How stale has the SEC Baseball tournament become?...
- Thread starter Xenomorph
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I know it’s been discussed at length before but move it around. There’s so many good baseball stadiums in the southeast.
Moving it around won't help, they'll never get more spectators than they get now at Hoover.
If you want to make it relevant, it, well....has to BE relevant. Just like the SEC basketball tournament, it's just not, outside of a random team winning it and getting a bid to the dance. Most of the teams have already staked their postseason claim by then, so it doesn't really matter at all. It's also silly to think that whatever hot team wins the tournament is the real SEC champ rather than regular season record, so you can't go that route. I'm not really sure you CAN make it relevant. If the top teams in it don't really care, then it is what it is. Just a fun thing to do for the fans.
If you want to make it relevant, it, well....has to BE relevant. Just like the SEC basketball tournament, it's just not, outside of a random team winning it and getting a bid to the dance. Most of the teams have already staked their postseason claim by then, so it doesn't really matter at all. It's also silly to think that whatever hot team wins the tournament is the real SEC champ rather than regular season record, so you can't go that route. I'm not really sure you CAN make it relevant. If the top teams in it don't really care, then it is what it is. Just a fun thing to do for the fans.
Sure the format wouldn’t change, but if you made it a rotating travel destination, more people would go. Memphis, NO, Nashville. All are much better destinations than Hoover for stuff to do outside of watching baseball. Don’t get it twisted, this isn’t a baseball only trip. People want to do more than watch baseball. Plus if your team loses it makes it worse being in Hoover.
I know we can’t forsake the camper people, but most of us aren’t camper people.
I agree with this. The SEC is too good at Baseball for this event to be relevant. All of the top teams in the tourney have made their mark and have way bigger fish to fry to care about this. Plus they have just finished a grueling 30 game conference schedule and already know who the best team in the conference is.
I doubt there is a location other than Hoover that makes any sense that can accommodate campers. I'm not clear on why the camper people are so important. Nashville, Memphis, Biloxi, Atlanta, Pensacola, are all places in the SEC footprint more or less with cool major league or minor leaquge stadiums that could be used. Don't think New Orleans has a good baseball stadium but that would be another option if they do. You would probably lose some die hards that have been going for years, but you'd have a new population to draw from for each location. I probably wouldn't go to the SEC tournament every year if it was an easy drive for me, but I'd certainly go if it were within a two our drive every four or five years, and then probably go occasionally when it was in a city I wanted to go to anyway.
Montgomery, Al is putting together a package to try and get it moved here when the current deal with Hoover is up.
Expanding it hurt it more than anything, in my opinion. When it was an 8 team field, you knew every team there was good and it was a real challenge to just make the tourney some years.
Then 2011 happened and LSU got left out of a Regional because they didn’t make the SEC Tourney, so that was the end of the 8 team field. The next year it was 10 and two years later it was 12. So now you’ll have somebody like Missouri with a losing record in conference and overall that sneaks in. They would’ve been out of it by a mile a decade ago.
It’s probably also made it less interesting from an MSU perspective that we haven’t done jack in Hoover since 2013, and still have had really good teams in that span. It just isn’t as essential to us as it once was. In some ways it’s viewed as a waste of energy for the team, given that we won it in 2012 and then got spanked by Samford in the Regional. Same deal with Ole Miss winning it in 2018 and then getting punked by Tennessee Tech.
Then 2011 happened and LSU got left out of a Regional because they didn’t make the SEC Tourney, so that was the end of the 8 team field. The next year it was 10 and two years later it was 12. So now you’ll have somebody like Missouri with a losing record in conference and overall that sneaks in. They would’ve been out of it by a mile a decade ago.
It’s probably also made it less interesting from an MSU perspective that we haven’t done jack in Hoover since 2013, and still have had really good teams in that span. It just isn’t as essential to us as it once was. In some ways it’s viewed as a waste of energy for the team, given that we won it in 2012 and then got spanked by Samford in the Regional. Same deal with Ole Miss winning it in 2018 and then getting punked by Tennessee Tech.
