Neutral site for Horizon League basketball tournament?

[Wick250]

There are media reports that the Horizon League is about to enter into a five year agreement to play the basketball tournament in a big city arena.  The location....I am not making this up....Detroit.   At Joe Louis Arena.

Safe city.  Garden spot and big tourist attraction.  Sure to attract massive crowds.  Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

If true, I wonder if they will hold the women's tournament in the same venue like the MAC does in Cleveland.  Would be nice to get that out of Green Bay.

[DoubleE]

if we are going central location it should be in chicago or Indianapolis and the problem with that is the B1G uses both cities so the next options would be Milwaukee or Detroit. No good options

[guinpen]

I do not think that any schools team, men or women, has a big enough following to put enough butts in the seats to make it worth while.

[Spiderlegs]

Did Horizon try something like this in Chicago when the league first started? As I recall, the idea was to be a Midwestern version of the Big East. This way way before YSU was in the league.

[YSUGO]

The league is a shell of what it was since Butler left. 

[ysuguins4]

Looks like it is official.  I like the central location idea, but they chose a terrible location.

[Spiderlegs]

Detroit Free Press is reporting that the conference will be paid $200,000 per year. Between this and the stipends and the broadcasting of games on ESPN3, the conference appears to be making a move, albeit a weak one. Maybe the loss of Butler and Loyola shook things up in a positive way?

[Penguin Nation]

After reading this from an HL forum, I became a believer. 


*Only rinky-dink conferences host their tournaments at campus sites: Beyond the HL, the other conferences using campus sites for their 2015 tournaments were the America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Northeast and Patriot. Not the company we want to keep. If the HL wants to be a mid-major conference, it needs to act like one.

*Benefits of a pre-determined tournament site: Better press coverage, more associated events. If the title game location is not determined until the semis have been played there is no chance to organize ancillary events and there will be fewer press resources assigned to cover it.
Eliminate the possibility of lousy facilities and non-central locations: What would it say about the conference if the HL championship were held at the O’rena? And how many non-Phoenix fans would be willing to make a last-minute trip to Green Bay in March?

*Two conference schools in close proximity: If Detroit and Oakland have average chances of progressing in the tournament, there’s a 69% chance that at least one of them will make the final four, and a 40% chance that one of them will play in the final. (That drops to 64% and 36% respectively if the HL expands to 10 tournament-eligible institutions.)

*Pre-eminent NCAA basketball event in the Detroit: Other reasonable locales for the HL tournament would be Chicago, Cleveland, Dayton, Indianapolis or Milwaukee. In each case the HL tournament would be less significant than other local NCAA basketball events: Chicago (some Big 10 Tournaments, Northwestern’s Big 10 games), Cleveland (MAC tournament), Dayton (NCAA First Four, U-Dayton A-10 games), Indianapolis (some Big 10 tournaments, Butler Big East games) or Milwaukee (Marquette Big East games). In Detroit, at least the HL tournament won’t be overshadowed.
Outstanding host facility: Okay, Joe Louis is a mediocre place to watch a basketball game – but it’s still a step up from most HL campus sites. But moving into the brand new Detroit Events Center in two years will be really cool.

*Improved chances to become a multi-bid conference: As stated above, a neutral site tournament reduces the likelihood that the regular season champ will win the conference tournament. In a one bid league, this has the disadvantage of a potentially worse seeding for whoever wins the tournament. But if the regular season conference champ has the potential for an at large berth, this improves the chances of getting a second bid.

*Partnership with Olympia Entertainment: In the long run, this will be most significant element of the move. Up until now, Jon LeCrone and his staff of a part time admin and a trained monkey (yeah, I’m exaggerating – but his resources are very limited) have had little success in marketing the HL. But with Olympia we get a partner that is big and knows what it’s doing and is committed to selling events in Detroit. Expect to see dramatically improved marketing of the HL Tournament.






http://horizonleaguefans.freeforums.net/thread/763/hl-tourney-neutralized

[ysuguins4]

Now that they've added NKU, Columbus could be a potential host site.  Too bad they are stuck in Detroit for five years.  Once Slocum's gone, the Guins may make a run in the conference tourney.

[YsuPride]

It doesn't matter where the conf tournament is we can't compete with Slocum as our coach.  Program is at all time low.

[IAA Fan]

With Slocum here we may make be able to make a run for the conference tourney. Do you guys seriously want every single basketball thread closed? Then stop it now.

[Penguin Nation]

I think Detroit is a good choice because the HL tournament would be the main event, and there would be added local interest with two local schools in the HL.

C-bus will view this as a little league tournament since the almighty Bucs won't be involved.

[go guins]

With Slocum here we may make be able to make a run for the conference tourney. Do you guys seriously want every single basketball thread closed? Then stop it now.

1AA, Amen to that!  (Not closing the blogs) but amen to your frustration with the negativity.  These are good people coaching are teams.  They may or may not be great coaches, but seems to me they are all working hard.  The same with the kids.  May not be a single one of them make a damn dime in their chosen sport, but they enjoy competing and we should enjoy watching them compete.  Nobody wins every game, but we should be looking to enjoy the moment, not affix blame for every loss.