2011 Final Four

[therock]

Salem and the ODAC has hosting NCAA Championships down to a science. There's a reason why they have hosted 48 NCAA Championships since 1993 (including the stagg bowl and final four for this year) and are the annual hosts for the Stagg Bowl and the Men's Final Four along with having hosted NCAA Championships in baseball, softball, and women's lacrosse in past years. Let me know when Calvin is able to bring that resume to the table.

[sac]

Eastern Michigan U's Convocation Center ("The House That Earl [Boykins] Built") holds 8,000.  Rather a bit north of center, but just about perfect east-west.   And near infinite parking!

And we are 15 minutes from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, which just won the ranking of #1 in customer service!

And I'd personally greet each and every one of you to Ypsi(lanti).

(Downside: I may be the only person within twenty miles who knows that D3 exists! )

Biggest negative ---  Its in Ypsilanti

Biggest positive --- the basketball played in the D3 final four at the EMU Convocation Center would be better than the current D1 product.   

[Gregory Sager]

Salem and the ODAC has hosting NCAA Championships down to a science. There's a reason why they have hosted 48 NCAA Championships since 1993 (including the stagg bowl and final four for this year) and are the annual hosts for the Stagg Bowl and the Men's Final Four along with having hosted NCAA Championships in baseball, softball, and women's lacrosse in past years. Let me know when Calvin is able to bring that resume to the table.

Yes, but you still haven't answered my question from yesterday.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Eastern Michigan U's Convocation Center ("The House That Earl [Boykins] Built") holds 8,000.  Rather a bit north of center, but just about perfect east-west.   And near infinite parking!

And we are 15 minutes from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, which just won the ranking of #1 in customer service!

And I'd personally greet each and every one of you to Ypsi(lanti).

(Downside: I may be the only person within twenty miles who knows that D3 exists! )

Biggest negative ---  Its in Ypsilanti

Biggest positive --- the basketball played in the D3 final four at the EMU Convocation Center would be better than the current D1 product.   

Now that was just mean!

Not necessarily inaccurate, but mean.

[I'd take EMU over Hope in either men's or women's (fortunately, EMU's women's team is also the better team ), though it might be closer than d1 vs. d3 oughta be. )

And we do have some motels that rent by the day rather than the hour.

[Pat Coleman]

I have only been to Salem once, and when I went I never investigated Roanoke, so I am willing to recant my earlier judgment about places to dine and sleep. Clearly I made the judgment without sufficient information and have since been appropriately corrected. And I did like Mac N Bob's, and the people in the area were very friendly.

That said, I stand by my judgments concerning the Civic Center itself and Salem's inaccessibility. Bob, I'm curious as to why you say you don't have any solutions for the centrality and accessibility issue and why we have to just suck it up and accept Salem. It seems to me that Calvin is a perfect solution. It's centrally located, big enough to hold any number of fans who would want to come, but intimate enough for a smaller crowd, very near a large airport, has a fan base that would show up even if local teams weren't in the game (I know I would go no matter who was playing), has excellent facilities, has a large number of hotels and restaurants within a 5 minute drive - I just don't see the downside. I'm not saying it's the only place possible, but it's hard for me to imagine a better one and I can't see why posters on this board aren't jumping at it.

If you're worried about Calvin potentially having a homecourt advantage, no need to worry as I don't see them representing the MIAA any time soon.  

Downside = experienced support. I highly doubt Calvin will be able to compete with the level of experienced support (and free man hours at that in the case for many of those folks) offered by the ODAC schools, the ODAC office, and the Rotary Club. How many people in and around Calvin have the multiple years of experience supporting a final four that is as big as the men's basketball Final Four?

Hard to say, but remember that Calvin did host the D3 men's basketball Final Four throughout a good chunk of the 1980s.

Which reemphasizes the point - they don't have experienced support over there. Hosting in the 1980's would be completely different than hosting it now.

Why?

I think the standards have been raised significantly. The D-III Final Four is no longer an on-campus event, the way it was the last time Calvin hosted it. Not to say someone else can't do it, but I don't think the NCAA takes this event back on campus.

[HopeConvert]

Salem and the ODAC has hosting NCAA Championships down to a science. There's a reason why they have hosted 48 NCAA Championships since 1993 (including the stagg bowl and final four for this year) and are the annual hosts for the Stagg Bowl and the Men's Final Four along with having hosted NCAA Championships in baseball, softball, and women's lacrosse in past years. Let me know when Calvin is able to bring that resume to the table.

Oh, well, a science. There is no competing with a science.

Look, this isn't the Normandy invasion. Not to say the good folks in Salem don't do a fine job, but I am confident that people in other places could pull this off.

I don't often see "NCAA' and "reason" in the same sentence.

[ziggy]

Eastern Michigan U's Convocation Center ("The House That Earl [Boykins] Built") holds 8,000.  Rather a bit north of center, but just about perfect east-west.   And near infinite parking!

