MT fans! Judy and co are doing solid with CUSA 4.0.
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I'd like to know what role the conference politics played in this decision. Absolutely smart and surprising move by the conference. Maybe MT's decision to stay and wku's tag along role in not moving to the MAC played a part?
 
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Excellent location for us. I always thought Chattanooga would be a great location but this is a good second option if you go the small town route.
 
Wow. Between this and the new media deal, something is going on. Still very mixed emotions on the stability as well as some of the new additions. But this is a very good step. I give credit when due and it is due for this.
 
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I honestly think Ian McCaw at Liberty is a big driver in all of this.
 
ewglenn said:
I honestly think Ian McCaw at Liberty is a big driver in all of this.
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I agree. G5 Guys posted a question on Twitter on who you feel would be a top G5 program in 5yrs. Liberty was my answer. I don't think they will miss a beat with Chadwell (some could argue improve) and they have $ out the wazoo.
 
MidTennMtneer said:
I agree. G5 Guys posted a question on Twitter on who you feel would be a top G5 program in 5yrs. Liberty was my answer. I don't think they will miss a beat with Chadwell (some could argue improve) and they have $ out the wazoo.
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Not to mention Ian is an elite AD. Ethically he is a POS but I can’t deny he is unethically good at what he does.
 
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Well, now you have Liberty, Jacksonville st, Kennesaw, FIU, us and WKU That's 6 out of 10 closer to this location. It makes sense. We may not have a friggin curtain for a backdrop. Sheesh. It's the right move. 1.5 hrs away for us.
 
blueraiderJT said:
Well, now you have Liberty, Jacksonville st, Kennesaw, FIU, us and WKU That's 6 out of 10 closer to this location. It makes sense. We may not have a friggin curtain for a backdrop. Sheesh. It's the right move. 1.5 hrs away for us.
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I've made so many trips back and forth, I could almost do it with my eyes closed. First good decision out of CUSA in many years.
 
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Excellent decision. It's a easy drive for 4 schools (KSU, JSU, MT, WKU) while the remaining schools (LaTech, Liberty, UTEP, NMSU, FIU, SHSU) can get their with a day drive or a Southwest flight to Nashville / Birmingham and a short drive.

I will admit, however, that in a conference spread across 3 time zones, there's not an easy neutral site for ALL programs.
 
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AustinLewis said:
Excellent decision. It's a easy drive for 4 schools (KSU, JSU, MT, WKU) while the remaining schools (LaTech, Liberty, UTEP, NMSU, FIU, SHSU) can get their with a day drive or a Southwest flight to Nashville / Birmingham and a short drive.

I will admit, however, that in a conference spread across 3 time zones, there's not an easy neutral site for ALL programs.
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Which is why I'm ok with it moving every few years. I think two is a bit short due to marketing budgets etc. But four or five then move to another area.

My one request is to only use venues that can truly be set up for basketball. No more curtains. There is zero reason one court can't be used. Sure it adds a few more days to the tournament, but worth it in my opinion.

If length of tournament is a true concern, have the first round become true play-in games and be on campus. Start in the central locale for Round 2. Maybe follow the WCC bracket format with 10 teams. Lots of options.
 
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MidTennMtneer said:
I agree. G5 Guys posted a question on Twitter on who you feel would be a top G5 program in 5yrs. Liberty was my answer. I don't think they will miss a beat with Chadwell (some could argue improve) and they have $ out the wazoo.
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They will struggle to keep to athletes at LU with that schools culture. They have the entire city watching the kids and reporting to the school if anything is unchristian like behavior.
 
MidTennMtneer said:
Which is why I'm ok with it moving every few years. I think two is a bit short due to marketing budgets etc. But four or five then move to another area.

My one request is to only use venues that can truly be set up for basketball. No more curtains. There is zero reason one court can't be used. Sure it adds a few more days to the tournament, but worth it in my opinion.

If length of tournament is a true concern, have the first round become true play-in games and be on campus. Start in the central locale for Round 2. Maybe follow the WCC bracket format with 10 teams. Lots of options.
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Just have the women's the week before in the same city. Next should be the Atlanta area, you have an new arena in CP by the airport, Henry County is building a new Civic Center, Gwinnett has an arena
 
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mtfblue said:
Just have the women's the week before in the same city. Next should be the Atlanta area, you have an new arena in CP by the airport, Henry County is building a new Civic Center, Gwinnett has an arena
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That is probably what they will do. Most other conferences do.

My thought was the only good thing about Frisco was being able to have Men's and Women's the same week so a fan can take a week off and attend both tournaments.
 
