IU Reporter: BTT To DC for a year?

Submitted by MGoLesher on

Sorry I'm not good at embedding tweets but I saw this tidbit from Justin Albers, who follows IU basketball and works for Fox Sports: 

@Justin_Albers 10m 
"Hearing the Big Ten Tournament will be moved out of Indianapolis and to Washington DC for at least one year. Disappointing. #iubb"

I attended the B1G Tournament the last two years in Chicago and Indy and I truly think that it should rotate between those two cities, if not adding Detroit. 

vablue

May 4th, 2014 at 11:17 PM ^

I think people will be surprised by the large number of Big Ten Alumni that live in this area, not including Maryland.

ThadMattasagoblin

May 4th, 2014 at 11:19 PM ^

We should either get a BTT in Auburn Hills or a BTCG in Detroit. There's no reason that Indianapolis should get everything which is only a stone's throw from Columbus while Michigan gets nothing.

Gulogulo37

May 4th, 2014 at 11:30 PM ^

I guess they're doing this to reach out to the east coast now with Maryland and Rutgers, but I'm not a fan of these recent moves, the tourney in DC and the headquarters in NY. Part of the reason college sports are great is because of the tribalism but so much for that. The B1G certainly isn't a Midwest conference anymore. I now feel like Maryland and Rutgers are our rivals if only because I want them to do so poorly in our conference.

MGoChippewa

May 4th, 2014 at 11:29 PM ^

that just seems stupid to me, but what do I know?  Seems like that would be a huge advantage for PSU, Rutgers and Maryland.  Too bad two of those schools suck ass at basketball.

bluesalt

May 4th, 2014 at 11:53 PM ^

It's relatively easy to get to DC from anywhere in the conference (except maybe Iowa or Lincoln?) and it's not like there's an especially large Rutgers alumni base here relative to any other B1G school.



It depends who your target market is for tickets. If it's students, then maybe Indiana makes sense, but really you're still not getting students from all the schools there anyway. If it's people you can make money off of, DC is a pretty good choice.



DC is there for the taking for a conference. While it should be ACC country, the ACC has decided to make Charlotte their basketball center and Atlanta their football center. Certainly the B1G should be able to claim it from the A-10 or the Colonial ConferenceS, and the Big East is keeping their tourney in MSG.



The expansion has happened, like it or not. It was clearly done for monetary reasons. Might as well figure out how to make the money off of it.

Silly Goose

May 5th, 2014 at 1:07 AM ^

I think this is great. I would much prefer the game rotate around the conference than to keep it in Indiana every year. Same with the football and hockey tournaments/championship, let's have them all rotate around the league.

Wolverine Devotee

May 5th, 2014 at 7:50 AM ^

DC is idiotic, obviously. Put it at the Palace. Great facility that hardly hosts any basketball games.

Yes. The Palace hardly hosts real basketball games.

umbig11

May 5th, 2014 at 8:10 AM ^

I suppose this is all part of the branding effort in the east? I know the B1G opened its NYC/NJ office and they are announcing the B1G/Big East challenge today. I wonder if this will be announced today as well? I know there are a lot of alumni in the east that will support this. Bottom line, it comes down to TV money.

LSAClassOf2000

May 5th, 2014 at 8:19 AM ^

I would have reservations about the BTT not being in a somewhat central location with respect to the conference "footprint" (whatever that means anymore) only because if it is in DC, you're asking the westernmost members of the conference to travel much greater distances. The teams would, but their fans...perhaps not so much, at least not in nearly the quantity that they do when it is more central. I mean, Lincoln is actually nearly equidistant from both DC and Las Vegas (only 30-40 miles difference, I think). 

To borrow an image from someone on my Twitter feed regarding location:

gwkrlghl

May 5th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^

It's the midwests NYC, has boatloads of alums from every B1G school, is fairly central, and is actually a place people would like to go for a weekend. I don't know why every Big Ten tournament isn't there

quigley.blue

May 5th, 2014 at 8:35 AM ^

I get the whole "keeping it in the region" thing, but Indy is truly a zero for me in terms of location.  I don't care about proximty, that city will NEVER be a draw for me, so anything that get's events away from there, I'm good with.

Indiana Blue

May 5th, 2014 at 9:50 AM ^

Everything in Indy is downtown.  Restaurants, bars, the night scene, shopping and BOTH the Fieldhouse and Lucus Oil Stadium.  Park you car once and you can walk to any place you want to go.  This isn't possible in Chicago or Detroit ... nor would it be safe to try and do.  

The DC concept is just stupid !

Go Blue! 

gopoohgo

May 5th, 2014 at 10:47 AM ^

o.O

Can't speak for Chicago, but there is a whole crapload of things within walking distance of the stadiums in downtown Detroit.  Very safe too.

But hey, way to give a strong opinion about something you know nothing about.

Back to OP; big thumbs up for BTT in DC.  There are TONS of B1G alumni in the DC/Md/NoVa region, and would easily sell out Verizon Center. 

ak47

May 5th, 2014 at 11:12 AM ^

The verizon center is literally in the middle of dc, so all of these arguments for indy because things are near the stadium mean nothing.  Unless you think indy is a draw of city for some reason.  Atlanta isn't exactly in the middle of the SEC but it still hosts everything because it is the best place in the footprint to do so.

cutter

May 5th, 2014 at 1:49 PM ^

The Verizon Center in Washington DC is located in the Penn Quarter section of Chinatown.

It's surrounded by restaurants, bars, the night scene, shopping, etc--just like the sites in Indianapolis.  The DC metro has a stop right on the corner, so you also have a mass transit option as well.

I live in the area and there are a lot of Big Ten alums here, so it's not as crackpot an idea as you present.  

 

Darker Blue

May 5th, 2014 at 8:59 AM ^

I say you hold that shit on an aircraft carrier. Floating at sea. In the middle of the Pacific. While holding Naval drills with South Korea and Japan and Australia. Fucking Delany doesn't know shit about running a conference.