As promised, The Press is diving into the future of the MAAC tournament. Here’s how we’ll do it: Each day, we’ll take a look at one of the sites that is likely to be in the running to host the tournament from 2012-14.

As MAAC commissioner Rich Ensor told us in last week’s Q@A, the lobbying will begin after next year’s tournament in Albany, and Stafford Sports, L.L.C will help the conference’s Council of Presidents come to a conclusion.

For those new to the discussion, here’s a quick rundown of the situation: The tournament will be held at the Times Union Center in Albany next year and in 2010 and at the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn in 2011. Historically, the tournament has had by far the biggest attendance figures in Albany, and for that reason, officials at Siena and in Albany County had been pushing for Albany to be the tournament’s permanent site, a la Madison Square Garden with the Big East. That doesn’t appear likely, but you can bet on Albany being a major player in the future after hosting it every two years for the past decade.


Since no decisions have been made and no official negotiations have taken place, none of the sites we’re going to look into are guaranteed to be hosts at any times. By the same token, just because we don’t examine a particular city doesn’t mean that city has no shot at being a host. But eight sites appear to be on the MAAC’s radar, and those are the ones The Press will delve into: Albany; Bridgeport; Buffalo; Mohegan Sun; the Atlantic Yards arena in Brooklyn; the Prudential Center and Meadowlands in Newark and East Rutherford; Atlantic City; and the Baltimore Inner Harbor.

As Ensor said in our chat, there are a number of factors the league will look at when deciding whether to award the tournament to a site. Some are tough to quantify, like the quality of the night life and hotels. Some are a little bit easier, such as the amount of media coverage, which we’ll take a stab at measuring by looking at newspaper circulation. (Though that doesn’t account for TV and radio coverage, or make any attempt to measure how much coverage the mentioned newspapers give to the tournament.) Some are easy to quantify, like location (and proximity to each school) and attendance at past tournaments.

Anyone with thoughts on hotels and restaurants or the accessibility of public transportation in a given area, feel free to drop a comment. (And of course, bring on the comments on other related subjects as well) But here’s a rundown of some of the things we can try to quantify. First, a quick clarification: the reason the word “host” is in quotation marks on these charts is that unlike each regional and subregional site in the NCAA tournament, the MAAC tournament technically doesn’t have a host school. The contract for the tournament is between the conference and whichever arena that houses the games. That’s why in spite of Rider’s desire to have next year’s tournament in Trenton, the tournament was moved to Albany when Sovereign Bank Arena backed out of its contract with the MAAC.

Without further adieu, Albany leads us off.

Arena: Times Union Center:
Attendance during past tournaments: 39,412 in 1990; 32,529 in 1991; 31,829 in 1992; 28, 960 in 1993; 34,372 in 1994; 20,983 in 1996; 17,481 in 1996; 46,254 in 1998; 50,087 (all-time high) in 2000; 39,639 in 2002; 36,197 in 2004; 30,561 in 2006; 44,591 last year
Local newspapers (circulation in parentheses): Albany Times Union (89,256 daily, 141,064 Sunday); Schenectady Gazette (47,277 daily, 46,356 Sunday); Troy Record (13,755 daily, 15,001 Sunday):
“Host” school: Siena
“Host” school’s average 2007-08 men’s home attendance: 6,162 (first in MAAC)
Driving distance from league schools:
306 miles (4 hours, 52 minutes) from Niagara
287 miles (4 hours, 31 minutes) from Canisius
80 miles (1 hour, 28 minutes) from Marist
142 miles (1 hour, 51 minutes) from Fairfield
146 miles (2 hours, 31 minutes) from Iona
147 miles (2 hours, 29 minutes) from Manhattan
153 miles (2 hours, 39 minutes) from Saint Peter’s
190 miles (3 hours, 19 minutes) from Rider
332 miles (5 hours, 38 minutes) from Loyola
Average distance: 198 miles (3 hours, 17 minutes)
The Skinny: It's harder to think of reasons NOT to have the tournament in Albany than it is to think of reasons to have it there. The only things working against it as a permanent site are the unfair advantage such a plan would give to Siena, and the potential for bigger crowds and more media exposure in New York City. That's why the conference is reluctant to have the tournament there EVERY year. But to conclude that the tournament has been more successful in any other city would be absurd. The three highest attendance totals in tournament history have all been in Albany, and although the Empire State's capital is a minisule media market compared to New York City, no area in the northeast supports Mid-Major basketball better. Siena's average attendance last year was more than twice that of any other MAAC school, and the championship game last year between the Saints and Rider drew better than 10,000.