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While I agree with the relevance statement I disagree that moving it around wouldn't help. It would help some because you would attract fans that otherwise don't go due to distance especially if you locate it closer to big attendance schools. Bham is bama country and they don't care about college baseball unless the turd is unusually good every decade or so.
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I don't mind if they move it, personally. They eventually will, get closer every time it comes up for renewal.
I like the idea of moving it around.
But another issue is it's a long, difficult tournament in the South in May vs. the best talent in the country. A lot of years, there are 8 teams in Hoover better than the eventual 8 teams in Omaha. This is very taxing on a team that makes a deep run the week before the NCAA Tournament. Since the expansion of the NCAA Tournament, 8 SEC Tournament champions have failed to win their regional the next weekend (more than 1 in 3). Before 2019 Vandy, the previous 4 national champions from the SEC didn't win the SEC Tournament. In fact, none of them even made the final. Only one made the semifinals.
They would never do this because they want to sell as many games as possible, but you could replace the SEC Tournament with an SEC Championship Series*: a three-game series between the division champions at a neutral site. It would be less taxing on the whole league before the NCAA Tournament. It would be more exciting (like the Championship Game in football). And it would make the division races more interesting. It would also be more analogous to the SEC regular season. For example, 2019 would have been a three-game series between Vanderbilt and Arkansas for an SEC championship. I would watch that. In 2018, Florida vs. Ole Miss in an SEC Championship Series would have been the only time those two teams met.
*-The SEC did this pre-1977, so it's not unprecedented.
But another issue is it's a long, difficult tournament in the South in May vs. the best talent in the country. A lot of years, there are 8 teams in Hoover better than the eventual 8 teams in Omaha. This is very taxing on a team that makes a deep run the week before the NCAA Tournament. Since the expansion of the NCAA Tournament, 8 SEC Tournament champions have failed to win their regional the next weekend (more than 1 in 3). Before 2019 Vandy, the previous 4 national champions from the SEC didn't win the SEC Tournament. In fact, none of them even made the final. Only one made the semifinals.
They would never do this because they want to sell as many games as possible, but you could replace the SEC Tournament with an SEC Championship Series*: a three-game series between the division champions at a neutral site. It would be less taxing on the whole league before the NCAA Tournament. It would be more exciting (like the Championship Game in football). And it would make the division races more interesting. It would also be more analogous to the SEC regular season. For example, 2019 would have been a three-game series between Vanderbilt and Arkansas for an SEC championship. I would watch that. In 2018, Florida vs. Ole Miss in an SEC Championship Series would have been the only time those two teams met.
*-The SEC did this pre-1977, so it's not unprecedented.
I think part of the reason it feels less relevant to us now is that we're nationally competitive. If we were middle of the pack in the SEC, like in '05, with no real chance of doing anything at a national level, we'd probably care more about the SECT.
I was talking this weekend with someone associated with the Hoover Met but not the baseball tournament and he said that this possibly would be Hoover's last year for awhile and it was going to a transition location. He said that Hoover is doing everything to keep it and that there was now multiple restaurants within walking distance of the stadium. I don't know, it's been years since I've been there.
Move it to a coastal town within the conference like New Orleans, Gulfport, Mobile, Panama City, Jacksonville, Charleston etc. That way the fans will get to enjoy vacation and the games. Restaurants are better in those towns as well.
First you have to have a stadium with seating capacity of at least 8- 10,000
Then you have to have ample parking which Memphis and Nashville do not.
Chattanooga does not, not sure about Montgomery.
Biloxi might with the Casino parking availability.
AAA Atlanta/Gwinnett does I think but it’s way out of the city of Atlanta.
Then you need to have the RV lots.
Not a absolute must but many, many fans utilize this perk.