And we are 15 minutes from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, which just won the ranking of #1 in customer service!

And I'd personally greet each and every one of you to Ypsi(lanti).

(Downside: I may be the only person within twenty miles who knows that D3 exists! )

I would go to the final four every year if it was held at EMU. Someone go ahead and let the NCAA know that they have a guaranteed attendance of at least 1.

[Titan Q]

Salem and the ODAC has hosting NCAA Championships down to a science. There's a reason why they have hosted 48 NCAA Championships since 1993 (including the stagg bowl and final four for this year) and are the annual hosts for the Stagg Bowl and the Men's Final Four along with having hosted NCAA Championships in baseball, softball, and women's lacrosse in past years. Let me know when Calvin is able to bring that resume to the table.

Look, this isn't the Normandy invasion. Not to say the good folks in Salem don't do a fine job, but I am confident that people in other places could pull this off.

I agree...the D3 Final Four could be pulled off in a lot of places.  You just need good people who are very passionate and very committed to the job.  It might take a couple years for a new location to do as good of a job as the Salem team (which is outstanding, by the way), but it could be done.

[ScotsFan]

So I guess what we're saying is that hospitality trumps a location that isn't easily accessible by most causing attendance to suffer? 

[sac]

So I guess what we're saying is that hospitality trumps a location that isn't easily accessible by most causing attendance to suffer? 

Maybe there's more first rate hospitality behind the scenes but the only hospitality I witnessed was "that'll be $5.00 for your pop and hotdog, and your seat is up 3 rows over yonder."

Hosting a big event like this is not rocket science, yes it takes alot of hard work and dedication but any location thats willing to put the effort in to host already knows that and wouldn't have received the bid if the NCAA didn't think they could pull it off.

The women's final four moves around every 2 years now, and as far as I can tell without a hitch.

[iwumichigander]

So I guess what we're saying is that hospitality trumps a location that isn't easily accessible by most causing attendance to suffer?  

Maybe there's more first rate hospitality behind the scenes but the only hospitality I witnessed was "that'll be $5.00 for your pop and hot dog, and your seat is up 3 rows over yonder."

Hosting a big event like this is not rocket science, yes it takes a lot of hard work and dedication but any location that's willing to put the effort in to host already knows that and wouldn't have received the bid if the NCAA didn't think they could pull it off.

The women's final four moves around every 2 years now, and as far as I can tell without a hitch.

Definitely more hospitality behind the scenes than most fans imagine. Some Examples (in most cases below for the length of the site contract:

• Commitment from a conference and/or a facing NCAA member school to be the site "host" even if no participants from conference or school;
• Commitment from hotels to provide room blocks, conference rooms and tournament rates - for teams and fans; and, for most lodging locations - fans only knowing a good % fans will bail if team loses;
• Budget support from towns, counties and state for police, fire and DOT
• Community - willing to be invaded by 2,500+ (mostly very thirsty) out of town fans and college kids
• Service Organization(s) and Volunteers - with prior, and successful, big event experience

All the above knowing the NCAA, other than the actual tournament,  is not going to plan or manage anything but will continually grade, assess and criticize your performance throughout the process.

[Titan Q]

So I guess what we're saying is that hospitality trumps a location that isn't easily accessible by most causing attendance to suffer? 

I don't think that is what anyone is necessarily saying.  It's more that, even here on a board dedicated to the topic of Final Four site selection, with contributions from a bunch of passionate Division III fans, no one has really identified a better overall option than Salem yet as I see it.  (Calvin is the best suggestion I've seen, but personally, I'd rather have some type of neutral, off-campus facility.)  And even if we identify a perfect location/venue somewhere else, what are the odds the people involved with that facility actually want to host the D3 Final Four?  I mean, let's not kid ourselves - the 2-day event is never going to be a big money-maker.

As much as I think the geographic location of Salem stinks (from a getting there standpoint), and that this prevents both neutral fans and fans of the 4 participants from attending each year, the fact is 1) Salem wants the D3 Final Four, and 2) they've done a good job hosting the event for 14 years now.  It's "theirs to lose" and I don't see anyone close to taking it away right now.

[Titan Q]

• Community - willing to be invaded by 5,000+ (mostly very thirsty) out of town fans and college kids

If there were 5000+ coming in, I'm not sure we'd be talking about this quite as much.  The last few Final Fours have drawn less than 2500 per game on average I believe.

[iwumichigander]

• Community - willing to be invaded by 5,000+ (mostly very thirsty) out of town fans and college kids

If there were 5000+ coming in, I'm not sure we'd be talking about this quite as much.  The last few Final Fours have drawn less than 2500 per game on average I believe.

Thanks!  I fixed it my original post.

[Pat Coleman]

And other hospitality aspects are extended to the teams themselves. Each team is assigned a host family who helps take care of the behind-the-scenes logistics. Many returning schools get quite attached to their host families and request them again in future years.