Part 2 of our rundown of candidates to be future MAAC tournament sites brings us to the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn. It's No. 2 on our list because it was the last non-Albany site (in 2007) and it'll be the next (in 2011.)

A closer look at the home of the Stags:

Attendance for past tournament: 23,561 in 2007
Local newspapers (circulation): Connecticut Post (76,014 daily, 85,032 Sunday); Stamford Advocate (23,088 daily, 24,086 Sunday)
"Host" school: Fairfield
"Host" school's 2007-08 men's home attendance: 2,505 (second in the MAAC)

Driving distance from league schools:

439 miles (seven hours, 22 minutes) from Niagara

419 miles (seven hours, seven minutes) from Canisius

139 miles (two hours, 49 minutes) from Siena

74 miles (one hour, 45 minutes) from Marist

41 miles (51 minutes) from Iona

50 miles (one hour, four minutes) from Manhattan

74 miles (one hour, 33 minutes) from Saint Peter's

117 miles (two hours, 24 minutes) from Rider

250 miles (four hours, 31 minutes) from Loyola

Average distance: 178 miles (three hours, 17 minutes)

The Skinny: The best way to describe The Harbor is this: It's a nice building, it's easy to get to (you could practically throw a Scott Burell-style baseball pass and hit it from I-95 and it's walking distance from the Metro North and Amtrak stop), and its located in what I'd consider a pretty basketball-saavy area.

But I was a student at Fairfield for four years and, almost without exception, I never went to downtown Bridgeport -- only five miles away from campus -- for any reason other than attending sporting events and working as an intern at the Connecticut Post. Moreover, if I had taken a poll of my classmates, I'd be willing to bet at least half of them had never been within a mile of Harbor Yard (excluding driving by it on 95) when they weren't going there for a game.

That does NOT mean the area is even slightly dangerous.

It simply means that even compared to a city like Albany, which has a tiny but vibrant downtown, the place doesn't scream out "fun" to potential visitors. That's by far the biggest negative, and it's likely at least part of the reason the attendance in 2007 was nowhere near what it typically is in Albany.

Having said that, there are reasons that it's getting a second chance to host the tournament in a five-year frame, while Buffalo, which hasn't hosted it since 2005, isn't, including but not limited to those listed above.

The best thing going for it as a major player in the future may be geography. Though the average driving time from other MAAC schools is two minutes longer than Albany, it's far easier to get to on public transportation, and the driving distance is skewed in favor of Albany because of the Buffalo schools, which get little representation at tournaments not held in their back yard.

Also, an important note that is seldom recognized: Despite all the clamor among some Fairfield fans about the necessity of moving the majority of home games back to Alumni Hall, and in spite of a reprehensible lack of support from the student body, the Stags' average home attendance last year was higher than any MAAC school but Siena.

From a standpoint of getting a big turnout from home-town fans, that clearly doesn't place it ahead of Albany. But it means that in a year when the Stags are a serious contender (in 2007 they were the No. 6 seed and lost in the first round to Loyola), they could be a major drawing card.