MAAC Tourney-Albany

[Dane Pound]

Story in today's paper that the MAAC is planing on having it's basketball tourney in Albany for 2006, 2008 and 2010. In the same story there was also talk about permanetly moving the MAAC tournament to Albany.

 

Last spring when discussions were being held on where to hold the AE tourney it was mentioned that they didn't want to hold the AE tourney in Albany the same time the MAAC tourney was going on. If most members of the AE feel this way I have to wonder if our hopes of having the AE tourney in Albany have been dealt a serious blow.

[DaneFan2k3]

I say shoot for the women's tournament in 2006, and the men's tournament in 2007. The 2006 women's tournament would be like a dry run-through for the bigger men's tournament to follow.

 

The problem with that is Hartford is just generally a good area for women's basketball, and the conference may not want to rotate venues for it because of that.

[Dane Pound]

I have to wonder if the "one tournament per town" rule doesn't apply for the women's tourney also. The MAAC holds it's men's and women's tournament at the same site so if it's in Albany that could put the nix on the women's tourney too.

 

I could certainly live with the men's tournament in Binghamton. It should be alot better there this year than it has the past few years. As much as I enjoyed Boston if Bing does a good job I have a hard time seeing them moving it back.

[DaneFan2k3]

I feel any time you hold a tournament in one place for more than two straight years, you're basically telling all the other fans to kiss your ass. Having it in Binghamton wouldn't make sense geographically, nor would it make sense in terms of promoting the league throughout the Northeast.

 

The arean is great, which is a huge plus. But there has to be many, many more factors involved in choosing a league venue. For example, Vermont's arena isn't as nice, but they have a great atmosphere and pack the place.

 

Boston is a great place to hold a tournament because of the centrality with regard to all teams in the league. Not only is the league headquarters there, but then for Maine, New Hampshire, Albany, Vermont, Boston U., Hartford ... it really is the most central location.

 

With Binghamton - Maine, UNH, Stony Brook, UMES, Boston U. are facing greatly increased travel. I realize the opposite is true for Binghamton no matter where you hold it, but it's the "greater good" philosophy - putting out one team vs. putting out three or four.

 

Putting geography aside, the media market and exposure should matter to the league powers and the teams. To recruit in the Northeast, you want your conference and its tournament to be as visible as possible. Having it in a place like Boston certainly helps that. Binghamton isn't going to make players do cartwheels.

 

Also, to promote a feeling of equity among the league's fans and players, I feel you would want to rotate the venue between three cities at the least. Otherwise, fans of some teams will adopt a "who cares" attitude toward the conference tournament. If it's not coming to Hartford, who cares? It'll never come up to Maine, so who cares? Etc. down the line.

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Regarding the women's tournament and the "one per city" idea ... if the MAAC women's tournament is going on at the same time ... the problem might be that people in this area clearly right now have more ties to the Siena women's program than to UA's. However, from a media coverage standpoint ... women's tournaments are going to get a set amount of (small) coverage no matter where they are held.

 

Having the MAAC women's tournament in town at the same time I don't think will detract from the experience at all. I don't see a large fanbase of "women's basketball" fans that are going to be torn between the two competing tournaments. Fans of each of the schools coming to the tournament are (for the most part) the only fans that come to the women's tournament anyhow. So having it on campus (safely away from the Pepsi), to me is not a problem at all.

 

The Times Union won't cover the women's tournament no matter where it is, so we might as well have it here as a dry rehearsal for a future men's tournament.

 

That's right, I know you read this board Times Union. Where's the big article on how bad Siena's other non-basketball sports are? They are pathetic.