Even tho the Met is a dump, still a big stadium, lots of parking and close enough proximity with things to do and for State fans in MS and AL, a very easy day if you want or need that option.
Then you have to have ample parking which Memphis and Nashville do not.
Chattanooga does not, not sure about Montgomery.
Biloxi might with the Casino parking availability.
AAA Atlanta/Gwinnett does I think but it’s way out of the city of Atlanta.
Then you need to have the RV lots.
Not a absolute must but many, many fans utilize this perk.
Even tho the Met is a dump, still a big stadium, lots of parking and close enough proximity with things to do and for State fans in MS and AL, a very easy day if you want or need that option.
I like this idea. You could do it all the way throughout the divisions to sort of come to a defacto SEC 'ranking'.
ACC also does like a round robin or pod type format, not sure how exciting it is, but your team is supposedly guaranteed like 2-3 games.
Memphis makes way too much sense for them not to be doing it. It would be a huge revenue boost for the city and the fans attending would have a ball. They could figure out something for the campers down at Tom Lee Park, I'm sure.
The SEC tournament will always be relevant when it is treated like the event that it is: a showcase for the country's best baseball programs. You can virtually guarantee that half of Omaha's field will have been playing in that tournament three weeks prior.
If by walking distance, he means a mile away, then yeah. There's a new outdoor mall type area up there at the intersection of 459 and 150. A mile is being generous.
New Orleans baseball situation is not ideal. Out on Airline Highway away from anywhere that anyone would want to stay....
ACC has the right idea. These tournaments are an exhibition. No need to wear teams down with a potential 6 games in 6 days right before the regionals, and god forbid you have any real weather problems with 4 games per day scheduled. Every team in the ACC tournament gets between 2 and 4 games in, which is about right.
Memphis has plenty of parking. There are parking garages and lots all around the stadium. There are numerous places to eat, places to stay, and sites to see, all right within walking distance of the park.
It may not be very relevant but it’s a really enjoyable event. I’d love to own a nice camper one day and go stay all week there. For now a hotel has to do.
But, I do think it would be a really great event at AutoZone park. That would be a lot of fun.
But, I do think it would be a really great event at AutoZone park. That would be a lot of fun.
They pay for spots and buy the whole weeks worth of tickets, most times. It all comes back to the argument we often have here about DNF - who do you cater to, the people who buy lots of tickets or the GA average joe who wants to come to one game and have the same seat as everyone else?
I wonder how long it will take New Orleans to get a minor league baseball team again, or if they ever will. Used to attend Zephyr games in Privateer Park growing up, but stopped going when they moved to Airline because it’s such an inconvenient location. I think that’s why they always struggled with attendance.
I've never considered it "relevant". I haven't missed a game at the Dude in many years and I usually pick at least one if not a few out of town series to go to each year. But, I've never been to the SEC Baseball Tournament because I've never seen the "relevance" of it.
Do you just type stuff to feel like you know what you are talking abt?
The sec tourney could absolutely make more money in other places.
Hoover had its day. Might have it again but moving locations at least every couple of years would generate excitement.
The sec tourney could absolutely make more money in other places.
Hoover had its day. Might have it again but moving locations at least every couple of years would generate excitement.
If would be better for everyone if it wasn’t so grueling. Who wants a game at 10am or 9pm? Either include all 14 teams and extend it or go back to 8 teams.
Not talking abt Montgomery you dubmass.
https://forums.sixpackspeak.com/sho...-the-SEC-Baseball-tournament-become&p=1901376
If you think having it in Memphis can’t draw the same crowd as hoover, you are stupid.
https://forums.sixpackspeak.com/sho...-the-SEC-Baseball-tournament-become&p=1901376
If you think having it in Memphis can’t draw the same crowd as hoover, you are stupid.
8 teams with single elimination. 3 games at most for each team. That's all they need by that time of the year. Means they would be more rested for regionals.
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