Sun Belt bound for Big Easy

Hot Springs loses postseason events

— The Sun Belt Conference had planned to announce in March that it was moving its postseason basketball tournaments out of Hot Springs before its contract with the city was up following the 2014 tournaments, but comments made Monday in North Little Rock at a gathering of the Downtown Tip-Off Club forced its hand a bit.

The Sun Belt announced Tuesday that the 2014, 2015 and 2016 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be played at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, which will end the league’s five-year run at Summit Arena in Hot Springs after this year’s tournaments are played next month.

Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson said by telephone from Dallas on Tuesday that the conference informed the Hot Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau a week ago that it had an agreement for future tournaments at Lakefront Arena. All the Sun Belt needed was a formal vote of the league’s executive board, which was planned for March 9.

Then UALR officials mentioned the league’s intentions during Monday’s meeting at the Wyndham Riverfront hotel. When word of that reached the conference office in New Orleans, Benson said a tele-conference between the fourmember executive committee was held Monday evening to vote on the move and an announcement was made Tuesday morning.

“We got caught offguard,” Benson said. “We had it teed up, but we hadn’t gone through the official approval process with the Sun Belt board. ... We got them together and they approved the package.”

Benson and Steve Arrison, chief executive officer of Visit Hot Springs, said the two sides have split with positive feelings and good relations.

The Sun Belt and Hot Springs signed an original three-year deal starting in 2009 that was extended for three more years after the 2011 tournament.

The deal to void the final year of the contract was described by Benson and Arrison as mutual and did not include payment from either side.

Arrison said he feels fortunate to have had five tournaments played at Summit Arena, considering he wasn’t expecting more than three when the original deal was made.

“Every year we’ve had it from that point, we’ve looked at it as a bonus year,” Arrison said. “We wish them well. We’ve made some great friends working with the Sun Belt staff the last five years.It’s been a great experience for us, given us a lot of national publicity.”

The Sun Belt wasn’t paying for use of Summit Arena or the convention center that housed a secondary court, allowing the men’s and women’s tournaments to be played simultaneously. But Arrison said Tuesday the decision to allow the conference out of the contract’s final year wasn’t financial.

Arrison said it became clear to him the Sun Belt was interested in other siteswhen he read news reports last summer of Benson visiting Orlando, Fla., Gwinnett, Ga., and Southaven, Miss., in search of future sites. When Arrison met with Benson and other league officials last August in New Orleans, Arrison told them if they wanted out after this year’s tournament that he only needed enough notice to be able to bid on other events.

“Bottom line: If they don’t want to be here, if they have another goal, hey, we’ve had a great five years,” Arrison said. “It’s been a great event for us and we’ll replace it with somebody else.”

Benson, who also listened to inquiries from Nashville, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala., and Mobile, Ala., touted New Orleans’ status as a popular tourist spot, its proximity to league schools and $8.7 million in improvements to Lakefront Arena since it was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

“That led me to believe that if the Sun Belt is ever going to create a basketball tournament that could draw from all of its members and to build a fan base, that New Orleans was the place,” Benson said. “I would hope that we could build this to a point to where it’s just the right spot, the perfect spot.”

Arrison said Summit Arena has plenty of options even without the Sun Belt’s March presence.

The high school state basketball championship games, which were played at Summit Arena in 2007-2012, will be played at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock this year because a scheduling conflict with the Sun Belt prevented Hot Springs from bidding on them. But Arrison said there are plans to bid on the championships for 2014, 2015 and 2016. He also mentioned the NCAA Division II Great American Conference,which includes six Arkansas schools, as another possibility. The two sides have spoken previously, but the GAC is committed to having its tournaments in Bartlesville, Okla., through 2014.

Sports, Pages 19 on 02/06/2013

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