CIAA Tournament

[kjb0615]

Re: CIAA Tournament

FSU and VUU women are in the finals tomorrow. VSU/Livingstone tips off at 7 and VUU/Shaw around 9.

[Scrub]

Re: CIAA Tournament

kjb, I wonder if you could answer for me a few quick questions about the CIAA tournament.

1. What is the genesis of the CIAA holding its tourney a week ahead of everyone else? Do you know when they started to do so and for what reason? I've always been curious about that.

2. Also, am I remembering correctly that sometime in the not-too-distant past the CIAA tournament would draw regular national TV coverage? I seem to have some memory of catching CIAA tourney games on, say, ESPN when I still lived/worked in the Midwest and had no reason to follow Atlantic basketball. Am I remembering that correctly? And if so, why did the national coverage go away?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: CIAA Tournament

kjb, I wonder if you could answer for me a few quick questions about the CIAA tournament.

1. What is the genesis of the CIAA holding its tourney a week ahead of everyone else? Do you know when they started to do so and for what reason? I've always been curious about that.

2. Also, am I remembering correctly that sometime in the not-too-distant past the CIAA tournament would draw regular national TV coverage? I seem to have some memory of catching CIAA tourney games on, say, ESPN when I still lived/worked in the Midwest and had no reason to follow Atlantic basketball. Am I remembering that correctly? And if so, why did the national coverage go away?

Was wondering about that, too. Two weeks off can be an advantage or a disadvantage.

[IUPalum]

Re: CIAA Tournament

Can Shaw steal the 8 seed today?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: CIAA Tournament

Can Shaw steal the 8 seed today?

Pretty ironic. Hinton made the PSAC East coaches sweat for two years. Today he's in a new conference and they're still sweating him.

[kjb0615]

Re: CIAA Tournament

kjb, I wonder if you could answer for me a few quick questions about the CIAA tournament.

1. What is the genesis of the CIAA holding its tourney a week ahead of everyone else? Do you know when they started to do so and for what reason? I've always been curious about that.

2. Also, am I remembering correctly that sometime in the not-too-distant past the CIAA tournament would draw regular national TV coverage? I seem to have some memory of catching CIAA tourney games on, say, ESPN when I still lived/worked in the Midwest and had no reason to follow Atlantic basketball. Am I remembering that correctly? And if so, why did the national coverage go away?

1. I don't know the reason why the CIAA holds its tournament a week early but I'm assuming it's dependent on the scheduling of the venue for the tournament. Next year, the CIAA will play each time twice a during the season. The current format is the south only plays the north once a year.

2. The reason the CIAA would draw national TV coverage is because it was the 3rd largest basketball tournament behind the ACC and Big 10. The CIAA sold out NBA arenas and it was the hottest ticket in town. When the tournament was in Richmond, Raleigh and Winston Salem, the game was the main attraction. Since moving to Charlotte, the parties and events outside of the games are the attraction.

There is over 100k people in Charlotte during the CIAA tournament but only a handful attend the games. There are over 100 day/night parties and that conflicts with the game times. People would rather drink and dance than watch a basketball game. The national coverage went away because of the dwindling attendance.

It's a shame because if the alumni and fans were smart and not selfish, they could gain a ton of money from the tournament to fully fund all the scholarships for all participating schools if they just attended the games. The ticket sales and marketing dollars from businesses alone would be in the millions. The city of Charlotte receives an economic impact of around 50 mil for the weekend and the CIAA negotiated 1.5 million to split between the schools.

[GoVSUTrojans]

Re: CIAA Tournament

I also remember the men game being on ESPN last year. Not live but late that Saturday night. This year the celebrity game did not happen also.

It is also a shame because the same will happen when it moves to BMore. Now I will say charging to watch the tournament on the CIAASN was a great idea. I took advantage of it myself. $50 well spent. I couldn't make it Charlotte but I plan on going once it move to BMore. Charlotte's hotel prices are ridiculous for the tournament.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: CIAA Tournament

Charlotte has become a very expensive city. It's booming.

I think the CIAA will do well in Baltimore. It is kind of a basketball-starved city.

That's odd how you said the event draws so many but the games do not. You'd think people would almost feel obligated to attend if they made the trip.

[kjb0615]

Re: CIAA Tournament

You would think. I know 50+ people that have been going to the tournament for 10+ years and have never stepped foot in the arena. They would rather pay $50.00 or more to get into a party to drink and dance for 5 hours than pay 100 bucks to watch 23 games of basketball.

To the CIAA defense, it does a lot during the week with community involvement and the member schools visit the local schools during the week as well recruiting students, athletes and band members. The exposure is there but the parties take precedence over the games.

If you dare to look at this, here is this year's list of parties. http://tournamentweek.com/ciaa-2019-parties-events/ . And that's not all of them.


I really hope the vibe changes in Baltimore and the focus is more on the games.

[LegalRam]

Re: CIAA Tournament

I hope the CIAA can get people back in the games, but we shall see. Crowds used to be good in Charlotte the first few years and tickets were sold out, and going for over $200 per book of tickets. Problem was the younger alums got priced out, and the party scene started to pick up. So it was the perfect storm of what we have now. I'm just afraid that a good decade of alums don't see the importance of going in the games (which is crazy because the on campus environment is still really good for conference games). I have also seen the phase out of former CIAA member school alums attending the games. I.E. the Hampton, Norfolk State, and NCCU fans still used to show up even after their schools left, but their numbers have naturally started to dwindle.

I have been going to the CIAA since the 90's when it was in Winston, and even in those days the tournament was a party environment where people went to see and be seen. I remember sitting through sold out championship games where only about half the seats were actually occupied because everybody else was busy in the concourse areas. The thing was that in Winston and Raleigh those arenas aren't in the middle of a downtown area so you had to go to the games to be in the central point of the action. Whereas in Charlotte you don't have to go in the game to be in the center of the action.

It also doesn't help that the overall quality of men's basketball hasn't been that great lately. I honestly haven't been in a few seasons because Winston has been bad, and I don't have the desire to sit through what has become a one bid league tournament (and like this year that one team is heads above the other schools). Now I will say though that women's basketball has been fairly good and it's helped having national contenders like Shaw from a few years back and now VUU.

[Scrub]

Re: CIAA Tournament

Wow--in a shocker, Glenville jumps over VUU to earn hosting rights for the Women's Regional! I didn't see that one coming.

[GoVSUTrojans]

Re: CIAA Tournament

Wow--in a shocker, Glenville jumps over VUU to earn hosting rights for the Women's Regional! I didn't see that one coming.

VUU got robbed. I think they took the venue into account and the fact they would have hosted 2 years in a row. Just my opinion.

[Scrub]

Re: CIAA Tournament

VUU got robbed. I think they took the venue into account and the fact they would have hosted 2 years in a row. Just my opinion.

Agreed. Funny story: I ran into a few of the Glenville players at the arena on Sunday (they sat in our section to watch the men's game after they exited the locker room). As we left the arena after the game, I even said to them, "Good luck in Richmond." I could have sworn it was a done deal!