Lee Winkler

11/27/07

America East Tournament

On March 7, nine teams will journey to Binghamton. On March 9, only two will remain standing. And on March 15, one team will have a date with destiny.

Binghamton University’s Events Center will host the America East men’s basketball tournament, which propels the championship team into the NCAA tournament.

But the future of the AE tournament at Binghamton is in question as issues such as the Events Center capacity, the surrounding area and home team advantage have some officials discussing future changes.

And those conversations are heating up as the spotlight shines on Binghamton, which will play host for the third time since the Events Center opened in 2004.

Patrick Nero, America East commissioner, said the repeated hosting opportunities are because of Binghamton’s prominence.

“Binghamton has earned a reputation for putting on a first-class tournament that the community supports,” Nero said.

Joel Thirer, Binghamton’s athletic director, believes the facility and the crowds drawn make Binghamton the place for the tournament.

“The philosophy is that you want all the schools and the players to have a really good tournament experience,” Thirer said. “You want to stage the tournament in a way that’s going to be good. The crowds, the atmosphere, the environment, and you want to it in the facility that can do all that.”

A $30 million SUNY mistake?

The Events Center, built to last 40 years, with a seating capacity of 5,142 for basketball games, was not designed to be expanded. If the America East gains fame, the Events Center’s ability to host the tournament might be in doubt.

Thirer, along with Binghamton President Lois B. DeFleur, pondered that when designing the Events Center. Both wanted an arena 50 percent larger, but were constrained by construction funds.

“The building is great for what we are now, and it was in excess of where we were when we designed it. It was a major step forward,” Thirer said. “What it’s not, is looking forward 20 years and saying what the campus’ needs are going to be. What is our enrollment then?”

The construction fund, which deals with all buildings built on all SUNY campuses, looks at what is needed today, not tomorrow. Since day one, Thirer and DeFleur have been working overtime to exchange naming rights for further funding. With Binghamton’s low-level market, sponsorship opportunities have fallen short.

“We haven’t given up,” Thirer said. “It is an ongoing process.”

And, he said, Binghamton does have its advantages.

The duck versus the swan

Comparing Binghamton and Boston University, Thirer notes that Binghamton lacks the spark that Boston, a big metropolis, has and, as a result, outsiders are turned off. Put simply, Binghamton is not Boston.

“People say there is nothing to do in Binghamton, and a lot of schools don’t want to travel here,” Thirer said. “If they have their druthers, they’d rather go to Boston.”

But while Boston is a great place to be, with everything you want to do, Thirer said hotel rooms and dining in Binghamton are significantly cheaper.

And in Boston, he said, the America East tournament is not the big show. In Binghamton, it is.

“Boston has other things going on in Boston Gardens, Boston College, Harvard, the NBA and NHL,” Thirer said. “I mean, you can dress it up all you want, but in the end: Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, you’re still a duck.”

Is it home court advantage?

Popular belief suggests playing on your home court, in front of your fans is an advantage. To Thirer and first-year head coach Kevin Broadus, that advantage depends on how many Binghamton fans turn out for the games.

“If we are in the top three or top four, I think we’ll get a huge turnout of students, but if we are the seventh or eighth seed, I think we will have a lesser turnout,” Thirer said.

Broadus gave a play-by-play analysis for BU’s performance relevant to fan turnout.

“Our hopes are that we will win, and the more we win, more people come to game,” Broadus said. “Yet, we fear losing, and if we lose, fans are not going to show up. I don’t want to represent Binghamton and be bad. We have to represent since it is our court, and the last thing we want is to lose.”

Hosting the tournament has its ups and downs for the team, yet the added pressure is not necessarily a bad thing, according to Broadus.

“If we lose in the first round, we have to stay around and watch other teams go after the championship. It can be really demoralizing to be knocked out early in your arena,” Broadus said. “There is all this pressure to perform well on our home court, in front of our fans, but that pressure can also motivate the players to work hard and win.”

Thirer believes that hosting the tournament is advantageous for the host team’s performance.

“It makes it better for us. We have our home fans cheering us on and we’re sleeping in our own beds at night. It is a big advantage.” Thirer said. “Playing on the road is different. Playing in front of a hostile crowd, you’re starting off down 10 to 15 points.”

A look to the future

Consequently, that notion of home court advantage has the nine athletic directors contemplating the use of a neutral site for the tournament, a system used by other conferences.

But that raises the question of how well would each school fan base travel? That is the big issue, according to Thirer.

Several schools’ fan bases travel well, with Vermont claiming the largest traveling base with over 1,000 fans. Binghamton however, is among several schools with fan bases that do not travel in big numbers.

Location and team performance seem to be the key factors.

“Depending on how other teams do, we could see more fans following their teams,” Nero said.

One site under consideration is the Hartford Civic Center, according to both Nero and Thirer. But the schedules of home tenants, Hartford Wolf Pack and UConn Huskies take up much of the center’s time.

A neutral and central location eases the stress for many teams, like Maine and Vermont, who must travel over 500 miles to Binghamton this March. Few fans are willing to travel that distance.

The cost for schools to send their teams these far distances can total thousands of dollars.

“You are dealing with chartering a bus for the 10-hour ride or chartering a plane and a local bus. Then you need hotel rooms for an entourage of over 50 people that have to travel with the team,” Thirer said. “And it is not just an away game, but a three-day event. There is a lot of cost associated with it, so some of the schools, if they have a bad team, would rather not spend the cost.”

While Nero looks to hold the tournament in one of the America East campus venues, he does agree with Thirer.

“If we had a good option on a neutral court we would certainly look at that option, especially a situation that would allow for many of the schools to travel larger fan groups,” Nero said.

It’s always raining in Binghamton

With so many balls in their baskets, the America East, Binghamton and the other eight schools are collaborating to find the best path for this conference tournament future. But for now, it’s March 2008 that’s on everyone’s mind.

So what has the AE commissioner most concerned about Binghamton hosting the tournament this year?

The weather: “We will just have to work around any type of storm.”