ORUSwagger Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Hello, https://www.facebook.com/share/p/TUuiyuspytyniBnt/?mibextid=WC7FNe Apparently other years have had bad attendance and it counts this year. Of course The Dakota fans foaming at the mouth and bragging how amazing they are at hosting. No bias here 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nodak651 Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 (edited) On 3/13/2024 at 10:15 PM, ORUSwagger said: Hello, https://www.facebook.com/share/p/TUuiyuspytyniBnt/?mibextid=WC7FNe Apparently other years have had bad attendance and it counts this year. Of course The Dakota fans foaming at the mouth and bragging how amazing they are at hosting. No bias here I guarantee they are nearly all SDSU fans. There just aren't that many great alternatives. Omaha would make some sense, but UNO is hosting a hockey regional in a couple weeks and I bet you'll never guess what arena they are using to host... it's Sioux Falls in the same arena as the basketball tournament. I think if SDSU fans travel so well, it may be worth considering Minneapolis is a different location is desired. It's a great recruiting territory and a great media market, with probably the most SL alumni of any city. UNO cares way more about hockey and they still have conference games over the same weekend as the SL tournament. Nobody in KC cares about UMKC, and Tulsa and Denver are too far. I think the league should maybe consider home locations for the first round or two, with the semi finals and finals in Minneapolis on a Saturday and Sunday. Minneapolis is also a huge travel hub, so it's one of the easiest SL cities to fly into for anyone who needs a flight. Edited March 20 by nodak651 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleManiac Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 4 minutes ago, nodak651 said: I think the league should maybe consider home locations for the first round or two, with the semi finals and finals in Minneapolis on a Saturday and Sunday. Minneapolis is also a huge travel hub, so it's one of the easiest SL cities to fly into for anyone who needs a flight. Unrealistic, but this would be a dream scenario. Makes the regular season that much more important as teams fight for home court advantage. I'd also imagine you could drive higher attendance with every game being at a home court. If only. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 TheEagleman likes the home site idea for the first couple rounds and of course it's not fair to play the tournament in Sioux Falls every year....but The current format is a huge money maker for the Summit League....they ain't changing anything any time soon...... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 At the end of the day if they did move it to wherever (Omaha, Twin Cities or even Tulsa) would you sell 10,000 tickets as they do in South Dakota? It is unlikely, so of course you go with the sure thing. SDSU is the only game in the town and so of course their fanbase is pretty hard core. ORU's fanbase has grown off the charts in the last few years. I am just hoping the fans continue to support the Eagles during the rebuild. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nodak651 Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 (edited) 2 hours ago, Keenan Henderson said: At the end of the day if they did move it to wherever (Omaha, Twin Cities or even Tulsa) would you sell 10,000 tickets as they do in South Dakota? It is unlikely, so of course you go with the sure thing. SDSU is the only game in the town and so of course their fanbase is pretty hard core. ORU's fanbase has grown off the charts in the last few years. I am just hoping the fans continue to support the Eagles during the rebuild. I think SDSU should be able to support the basketball tournament in Minneapolis the same way UND does it for hockey, and UND is farther away. All of the Dakota schools have tons of alumni in the cities Minneapolis metro area, and St. Thomas is also right there. If SDSU fans are as great as they claim to be, there shouldn't be a dropoff in attendance, but it should also be a more diverse crowd. If you have CBSSN, turn on your TV Friday evening, and you'll see that a Minneapolis tournament location should be feasible (it's the semi finals for the NCHC tournament and 3 of the 4 teams are Summit League members, UND, DU, Omaha, and SCSU is the 4th). Ticket revenue for both tournaments is about the same, and the one for hockey is only 3 games - biggest difference is ticket prices are more expensive for hockey (the first round is on campus and that ticket revenue isn't included in the comparison). Minneapolis can work and "commissioner hockey" knows this. Not that I'm saying this actually happens, but I'm not so sure that it's a given the league maintains the exact same tournament setup into the future. Source is each league's 2022 990 tax filings. NCHC on left Summit on right Edited March 20 by nodak651 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 I agree that the only apparent alternative to Sioux Falls is Minneapolis. Fan attendance and the resulting money is the driver - and I’m not sure that the league office will ‘gamble’ on a championship in Minneapolis. It would certainly make it easier for outlying fans to attend. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlue82 Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 I wouldn’t be surprised to see MSP considered as an option when the current tournament agreement expires. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see the Summit add hockey as a sport in the near future. There are too many quality teams in the league competing under another banner, and that has to drive “Commissioner Hockey” crazy. Finally, will the Summit go south for expansion? There are a few Texas schools that are now facing huge travel costs playing in the WAC and questioning the long-term sustainability of the conference. UTRGV just announced that they will leave the WAC to join the Southland. That leaves Tarleton State, SFA, Abilene Christian and Texas-Arlington that may be looking for another home. Geographically, they fit pretty well in the Summit’s I-25 to I-45 footprint, and if nothing else, would give the Summit some margin when it comes to the NCAA automatic bid for baseball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 ORU Hockey??.....now that sounds VERY interesting and TheEagleman is intrigued........would love to see those uniforms and if Old Titan, Grip and Bogus go nuts verbally abusing the officials in basketball at Mabee can you imagine how vocal they would be at the rink?!?!?!?.....sounds great, eh?.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 On 3/20/2024 at 9:33 AM, nodak651 said: I guarantee they are nearly all SDSU fans. There just aren't that many great alternatives. Omaha would make some sense, but UNO is hosting a hockey regional in a couple weeks and I bet you'll never guess what arena they are using to host... it's Sioux Falls in the same arena as the basketball tournament. I think if SDSU fans travel so well, it may be worth considering Minneapolis is a different location is desired. It's a great recruiting territory and a great media market, with probably the most SL alumni of any city. UNO cares way more about hockey and they still have conference games over the same weekend as the SL tournament. Nobody in KC cares about UMKC, and Tulsa and Denver are too far. I think the league should maybe consider home locations for the first round or two, with the semi finals and finals in Minneapolis on a Saturday and Sunday. Minneapolis is also a huge travel hub, so it's one of the easiest SL cities to fly into for anyone who needs a flight. I'm fairly certain (I never attended but those that did can correct me if I'm wrong) the old predecessor to the Summit League, the Midcontinent Conference (still got the gear!) had the conference tournament at a neutral site, and it was poorly attended. When it was held in Tulsa for several years at the UMAC it was well attended, but I believe Sioux Falls had provided the best attendance . . . at least for certain games . . . (My first use of a gif - EVER! Don't get used to it!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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