Buy/Sell -- SEC Baseball Tourney

[TheBigDA]

With all the new parks opening up in the SEC, the SEC tourney should be put on a rotating basis to all 12 schools (kinda like it used to be).

I like Hoover, but would like to see it spread around maybe AutoZone park in Memphis, Zephrys (sp?) in New Orleans, Turner Field in Atlanta, Trustmark in Pearl. If the SEC was really smart they would start a bidding war with the Tourney kinda like they do with the women's basketball toruney.

 

[tossedoff]

None of them have enough seating. I think for baseball, a central location is better. And unless they put it at Turner Field, I don't think there are many ballparks with as much seating as Hoover in the South.</p>

 

[patdog]

There's not a park in the conference (ours included) that could draw that well. Also, Hoover is by far the most centrally located site. I wouldn't be totally against opening it up for bids, but I suspect any other site would be hard pressed to match anything Hoover could put up. And I know Trustmark in Pearl couldn't. It's a beautiful park, but its capacity is only about 7,000.

 

[dickiedawg]

I'm not sure what your post is saying. You mentioned all the parks opening up in the SEC, then mentioned pro parks as potential sites. I think it would be good to spread it around and make more money, but A) baseball isn't nearly the draw that basketball is and B) Birmingham is a good neutral site geographically. If birmingham had a top-notch basketball arena I'd be in favor of having the basketball tournament there. Tampa? Seriously? That's more than a ten hour trip for a third of the conference. 17 hrs fayetteville

 

[RebelBruiser]

In 2005, when Ole Miss and MSU packed the place for the championship game, the crowd was 12,290. I think they may have done some work on the park since then, and the website only lists a capacity of 10,800 at Hoover.

So, there are quite a few stadiums in the SEC that could compete with that. The big problem would be RV parking, and I've heard that's one of the major reasons that Autozone in Memphis won't get consideration.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

but the SEC wants it to stay in the backyard. I think moving it would get more total fans for the week. I'd be a lot more likely to fly in to Memphis, Jackson, or somewhere in Florida, than Birmingham. And yes, they can come up with solutions to the RV problem.

 

[TheBigDA]

Guess I did ramble there. I think it would be neat to go back to campus, but agree probably won't ever happen.

Then, I was thinking of other large scale venues or nice venues for it to be at. Of all them, I think Turner Field would be too awsome and cool to have it at. GT plays their annual game with UGA there so it could be a reality.

Third side note, Atlanta does a good job with the football champ game, but it could also go New Orleans, Nashville, Tampa, Jacksonville, Charlotte.

 

[patdog]

They have a picnic area and a large grassy area that increase capacity to over 16,000. I know they've drawn at least that much for a few games Bama has played in.

 

[patdog]

I highly doubt the SEC would put it out for bids and then not take the highest bid. And I suspect the reason the Hoover bid was the highest bid was because it can generate more revenue to cover its bid than any other site.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

the Pyramid for RVs. There were lots of articles in the CA about it. They cited tradition, and having the SEC office as reasons to stay. Maybe also that they promised birmingham never to move the baseball tourney when they moved the football championship.

HERE is a pretty good article about the situation. Hoover is the closest average distance, but several other locations are close enough.

 

[patdog]

if they weren't going to go with the high bidder? And why would they put it out for bids if they had already promised Birmingham that they would never move it (not that that promise couldn't be broken)? Absent anything showing that Hoover didn't have the high bid, I think it's a fairly safe assumption that they probably did.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

they take everything else into consideration as well. I win RFPs all the time where I am not the lowest cost bidder. The same is true the other way too.

I just know Autozone went after it, and supposedly offered more, but didn't get it. Maybe they had to bid it out per bylaws, but didn't want to. 95% of the time people do not have to take the highest bid.

 

[RonnyAtmosphere]

...the SEC will go to any lengths to keep the tournament in a neutral venue that seats around 20K (give or take).

In other words, if they happen to have #1 in the nation playing #2 in the nation one year in the SEC tournament, the SEC doesn't want that game to be stuck in a SEC ballpark that seats 6K people.

 

[Todd4State]

I would rotate it between

Pearl/Jackson (bias)- and I'm pretty sure that the first Gov. Cup had over 10,000 people there, so I think it could accomodate it- it would be close.

Memphis

New Orleans

Birmingham

Atlanta

Nashville

Mobile

Montgomery

Little Rock

All of those have very nice, new stadiums for the most part and would provide a lot of variety for fans.

 

[bulldogcountry1]

Wouldn't Dudy Noble be left out because of the state flag rule...that no pre-determined NCAA tournament can be held in the state of Mississppi?</p>

 

[Todd4State]

really enforce that?

 

[VegasDawg13]

But I'm sure it wouldn't apply to an SEC tournament.

 

[patdog]

But the SEC isn't exactly known for leaving money on the table either (see the new ESPN deal). Memphis could have clearly beaten Hoover on some of the other factors (stadium being the most obvious). But there's not much Memphis can do about being 31% further away for the average SEC fan to travel to. And, yes, that would have a measurable effect on attendance.

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

Somebody said that was the largest non-Alabama or Auburn crowd they'd ever had there. Took my brother-in-law, who's a Georgia football season ticket holder. He was amazed at the atmosphere (I think he was more amazed that SEC schools played baseball). Said that the atmosphere held him over until the football season.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

that's the kind of place they need, one good for that size.

 

[RebelBruiser]

NCAA events can be hosted in Mississippi if the hosting rights are earned based on merit of the team, like baseball, tennis, and many other sports.

However, they won't send any tournament events to Mississippi that aren't earned by the host school. Basically, the only thing I think it really bans is the chance that Mississippi will host an NCAA basketball tournament event, and honestly I don't think the state has anywhere that would even come close to winning a bid for an NCAA tournament host site for that tournament even without the ban.