Reading up on Propst Arena. It is an attractive multi-level capacity facility. Read there are 2 different seating capacities. One statement was 8,000, the other showed 10,000. Anticipate the additional 2,000 seat count is for a concert upgrade.
Nonetheless I think 8,000 is close to perfect for a postseason tournament venue. In the event of a MT vs WKU match-up Could easily see a minimum of 80% capacity. Would make for nice television viewing come tournament time
 
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MTFAN61 said:
Reading up on Propst Arena. It is an attractive multi-level capacity facility. Read there are 2 different seating capacities. One statement was 8,000, the other showed 10,000. Anticipate the additional 2,000 seat count is for a concert upgrade.
Nonetheless I think 8,000 is close to perfect for a postseason tournament venue. In the event of a MT vs WKU match-up Could easily see a minimum of 80% capacity. Would make for nice television viewing come tournament time
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You forget the gamecocks are about 1.5 hours away as well.
 
mtfblue said:
Just have the women's the week before in the same city. Next should be the Atlanta area, you have an new arena in CP by the airport, Henry County is building a new Civic Center, Gwinnett has an arena
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Hard pass no on this. First off, the league office likely doesn’t have the budget for their staff to be onsite 8-9 days, instead of 4-5 days when the 2 tourneys run concurrently. Hotel rooms, rental cars, per di‘em, a league like ours i can’t imagine can handle that.
For schools like MT, it puts another burden from both a financial and time management standpoint on fans who wish to attend both. Everything listed above times 2.
As far as the arena in College Park where the Dream play, it’s 2 miles from Hartsfield. Convenient for teams/fans flying in. But generally areas immediately around large city airports are hit/miss. Have lived in ATL 32 years, that’s certainly the case here.
Gas South Arena in Gwinnett is pretty good. Go to 5-6 concerts a year there. They have experience running SEC tournaments and the area around it is pretty good. 10 miles straight up I-85 to Mall of Georgia.
 
BlueAlpha said:
Hard pass no on this. First off, the league office likely doesn’t have the budget for their staff to be onsite 8-9 days, instead of 4-5 days when the 2 tourneys run concurrently. Hotel rooms, rental cars, per di‘em, a league like ours i can’t imagine can handle that.
For schools like MT, it puts another burden from both a financial and time management standpoint on fans who wish to attend both. Everything listed above times 2.
As far as the arena in College Park where the Dream play, it’s 2 miles from Hartsfield. Convenient for teams/fans flying in. But generally areas immediately around large city airports are hit/miss. Have lived in ATL 32 years, that’s certainly the case here.
Gas South Arena in Gwinnett is pretty good. Go to 5-6 concerts a year there. They have experience running SEC tournaments and the area around it is pretty good. 10 miles straight up I-85 to Mall of Georgia.
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What is this arena in downtown Atlanta, this must be newer...https://overtimeelite.com/about/arena
 
mtfblue said:
What is this arena in downtown Atlanta, this must be newer...https://overtimeelite.com/about/arena
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Good question! The ATL Journal-Constitution does a good job covering teams like GA ST & new brethren Kennesaw ST. I don’t recall reading any articles about this league nor it’s facility. It’s in the Atlantic Station development adjacent to I-75 and just north of GA Tech.
The development annually hosts weekly Beach volleyball and mens tennis tournaments. Along with multi month runs from Cirque du soleil events.
The arena only seats 1,300 so that would be a non-starter from our leagues standpoint.
 
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Another option in the near future could be the facility they are building off 840. I THINK that facility will include a smaller arena that could be great for CUSA.
 
AustinLewis said:
Another option in the near future could be the facility they are building off 840. I THINK that facility will include a smaller arena that could be great for CUSA.
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Are you speaking of the newly proposed $350 million Legacy Sports Complex? I do think it's supposed to have a multi use 6,000 seat arena. You may be speaking of another facility I'm not aware of though.
 
MTFAN61 said:
Are you speaking of the newly proposed $350 million Legacy Sports Complex? I do think it's supposed to have a multi use 6,000 seat arena. You may be speaking of another facility I'm not aware of though.
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That's the one I'm thinking of

Although, I haven't heard any more news since it was announced and a few follow up reports from planning / commissioner meetings
 
The Legacy park deal fell through, not going to happen. It always sounded a bit ambitious….
 
blue rai said:
The Legacy park deal fell through, not going to happen. It always sounded a bit ambitious….
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Was not aware of that. Good info though. That was to be the 2nd huge sports complex from same organization with the other in Arizona. Wonder if that one fell through as well.
 
MTFAN61 said:
Was not aware of that. Good info though. That was to be the 2nd huge sports complex from same organization with the other in Arizona. Wonder if that one fell through as well.
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As a follow up just saw an article stating the Arizona complex was losing almost $900,000/month as of last October. Too bad, being located centrally in the Southeast Legacy should have chosen Murfreesboro 1st. We would have had a much better opportunity for success. Nothing to be concerned about now though.
 
Not really into basketball, but I think this is a good move...for us anyway. Not sure the New Mexico State fans are too thrilled to have to travel to Huntsville AL. But whatever, they should be thankful we let them in.
 
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Really shows how ridiculous our conference footprint is. Would it not make more sense to have a Ga State, south Ala, Troy, Southern Miss Conference Playing in Huntsville? Why fly your volleyball team to New Mexico when they can bus to Atlanta and be back for school the next day?
 
blue rai said:
Really shows how ridiculous our conference footprint is. Would it not make more sense to have a Ga State, south Ala, Troy, Southern Miss Conference Playing in Huntsville? Why fly your volleyball team to New Mexico when they can bus to Atlanta and be back for school the next day?
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The Sun Belt has the same problem. It would make sense for the two conferences to work together and make them more regional, but that is not going to happen. Also, adding NMSU doesn't change that much as far as footprint because UTEP is not much closer.
 
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