Two courts are one too many for C-USA tournament

[Coach Bill Lewis]

WHEN READING the Conference USA tournament pairings, don’t do a double take.

Marshall plays a Thursday quarterfinal in something called the Ford Center at The Star in the northern Dallas suburb of Frisco, on Court B at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. You may have seen on the previous line that Middle Tennessee plays on Court A at 7.

Whatever the heck is going on?

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/sports/col...a9692.html
 

[UNTLifer]

I agree.  I have thought from the get go that this is a great venue with an odd set up.

[wardly]

The set up was OK except for the scoreboards, which were high school. Great location, good parking,good dinning , and nearby hotels.My disappointment was lack of decent coverage from the DMN. It was as if the tournament didn't exist.

[drex]

The Dallas Morning News is all about SMU.  No surprise to me that they did not cover the tournament. By the way, the tournament did not exist for thousands of North Texas alumni and students who did not bother to attend.  They wonder why we make such slow progress in athletics, but NT  turnout is a big reason.

[Arkstfan]

Two courts is a GREAT format.

The issue seems to be execution. I've seen claims on Twitter that there were instances of play stopping on one court because of a whistle on the other court.

I think it is very fan friendly to have two courts in close proximity as long as you never force a school's fans to choose between watching their men's team and women's team and can isolate the sound of the horn and whistles.

You reduce the off-work commitment of fans and that's a good thing.

Only problem is a curtain won't prevent the sound from bleeding over.

[CMJ]

The court set up in Hot Springs was great back in the Belt days.

[Wag Tag]

2 hours ago, Arkstfan said:

Two courts is a GREAT format.

The issue seems to be execution. I've seen claims on Twitter that there were instances of play stopping on one court because of a whistle on the other court.

I think it is very fan friendly to have two courts in close proximity as long as you never force a school's fans to choose between watching their men's team and women's team and can isolate the sound of the horn and whistles.

You reduce the off-work commitment of fans and that's a good thing.

Only problem is a curtain won't prevent the sound from bleeding over.

Only time I could hear the other side is when the band played at certain times. Let’s hope we can do it again 1st class. Nice going to Mi Cocina  then  walking to the game!

[CaribbeanGreen]

Yeah, i had a blast. Love the venue, all the bars and restaurants right next door are legit. Only thing better would be if we made a long tourney run on both sides. 

[Harry]

I had a blast.  Great location.  Hope they keep it there.

[meangreenJW]

6 hours ago, Arkstfan said:

Two courts is a GREAT format.

The issue seems to be execution. I've seen claims on Twitter that there were instances of play stopping on one court because of a whistle on the other court.

I think it is very fan friendly to have two courts in close proximity as long as you never force a school's fans to choose between watching their men's team and women's team and can isolate the sound of the horn and whistles.

You reduce the off-work commitment of fans and that's a good thing.

Only problem is a curtain won't prevent the sound from bleeding over.

I was at the tournament and watched parts of probably every game. I sat in every seat. Play never stopped because of a horn or whistle. There are a few people saying that was a concern but best I can tell on twitter none of them were actually there. It's mainly UAB and MTSU fans still mad the tournament isn't in their backyard. The stoppage of play absolutely isn't true. If you were courtside (playing or in either seating section), the only time you could hear anything was the if a band was playing on the other court. It was more like a constant humming. A little odd, but never interrupted play. 

If you were seating in the permanent seats (the ones used for football) where you could see both courts, it was a little distracting. In those seats you hear both courts the same. Of course, you are also able to watch two games which is kinda cool.

My thoughts: Awesome venue overall, mainly because of what's outside. The restaurants, shopping and plaza area are as good as anywhere. Not many tournaments can match it. 

Several areas can be improved inside. Among them:

1) The temporary seats on the field were rinky dink. Texas UIL brings in way better quality for their tournament. CUSA should invest in better seats. 

2) Videoboards - Why weren't they hung? Putting them on the floor was really bad planning. Good news is, it should be an easy fix but honestly not sure what they were thinking.

3) Need to extend the current a little more (both height and width. I think that would all but eliminate the band overflow noise). 

4) Consolidate ticket price points to two. A lot of people bought cheapest tickets which didn't allow them on the floor where there were plenty of seats. There was three price points. Floor chair back, floor bleacher and upper seats. Allow one ticket for floor bleacher or upper chairback. 

I was skeptical going in (although excited to have it local for UNT). But my family thoroughly enjoyed it as did our friends. With a little tweaking it could be a very special event. 

