RSS
MAAC Madness in Atlantic City
Don't look now, but Midnight Madness is only a month away, with the start of the regular season just a moth after that. The Blog will get busier in October and, though the last month of regular-season college football won't make it the easiest thing in the world, we'll try to give you something good to read every day in November.
The penultimate leg of our MAAC Madness virtual journey brings us to Atlantic City, with Baltimore on tap to wrap it up. Here's the rundown:
Arena: Boardwalk Hall
Attendance in past tournaments: NA
"Host" school: NA
Local newspaper (circulation): The Press (66,822 daily, 71, 708 Sunday)
Driving distance from league schools:
482 miles (seven hours, 55 minutes) from Niagara
463 miles (seven hours, 34 minutes) from Canisius
273 miles (four hours, 34 minutes) from Siena
205 miles (three hours, 41 minutes) from Marist
183 miles (three hours, 20 minutes) from Fairfield
149 miles (two hours, 42 minutes) from Iona
140 miles (two hours, 30 minutes) from Manhattan
122 miles (two hours, 12 minutes) from Saint Peter's
98 miles (one hour, 43 minutes) from Rider
155 miles (two hours, 48 minutes) from Loyola
Average distance: 227 miles (three hours, 34 minutes)
The Skinny: Same issues with Mohegan Sun. Geographically, it isn't on anyone's way anywhere, and at least for me, the appeal of Atlantic City isn't enough to increase my desire to go to the tournament. The A-10 has its tournament there, but I don't know if that makes a whole lot of sense either.
posted by Kyle Franko at
12:00 AM
1 Comments:
As a longtime GW fan, Boardwalk Hall is the only venue that I can recommend for the A10 tourney. In the past, it has been held mainly in Philly (Civic Center, CoreStates/FirstUnion Spectrum) and Ohio (UD Arena, US Bank Arena). Philly has three A10 teams, state of Ohio has two.
In the six Philly years the tourney was held, Philly teams one three times. In the four Ohio years, the Ohio teams won three times. This is clearly unfair for the rest of the teams.
Having the conference tourney in a neutral, but geographically feasible city is IMO the only fair way to go. I don't have numbers, but it also seems like the attendance at the A10 tourney in AC has been consistent. This allows them to not rely on the host city's team going deep into the tourney to keep people interested throughout.
I will however admit that having the A10 tourney in AC is unfair for the newer A10 teams (St Louis and Charlotte) because they do have to travel the farthest. (Then again, I never really understood why St Louis accepted the conference's invitation to join, considering the travel burden)
For the MAAC, I think Newark would fit the mold. It is centrally-located, and would probably be a destination that could garner interest throughout the tourney.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home