Sioux falls seems like an excellent spot for the tournament. If it ain't broke don't fix it. They get excellent tournament crowds. 95% SD fans? who gives a shit. Play better and shut em up.
You can call BS on that one but your point that nobody travels to SF than parents of the teams … how is that going to be any better in Fargo or Omaha or KC or MSP?
If fans from Denver, Omaha, KC, WIU are not traveling to SF they sure in the heck NOT going to travel to MSP.
I understand the argument that SF is a literal home game for USD and SDSU but any other location has the same if not worse issues AND more risk that the tournament at any other location will be less successful.
I think in MSP you likely get similar attendance but you probably have more of a mix of fanbases. UND, NDSU and SDSU all have relatively large alumni numbers in MSP and St. Thomas would obviously have fans who would attend. You're probably right that not many other teams from the Summit would have significant followings. Having a more diverse crowd in MSP would likely make it a bit more interesting. If it stays as a Tuesday night championship, you still probably don't get huge numbers of Fargo, GF, Brookings fans traveling to the games but having alumni close by would balance that out.
Have the Summit Tournament in MSP at the Target Center, and move the tournament so the championship game would have been this past Sunday afternoon. Exactly the same bracket and timeline as the Missouri Valley Tournament. That would solve most of the issues that fans not living in Sioux Falls currently face.
Also the Summit League needs to reserve more than just 3 rows behind the team's bench for each team. The current ticket/seating setup creates a home game atmosphere for the SD teams, not a tournament atmosphere. Look at the stands in the NCAA Tournament games next week, Each team gets like 20+ rows either behind their bench or across from their bench. Then the rest of the seating is to the general public. Why does the Summit League only allow such a small section for the non-South Dakota teams? If they are worried about them being empty when a school doesn't claim them, open any unclaimed tickets up to the public the morning of each game. You have to give teams a chance to have a fan section, and the Summit League doesn't do a very good job at that. They are just content selling out their "All Session Passes" in the lower bowl each September to Sioux Falls residents. Leaving minimal to no opportunity for fans not living in South Dakota.
Its probably all urban Catholic schools' dream to go to the Big East. Added benefit of MSP is a lot of alums for half the Summit schools live there. Not sure it would be great to do it there every year. Kansas City would be a nice rotation too for the non-Dakota schools.
EDIT: End of the day, gonna be some people irritated no matter where it is.
College of Business Alumnus