Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 22, 1994 TAG: 9404220039
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Big South Conference men's basketball tournament will be moving out of the North Charleston (S.C.) Coliseum, where it has been played the past two years, leaving the Salem Civic Center or Liberty University's Vines Center as likely sites for the 1995 tournament.
"The tournament will be in Virginia," a source familiar with the bids said Thursday.
North Charleston submitted an oral bid, but it was not competitive with those of Salem and Lynchburg.
"It was simply a matter of economics," said Howard Bagwell, athletic director at Big South member Charleston Southern. "The other two sites are willing to give us substantial guarantees."
The conference's athletic directors will meet April 26 at an undisclosed site in Virginia to consider the bids.
Salem bid on the tournament three years ago when the event was moved from Anderson, S.C., to North Charleston.
"We have presented a bid this time that is competitive and a win-win situation for the conference and the valley as a whole," said Carey Harveycutter, the civic center manager.
Lynchburg, which, like Salem, lost out when the tournament went to North Charleston, has put together a substantial package this time around.
"I understand Lynchburg has given the Big South an extremely high bid, both in terms of financial guarantees and ticket sales," said a source close to the situation. "If they go on money alone, then Lynchburg will get the bid."
A Liberty source said the university hoped to use a successful bid for the tournament to upgrade the Vines Center with additional dressing and meeting facilities.
Chuck Burch, Liberty's athletic director, was out of his office Thursday and did not return a telephone call.
North Charleston all but conceded the tournament to Virginia.
Kathy Boles, director of sports marketing for the Charleston Trident Convention and Tourist Bureau, said her group offered the league an oral proposal - without a guarantee - to stay in North Charleston.
"It wouldn't come close to matching the financial package that they'd get from somewhere else that was really hungry for the event for the first time," Boles said.
The four-day tournament attracted 8,648 paying customers in 1993 at the 12,400-seat Coliseum. Slightly more spectators (9,220) showed up this year, but Boles said sponsorship declined.
Chuck Taylor, who serves on the conference's basketball committee as Radford University's athletic director, said of the North Charleston proposal: "It is not as attractive as it was in the past."
The visitors' bureau guaranteed the Big South $33,000, plus 30 percent of revenue from ticket sales for the 1993 tournament. Those figures were increased to $38,000 and 35 percent of ticket sales in March.
Buddy Sasser, the Big South commissioner, was at the conference softball tournament in Rock Hill, S.C., on Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
Some information contributed by The Associated Press.
by CNB