Summit Tourney

[wcb_sas]

Amen Burgundy! Any traveling fan would be far more likely to show up if the Tournament was Thursday through Sunday. In the current setup, I have to take Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday off from work to attend the tournament... For you media people that like to compare it to Frisco: That is 2 more days that I have to take off of work compared to Frisco. Plus Frisco is easier to plan for.

If the Summit kept the Tournament in Sioux Falls, but moved it to a Thursday through Sunday timeline, you would see FAR more out of town fans apply for tickets. The problem is that the Summit League has no incentive for this because the South Dakota fans that live 5 minutes away buy up all of the tickets.

I’d be interested in knowing (a) how much money the conference makes off of the ESPN broadcast and (b) whether the NCAA would allow the Summit to move the tournament to later in the week?

Maybe it would be worth it to tell ESPN to FO and bank on the fact that increased attendance would compensate the lost TV revenue.

[HerdBot]

Please share a site that would be more fair to the majority of conference members?

Twin Cities? - easy travel yes, but quite advantageous to the one school who has openly expressed a desire to leave the conference for Big East.
Omaha? - a Creighton University town that supports Omaha poorly. Attendance would be piss poor.

Any where else is in a town that supports just one school in this conference.

Fargo would be great. Easy draws for NDSU, UND and St Thomas. Same travel distance for USD and SDSU as NDSU and UND have to travel.

Omaha is 2:45 minutes longer of straight interstate

KC, WIU, Denver and ORU are outliers no matter what but Denver is a hub city to the Fargo airport

Local support, NDSU is always near the top in thr Summit

[wcb_sas]

Fargo would be great. Easy draws for Grand Forks and St Thomas. Same travel distance for USD and SDSU as NDSU and UND have to travel.

Omaha is 2:45 minutes longer of straight interstate

KC, WIU, Denver and ORU are outliers no matter what but Denver is a hub city to the Fargo airport

But Fargo doesn’t compare to SFalls.

Population, facilities, hotels, alumni base and alumni diversity …

[Strommer10]

I’d be interested in knowing (a) how much money the conference makes off of the ESPN broadcast and (b) whether the NCAA would allow the Summit to move the tournament to later in the week?

Maybe it would be worth it to tell ESPN to FO and bank on the fact that increased attendance would compensate the lost TV revenue.

I don't think it is even close, otherwise they would have done it a long time ago. I'd love to take Friday off and do a Thursday night through Sunday in Sioux Falls for the Tournament. But having the League's "crown jewel" event at 8pm on Tuesday night in South Dakota does not appeal to fans that do not live around Sioux Falls.

[EC8CH]

But Fargo doesn’t compare to SFalls.

Population, facilities, hotels, alumni base and alumni diversity …

Sioux Falls Population is 196K. Fargo Metro is 252k???

Hotels??? Are you implying Fargo lacks enough Hotels??? Seriously?

Facility is really your only valid point.

[Bison Dan]

Sioux Falls Population is 196K. Fargo Metro is 252k???

Hotels??? Are you implying Fargo lacks enough Hotels??? Seriously?

Facility is really your only valid point.

No I love alumni diversity - what the fuck is that.

[NDSUstudent]

Would love to have a setup just like the MVC has, Thursday-Sunday with the tournament in the Twin Cities. Could be huge for the league but it would require getting ESPN to change it or finding a new media partner. I would go to that annually but I am not taking days off work to go to SF in March.

[Kevin]

Sioux Falls Population is 196K. Fargo Metro is 252k???

Hotels??? Are you implying Fargo lacks enough Hotels??? Seriously?

Facility is really your only valid point.

Fargo needs at least 10% more hotels and 15% more car washes bro it's a proven fact in the census information.

[NDSUstudent]

But Fargo doesn’t compare to SFalls.

Population, facilities, hotels, alumni base and alumni diversity …

So lets move it to the Twin Cities, it blows any possible site out of the water if those are the metrics.

[Strommer10]

Fargo would be great. Easy draws for NDSU, UND and St Thomas. Same travel distance for USD and SDSU as NDSU and UND have to travel.

Omaha is 2:45 minutes longer of straight interstate

KC, WIU, Denver and ORU are outliers no matter what but Denver is a hub city to the Fargo airport

Local support, NDSU is always near the top in thr Summit

No, not even close. Sorry Bot, but it is not even comparable to Sioux Falls. You could argue that the Twin Cities would equal out the playing field because of the strong alumni bases of the 4 Dakota schools and St. Thomas. So having it at the Target Center or Williams Arena would work out well. You could barely make an argument for the Tournament being in Omaha or Kansas City as it would be semi-centric for the southern half the conference. But the attendance would drop significantly at those locations. The best "appeasement" option is rotating the Tournament between Sioux Falls, Twin Cities, & Kansas City. But that's complicated and would likely never happen.