Lastly, the West teams need to be better!!!! La Tech, UTSA, UTEP, Rice and UNT being good would be huge. Those teams not making the tourney or getting beat 1st day is going to make it hard to get great crowds.

 

 

[diehardUNTfan]

Much better than Birmingham...

[Arkstfan]

6 hours ago, meangreenJW said:

 1) The temporary seats on the field were rinky dink. Texas UIL brings in way better quality for their tournament. CUSA should invest in better seats. 

 

1

The temporary seemed to have very little pitch from the photos I saw.  Much flatter looking than what was used in Hot Springs. The Sun Belt used the company that provides temporary seats for the USGA at the US Open.

Biggest thing is a venue needs to be fan friendly and that starts with bars and restaurants nearby. Sounds like Frisco has that covered. I won't go to the Sun Belt tournament in NOLA because there is NOTHING nearby the UNO arena. If you want to eat without a long hike or getting a cab or driving you have to go to the UNO student union. No thanks.

[wardly]

21 hours ago, drex said:

The Dallas Morning News is all about SMU.  No surprise to me that they did not cover the tournament. By the way, the tournament did not exist for thousands of North Texas alumni and students who did not bother to attend.  They wonder why we make such slow progress in athletics, but NT  turnout is a big reason.

W.K. and Marshall had more fans than North Texas, which is embarrassing  but unfortunately to be expected. Regarding noise from an adjoining courts, I never heard a sound. Of course I am 75 years old and half deaf.My only complaint about the venue is that it was a real hike to the head.

[Mean Green Matt]

48 minutes ago, wardly said:

W.K. and Marshall had more fans than North Texas, which is embarrassing  but unfortunately to be expected. Regarding noise from an adjoining courts, I never heard a sound. Of course I am 75 years old and half deaf.My only complaint about the venue is that it was a real hike to the head.

WKU had way more than Marshall. Neither had more than us. Should we have had more? Yes. 

[wardly]

1 hour ago, Mean Green Matt said:

WKU had way more than Marshall. Neither had more than us. Should we have had more? Yes. 

Well, it sure looked like W.K. did Friday night, but what the hey. They travel, we don't.

[meangreenJW]

6 hours ago, wardly said:

Well, it sure looked like W.K. did Friday night, but what the hey. They travel, we don't.

The 1st round North Texas men's game UNT had the most fans of any game in the tournament. I would agree that WKU had comparable women's fans at their women's game including the one with North Texas. For UNT to truly mobilize fans they needed to win the 1st men's game. Keep in mind that for every win, you pull in more fans (which happened to Marshall and WKU and to some degree MTSU). 

[untbowler]

On 3/11/2018 at 1:33 AM, Arkstfan said:

The temporary seemed to have very little pitch from the photos I saw.  Much flatter looking than what was used in Hot Springs. The Sun Belt used the company that provides temporary seats for the USGA at the US Open.

Biggest thing is a venue needs to be fan friendly and that starts with bars and restaurants nearby. Sounds like Frisco has that covered. I won't go to the Sun Belt tournament in NOLA because there is NOTHING nearby the UNO arena. If you want to eat without a long hike or getting a cab or driving you have to go to the UNO student union. No thanks.

hmm of all places they play the tournament at UNO out in the middle of no where. Not a good move especially being in NOLA. 

[Arkstfan]

4 hours ago, untbowler said:

hmm of all places they play the tournament at UNO out in the middle of no where. Not a good move especially being in NOLA. 

Before settling on Lakefront one idea had been to do a dual court at the New Orleans Convention Center then move the finals to Smoothie King arena. I'd play the whole thing at the Convention Center. So many hotels, bars and restaurants in short walking distance but they didn't seek my opinion.

[ChristopherRyanWilkes]

I won't get into on that part of Frisco and how gaudy I think the area is (guess I just did). My chief complaint with the facility was that in typical Jerry fashion--it looks nice but cheaped out on a key detail. The leg room on the seats were terrible. I realize I'm a tall guy, but my knees were all the way pushed in the front of the jagged seat in front of me. Other than that I thought the set-up looked a little cheap. Just a big curtain separating the two courts. Ironic he won't put on up in the stadium to block the sun but that's the solution for college basketball tournaments. I also thought they could have put more seats/bleachers down next to the court. Looked like a lot of extra room down there.

[rws69]

I agree that video / score boards on the floor were awkward, and were hard to fully see from many seats. Also wished they had player stats on a video board somewhere to keep track of player fouls.