By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — Dumping play-in games and bringing all 26 Sun Belt Conference teams together in Hot Springs is an excellent idea that comes with a checklist.
To play two dozen games in four days, the little extras include:
—A second set of locker rooms for both players and officials.
—Additional training rooms.
—Fifty bench chairs, with the Summit Arena logo and Hot Springs prominently displayed for television, including ESPN productions of the two championship games.
—Thirty-six dozen towels at slightly more than $3 per.
Oh, and a large wooden floor, say 94 feet long by 50 feet wide, with the proper resiliency for dribbling a basketball.
By the time the first women’s game tips at 9:45 a.m. on March 6, all will be in place.
The seed for the two-court tournament was planted when conference athletic directors made note of the space available in the Hot Springs Convention Center and asked the conference to research the possibility.
Such a concept is much better than on-campus games for the fans, who are guaranteed at least two games by teams from their school.
The conference is renting the court from the company that provides the floor for the NCAA Final Four and a firm that does the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament and the U.S. Open Golf Tournament will furnish seating for 1,500 for all of two days.
By Monday, March 8, only the original court will be needed for the two women’s games in the afternoon and the two men’s games that night.
Wisely, the conference has staggered the start times so that someone within a session pass can move between the courts. On the first day, a men’s game begins at 6:30 p.m. on one court and another one starts at 6:45 p.m. on the other court.
The fact that all conference teams are in town should mean extended stays for fans, a benefit for local merchants.
For example, Arkansas State University’s men’s team won’t play until Sunday if it remains in first place in its division, but ASU fans can arrive on Saturday to watch the women play.
The additional games demand additional personnel, but there was a pool available because the state high school tournaments have been in town the past few years and Hot Springs was the site of the NCAA Division II Women’s Elite Eight in 2007.
The regular table crew recruited another crew with college experience and Henderson State sports information director Troy Mitchell provided a stat crew for court No. 2.
Much of the community is involved.
A local hospital is providing the training room support and tracking down additional equipment and taping tables. Local doctors are volunteering to be on hand at all games and area high schools will open their facilities so the teams can practice. Each college team will have a local businessman or woman as their host.
Steve Arrison, CEO of the Hot Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau, says residents who attended the tournament last year have spread the news about the quality of basketball. Between word of mouth, the all-inclusive format, and the reasonable prices, ticket sales should be brisk.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
