Another article about moving the MVC tournament to KC

[houstonbrave]

I really think moving the tournament out of St. L would be a huge mistake. I think we need a permanent home. I agree that the move to a Thurs-Sun schedule has helped but I also believe we have built a following in St. L and it took time to do so. I also think the more central location of St. L is a big advantage. You might get lucky occasionally and find the schools close to KC with strong teams/followings but I don't think that is a reason to move the location. When paired with the larger arena in St. L. I think this makes leaving it in St. L a no brainer.

Fundamentally, we go to the city to watch basketball and the best location is St. L.

[Da Coach]

I talked to quite a few people at this year's tournament who were from the St. Louis area, and just came to watch good college basketball. The leaned toward supporting SIU and SMS because they were more the "local favorite", but they were not usually fans of those schools. Some were SLU fans who were targeted by the MVC to sell tickets locally. It has taken years to build those local St. Louis fans, and if the tournament was switched to KC, there would not be such similar local support. I am not sure there ever would be.

I do feel bad for the great fans of Wichita State and Creighton who travel a long way to follow their teams. But I also believe it would be a big mistake to move away from St. Louis.

[chitownBUB]

Wichita to St. Louis, a little over 400 mi.
Omaha to St. Louis, a little over 400 mi.
Chicago (where gobs of BU alums and fans reside) to St. Louis, over 300 mi.
Chicago to Kansas City (if we were forced to go there for the tourney), is well over 500 mi.!
Sorry, it's not that big of a deal, I don't feel bad for them, and I am sure they don't feel bad for me.

[mike radigan]

Capt Kirk in today's Journal Star.