Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 19, 1994 TAG: 9405190015
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
"We've talked about the importance of a neutral court every time we've talk about moving the tournament," conference commissioner Buddy Sasser said Wednesday in a news conference announcing the decision. "But we decided this time to put the tournament in a place that best serves the conference and the student-athlete."
That reasoning surprised Salem Civic manager Carey Harveycutter, who spearheaded Salem's bid for the tournament.
"Buddy Sasser told us when we visited Charleston [S.C.] for this year's tournament that a neutral court was important to them. But I guess that the conference decided it needed the money more than the neutral court."
Salem's bid included a cash guarantee of $25,000 plus various incentives that pushed the total value of the package to about $65,000, Harveycutter said.
Liberty's bid, which was sponsored by the booster group Lynchburg: Sports Capital of Virginia Committee, was for $55,000 cash plus ticket incentives that could push the total package to as much as $95,000, sources said.
Sasser would not discuss the bids.
"We're excited about being in Virginia," he said. "It's centrally located to the conference, and we think that between Liberty and Radford it will be very well attended. Liberty and Radford lead the conference in regular-season attendance, and we think there will be a definite carry-over to the tournament."
Bill Booker, the executive director of the Lynchburg group, agreed.
"We have 70,000 people in the city of Lynchburg and 150,000 in the metropolitan area," Booker said. "We feel like we can support this thing. . . . I wish we had some tickets to sell right now."
The contract between the league and Lynchburg is expected to be finalized in the next six weeks. The tournament will be in the first week of March, but the exact days and times have not yet been set.
The dates will depend in large part on a possible TV deal, which is expected to be negotiated in the next three months. For the past four years, the tournament has been televised by ESPN. However, with the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in jeopardy because of Campbell's defection to the Trans-America Conference, a possible deal with ESPN could be too.
Sasser said that historically, ESPN has been interested only in those conference tournaments on which an automatic bid depended. Should the Big South lose its bid (it continues to pursue legal measures to keep Campbell from leaving and is making a second and final appeal to the NCAA to waive withdrawal of the bid), then Sasser is still holding out hope that a deal with ESPN2 can be struck.
"It's a strong possibility," Sasser said.
This is the second time that Salem has lost out on a bid for the Big South. It finished out of the money three years ago when the league voted to take the tournament to the North Charleston Coliseum the past two years.
The tournament will be at the 9,000-seat Vines Center for 1995 and 1996. Hosting the tournament will require only modest modifications to the facility, Liberty athletic director Chuck Burch said.
In other announcements Wednesday, Sasser said that the conference women's tournament would be coming to Radford University for the next two years. The tournament will be scheduled for the second weekend in March, dates to be announced.
by CNB