Tom, the only thing that gets me about atlantic city is the cost of getting there and the cost skyrocket starting friday night. one would think the conference would try to address that for the travelers from the three best attendance programs (slu, dayton and xaiver).

personally i think they should start the tourney the sunday before selection sunday and play sunday through wednesday instead of wednesday - sunday. that would lessen at least the hotel cost as the casino hotels would lower their prices for those nights.

that would also put the a-10 as the feature tourney that week instead of trying to complete with the bcs tourney’s for attention. we would likely get featured coverage on espn for more than just the championship.

i hadnt missed a conference tourney for the billikens in about 10 years prior to atlantic city, now i cant make that trip make fiscal sense and havent been to one since.

Certainly a valid point about the cost of lodging. The longer the tournament goes on, the more your hotel room costs. I know the first year the tournament was there, if SLU had reached the Saturday final, I was going to check out of my hotel that morning and drive to Philadelphia after the game. Now, with the tournament pushed back a day, you’d have at least two teams’ worth of fans having to stay on saturday night, and possibly four depending on what time of day they play the semis.

I haven’t found the cost of getting there to be too exorbitant — Southwest to Philly and drive — but certainly those last few nights of hotel rooms is steep. Ironically, the reason the league pushed the tournament back a day and split off the first round was they figured fans would be more likely to make the trip if it they’d miss one day of work, Friday, rather than three.

Getting to Springfield isn’t cheap; the closest big airport is Hartford. Flights to Cincinnati are ridiculous from St. Louis, though it is drivable for the hearty. I’ve never spent more than a night in Dayton, though I did ring in the new year there once, but I don’t see it as a place to hang out for a few days. (There’s a nice airplane museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside town.) Pittsburgh may have the most other recreational opportunities.

I don’t know if it means more money, but getting the final on CBS rather than ESPN is certainly a big deal for the league.

This will be a big decision for the new commissioner.

I have been to the last two A-10s in Atlantic City and find it OK. If you are gambler you might like it more but Tom is right about the benefits of the boardwalk. There are places open but things are pretty bad service and quality-wise. The second year I was a bit smarter and had a few good meals and bar experiences.

I used to live near Springfield (you are right that it can take an hour from Amherst to Springfield at certain times but it is under 30 miles). Springfield is a pretty dead place and hard to get around in outside of the expressway–people would be staying in pretty spreadout places as there is not much hotel space right there. It would be a great location for me personally but if it ever happens people should do all their entertaining in Northampton.

Personally, I think Philly is the best option. I know its been done before and is considered boring by A-10 insiders but it is actually a great town to visit (like Tom mentioned above my plans have always been to stay in Philly if the Bills get to the final where you could even take a cheap train to AC if you did not want to drive).

Any idea when a decision will be made?

Living in Cincinnati now, I’m obviously biased, but the CUSA tournament was here at the US Bank Arena a couple times when SLU was in that conference, and it made for a good host city. The drive is barely over 5 hours from St. Louis. Dayton is also just a shade over 5 hours from St. Louis. I’m sure the rest of the league wouldn’t be jumping to head this far west, though.

Atlantic city is the perfect place. Anyone who has ever gone would not want to change it.

You fly into philly & drive or take the train and you have a ball for 3 days. It’s easy for people to get to from all over, centrally located & accessible by train the schools. There are tons of rooms so you can always find a deal. You’ve got tons of vice and you don’t have to drive. No one who doesn’t live in Cin wants to go to Cin cause if we wanted to go to the south we wouldn’t go to Ohio in March. I’ve been to both….leave it in AC!

Why isn’t St. Louis in this bidding? With a new building to showcase, it just seems logical that SLU would jump on this.

Maybe in the future St. Louis might bid, but I think they’d be a longshot at any time because they are the most remote outpost in the league. It would put the tournament far away from the vast majority of its fans.

When Bob Warming was the SLU soccer coach, he tried to make the case for the conference soccer tournament to be in the Cayman Islands. You’d have good weather and it would be an attractive destination spot, especially since so few people went to the conference soccer tournament anyway. Didn’t happen.