NCAA Tournament Media Thread

[NDSUstudent]

Two things I would like to see for the Summit tournament is ...

1. An MVC style Thursday-Sunday format. Beg ESPN for it if need be, it would bring in more traveling fans from all schools.
2. Figure out how to gets fans of non-SDSU schools closer together. I am not saying hold huge blocks of seats but for NDSU 500 together at least would be nice but this is probably partly NDSU's issue.

[southcliffbison]

Two things I would like to see for the Summit tournament is ...

1. An MVC style Thursday-Sunday format. Beg ESPN for it if need be, it would bring in more traveling fans from all schools.
2. Figure out how to gets fans of non-SDSU schools closer together. I am not saying hold huge blocks of seats but for NDSU 500 together at least would be nice but this is probably partly NDSU's issue.

Totally agree with this......I live in Sioux Falls; go to most, but not all the SLT games. It's great being a part of a packed venue, even if it's mostly bunny fans. Yes, a Sunday championship game involving the Bison and whomever would definitely increase our fan base attendance. Heck, it's 3 hours from Fargo ( 80 mph now on SD interstates). If the game is over at 9 or 9:30, puts you back in Fargo or the vicinity around midnight and could still make it to work Monday morning. Been there, done that.

[Tatanka]

Totally agree with this......I live in Sioux Falls; go to most, but not all the SLT games. It's great being a part of a packed venue, even if it's mostly bunny fans. Yes, a Sunday championship game involving the Bison and whomever would definitely increase our fan base attendance. Heck, it's 3 hours from Fargo ( 80 mph now on SD interstates). If the game is over at 9 or 9:30, puts you back in Fargo or the vicinity around midnight and could still make it to work Monday morning. Been there, done that.

Assuming, of course that the state of south Dakota's lone snowplow has seen fit to maintain said interstate highway.

[NDSUFan_Sav]

What I don't get is where did all the Bison basketball fans go? Driven away by the shitty BSA? Chose football over basketball? Bison fan attendance at the Summit tourney was pathetic the past couple years.......even when there were big success stories going on? Talked.to an SDSU fan the other day who respects NDSU's winning tradition, but was surprised at low turnout at Summit as compared to football fan travel. All I could say is mid week games. But I think there is more to the story as Bison don't come close to capacity for home basketball games like they did in DII back in the early 1980's.

Were you in attendance in Sioux Falls?

[NDSUFan_Sav]

I'm not even saying that. I'm just stating based on attendance numbers compared to when the tournament was back in Tulsa, it would be IDIOTIC to switch the host city, especially with the brand new arena. It's all about making money, and right now, they are doing that in Sioux Falls and surpassing their expectations.

Dude all he's saying to open up blocks for each school to purchase tickets then if no purchases then open them to whoever, set a date for them to be purchased by if not anyone can purchase.

[southcliffbison]

Assuming, of course that the state of south Dakota's lone snowplow has seen fit to maintain said interstate highway.

Problem solved !!! This past spring, the SD legislature has appropriated funds for a second snow plow. Sleep well !

[1998braves64]

In 2009 I bought tickets as soon as they went on sale. We felt confident NDSU men would be in the championship, but knew possibility existed they could be eliminated the first game. Anyways since then have had 2 kids (#1 was 3 months old in March 2009 when we went).

My thoughts Sat-Tues is a bit of a buzzkill for traveling fans, a lot of fans would need to take Wed off also to return home or at least 1/2 of Wednesday. Unfortunately for me the Summit 2009 tournament was start of a lot of unpaid time off that came unexpectedly the day before the tournament started, so didn't really keep up the momentum for myself to go in 2010 as was too busy trying to keep family clothed and fed.

Wife and I have discussed it the past couple years but never really acted on it saving our money and paid time off for other things along with having used some of both for Frisco.

I think a thurs-Sun format would help substantially imo. Also it seems weird that NDSU doesn't market it more. I think many "casual" NDSU basketball fans don't really realize it's coming up until it's occurring then it goes back to getting time off from work, we're still too busy getting over FB national championship fever! Think about how much Bisonville gets its collective panties in a bunch when marketing doesn't market FB.

NDSU casual bball fans are not going to make the plans in Sept-Dec to worry about SLT when they possibly could be eliminated in first round. Then to get PTO off for Mon Tues Wed(?) to go back to work is a buzz kill. If I lived in Sioux Falls. I would do exactly what SDSU/USD fans do. No way would I ever want the SLT moved though. SF arena was better than Fargodome and that aint saying much. Assuming The Premiere Center is many steps above. The cool thing is they have a ton of room to spare so NDSU fans should have access to tickets for the foreseeable future if someone steps up and starts marketing to NDSU fans in Dec Jan. That said people with kids in grade school tend to not want to have to find a nanny for a few days that would send their kids to school for them etc. Frisco is different it's a one day event where you can take kids to other things around Dallas the other day(s). SLT is a 3 day (nearly all day) event at the same location and for some kids that would get rather old fast (pretty sure it would for both of my kids now as both can barely survive through one basketball game maybe 1 1/2). It was almost too much for my 3 month old in 2009, but we did go to a lot of the women's games too. That said it's always been on my radar since 2009 where we decided in August we were going to do it no matter what and bought tickets. Now with kids in school I'm not sure when next time I'll make it but it's always on the radar, even discussed making a one day roundtrip last year and this year just for championship game but didn't want to fight weather issues. Hope to make it again some year but not sure when.

[bisonfan08]

I hear a lot of complaining and I don't know why. I've been to the SLT every year but one since 2009 and it's easily one of the events I look forward to most during the year. Sioux Falls is a great host city, plenty of fun bars, restaurants and hotel space and the Denny is just an awesome venue. I don't see it moving, nor do I want it to, it's a great event and Bison fans just need to plan ahead for it. I take Mon, Tues and Wednesday morning off of work and head down on Friday night or Saturday morning and just enjoy the whole tournament. Those couple of years we lost out in the first round I cancelled the last couple nights of my hotel room and drove back Sunday and made it to work Monday and didn't lose any PTO. Yes, I lost a little money on my all session pass but saved way more by not paying for a hotel and food for 2 more days so it all works out. As is often mentioned during the broadcast of the championship game the SLT is one of the best kept secrets in college basketball and NDSU just needs to market it more to get the secret out. I do agree that I think each school should be given a block of seats to sell so the fans can be grouped together as even though we can all buy tickets at the same time I think a lot of fans would be more comfortable knowing they'll be surrounded by 500 of their own instead of sitting right in the middle of a sea of blue or red. Hopefully that's something they can look towards in the future but my plans won't change I'll continue to go every year and have an amazing time and just will keep trying to drag more and more people with me.

[tony]

If it's going to move, I'd rather have it move to a weekend, but that's not going to happen because of TV.

[El_Chapo]

NDSU had 800-1000 fans at the summit title game and the 500 behind the basket in the section I was in was dam loud and it was awesome beating them in their full house!!

Yes each school should get 500 prime seats in a block so they can cheer together , tight now they get 50-100 for the parents and ad people and rob sobolik (why did he get them?)