Boise, ID

[DonCornholeone]

Can someone explain the reasoning behind why a city like Boise (small, isolated, ridiculously expensive to fly to) gets to host tournament games? 

[Tulsa Warrior]

Economic stimulus 

[BrewCity83]

I don't like the idea of playing in Boise either.  To me, that's the middle of nowhere.  But this sounds like some big New Yorker complaining about games played in Milwaukee.  It's all relative.

[jfmu]

I don't like the idea of playing in Boise either.  To me, that's the middle of nowhere.  But this sounds like some big New Yorker complaining about games played in Milwaukee.  It's all relative.

Yea but if a new yorker thinks that about Milwaukee imagine what they think about Boise. 

[GGGG]

Metro area of 550,000+...can get direct flights from major airports...

It isn't that bad.  And it all comes down to who makes the most money for the NCAA anyway.  Since they've been playing there forever, obviously the NCAA thinks its a good idea.

[DonCornholeone]

The "metropolitan" area of which you speak, containing 550,000 people, is, according to the US Census Bureau, 15000 square miles.  If you take the same area-age around Milwaukee, that would include most of the Chicago metro area, and constitute around 8 million people.  Boise is in the middle of nowhere.

[GGGG]

Regardless, the NCAA keeps going back so they must do something right.

[Goatherder]

Folks, look at a map.  Where is Boise located?  Now, where is it in relation to New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles? 

Recall that this used to be a geographically determined tournament, and most of the NCAA tournaments still are.  So the top teams used to be assigned mainly to the region they beloged in geographically.  This is what got Al mad enough to take his team to the NIT instead.  That pretty much ended when Indiana and Marquette wound up in the same region in 1976.  However, there is still an effort made to balance the sites geographically, and if you are going to do that, putting a site in the Mountain region makes sense.  So that leaves you with a choice of Denver, Salt Lake, Boise, and not a whole lot else.  No surprise that Boise shows up frequently.  And besides, they put in bids just like other host sites.  Just like Marquette. 

[SCdem@MU]

So that leaves you with a choice of Denver, Salt Lake, Boise, and not a whole lot else.  No surprise that Boise shows up frequently.  And besides, they put in bids just like other host sites.  Just like Marquette. 

Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Salt Lake, and Albuquerque would seem to make a lot more sense to me.

[muwarrior69]

Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Salt Lake, and Albuquerque would seem to make a lot more sense to me.

Albuquerque, if I recall correctly that is where the 1970 regional was to be held and Al took the team to the NIT instead.

[Sir Lawrence]

Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Salt Lake, and Albuquerque would seem to make a lot more sense to me.

Boulder?  The Coors Events Center on CU's campus only holds about 11,000. 

Colorado Springs?  Do they have an arena anywhere to hold a tourney crowd?

The rest makes sense, but I don't have any problem with Boise, other than it's a pain to get to.  Denver is pretty far away for many of the teams out west.... 

[SCdem@MU]

Boulder?  The Coors Events Center on CU's campus only holds about 11,000. 

Colorado Springs?  Do they have an arena anywhere to hold a tourney crowd?

Cox Arena in San Diego where Marquette played its opening round game a few years ago only had a capacity of about 12,000... 11,000 seems like it would be large enough.

Don't need an NBA sized facility for the opening rounds.

[jfmu]

11,000 is fine for the first round. the ncaa should try to pick places that are destinations not Boise