SWAC School's Slice of NCAA Tournament Pie


CEE DOG said:
It didn't matter to me if the office moved or not. I just remember all the talk from JSU folks like TP, the SU crew and Texas folks bragging about how life would be like the golden paradise in Houston......... Seems like they went off of perception like most black folks......
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But Cee, this rule was made while the office was still in B'ham. Has the SWAC office moved? When did it move?
 



Herbert77060 said:
So, let me see....hmmmmm....the SWAC office is broke even with all the "freebies" in B'ham?
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The SWAC went broke leaving the "freebies" to move the main events to Houston with no support from the city of Houston while at the same time losing the financial support of the city of Birmingham - THAT is what Cee and others are addressing. Alabama folks tried to point out why moving the events were a bad move - everyone else kept saying Houston was the best deal. The SWAC had to PAY for EVERYTHING in Houston, that is why there has been no monies being disbursed to the schools for the past 2 years and that is why Duer blamed the budget on the SCG and hence tried to cancel it himself. The city of Birmingham was providing over $500,000 to the SWAC in addition to the "freebies" - once Duer made the move to Houston - without a replacement for the $500k - welp there you have it. That $500k was helping basically underwrite the conference...but don't worry....see ya'll again in 2018....
 
majiksity said:
The SWAC went broke leaving the "freebies" to move the main events to Houston with no support from the city of Houston while at the same time losing the financial support of the city of Birmingham - THAT is what Cee and others are addressing. Alabama folks tried to point out why moving the events were a bad move - everyone else kept saying Houston was the best deal. The SWAC had to PAY for EVERYTHING in Houston, that is why there has been no monies being disbursed to the schools for the past 2 years and that is why Duer blamed the budget on the SCG and hence tried to cancel it himself. The city of Birmingham was providing over $500,000 to the SWAC in addition to the "freebies" - once Duer made the move to Houston - without a replacement for the $500k - welp there you have it. That $500k was helping basically underwrite the conference...but don't worry....see ya'll again in 2018....
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Would it have been more sensible to move the SCG & Tourament from Bham to another similar or smaller sized city that offered a similar incentive package? Example, Jackson, Shreveport or Mobile?
 
2kool said:
Would it have been more sensible to move the SCG & Tourament from Bham to another similar or smaller sized city that offered a similar incentive package? Example, Jackson, Shreveport or Mobile?
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So the conference is now paying for the office space in Birmingham too? So basically the $500K was an incentive for the SWAC to host the conference tournament and SCG in Birmingham, but not for the office space?

Also, the SWAC tried it's conference tournament hand with Biloxi (prior to Birmingham) and Shreveport-Bossier (although I think they didn't really give it a chance). They didn't like it, so they left those venues.

@Kenn Rashad @majiksity help me understand this. I'm not trying to be an arse about it. I genuinely want to know. If the conference was getting $500K/year from B-ham since it moved everything to Birmingham ... what happened to the money from that point until the city pulled the money?
 
2kool said:
Would it have been more sensible to move the SCG & Tourament from Bham to another similar or smaller sized city that offered a similar incentive package? Example, Jackson, Shreveport or Mobile?
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I would have been fine in Houston if Duer had the nutts to get off of his ass and find real sponsorships so we wouldnt have to pay for everything out of our own pockets. We had to pay for rent at the stadium, fire, police etc, post game concerts, etc all out of the SWAC pockets every year. I am not sure how many tickets they were giving away - so that take away from what you actually are going to make of course. One year we had all of the bands - the Conference paid for all of that...again, with no help from the City of Houston - which aint a bad thing, they didnt feel like they needed the events - but not only that, we had no help from anyone else - Toyota cut their sponsorship after year 2 out there. So this goes back to Duer - but also the Presidents for allowing it. But as someone stated - this is what happens when you have consistent unstable leadership at the President's level - when you are an Interim or Acting President, the last thing on your plate is SWAC - and Duer served during a perfect storm for himself - he could operate with little to no oversight and do what and how he wanted.
 
Journalist said:
So the conference is now paying for the office space in Birmingham too? So basically the $500K was an incentive for the SWAC to host the conference tournament and SCG in Birmingham, but not for the office space?

Also, the SWAC tried it's conference tournament hand with Biloxi (prior to Birmingham) and Shreveport-Bossier (although I think they didn't really give it a chance). They didn't like it, so they left those venues.

@Kenn Rashad @majiksity help me understand this. I'm not trying to be an arse about it. I genuinely want to know. If the conference was getting $500K/year from B-ham since it moved everything to Birmingham ... what happened to the money from that point until the city pulled the money?
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The Conference is still housed here for free. When Birmingham bid for the SCG etc, the bid included free office space for the headquarters, $500k plus a year, and free usage of facilities for SWAC events. The money from Birmingham I am sure was used to offset cost incurred by the conference, personnel, personAL interests. But once the city pulled their financial support and Duer did not replace it - well this is where we are.
 
majiksity said:
The Conference is still housed here for free. When Birmingham bid for the SCG etc, the bid included free office space for the headquarters, $500k plus a year, and free usage of facilities for SWAC events. The money from Birmingham I am sure was used to offset cost incurred by the conference, personnel, personAL interests. But once the city pulled their financial support and Duer did not replace it - well this is where we are.
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In essence, it's piss poor leadership that got the conference in this hole.

BTW: I thought the SWAC moving the conference tournament to an NBA arena was a huuuuuge mistake. We're not the Big 10 or even the CIAA.

Don't think moving to Houston, per se, was the problem. Methinks not having the business savvy to have things in place to offset that $500k/year was the problem.

I think we would've been at the same place if we moved the SCG to NOLA.
 
Journalist said:
In essence, it's piss poor leadership that got the conference in this hole.

BTW: I thought the SWAC moving the conference tournament to an NBA arena was a huuuuuge mistake. We're not the Big 10 or even the CIAA.

Don't think moving to Houston, per se, was the problem. Methinks not having the business savvy to have things in place to offset that $500k/year was the problem.

I think we would've been at the same place if we moved the SCG to NOLA.
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You are correct and I pretty much said the same thing in an above post when I spoke about Duer and his lack of nutts lol. And let me say - I never cared whether the events moved or not, my issue was purely from a financial standpoint - I dont know who can walk away from over half a million a year and not replace it - and not miss it....thinking that you can still operate the same.
 
majiksity said:
I would have been fine in Houston if Duer had the nutts to get off of his ass and find real sponsorships so we wouldnt have to pay for everything out of our own pockets. We had to pay for rent at the stadium, fire, police etc, post game concerts, etc all out of the SWAC pockets every year. I am not sure how many tickets they were giving away - so that take away from what you actually are going to make of course. One year we had all of the bands - the Conference paid for all of that...again, with no help from the City of Houston - which aint a bad thing, they didnt feel like they needed the events - but not only that, we had no help from anyone else - Toyota cut their sponsorship after year 2 out there. So this goes back to Duer - but also the Presidents for allowing it. But as someone stated - this is what happens when you have consistent unstable leadership at the President's level - when you are an Interim or Acting President, the last thing on your plate is SWAC - and Duer served during a perfect storm for himself - he could operate with little to no oversight and do what and how he wanted.
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We've been saying this for years. Not only unstable leadership at the presidential level but the AD level as well.

This pretty much let Sharp do what he wanted because of the constant musical chairs at the leadership level.
 
majiksity said:
I would have been fine in Houston if Duer had the nutts to get off of his ass and find real sponsorships so we wouldnt have to pay for everything out of our own pockets. We had to pay for rent at the stadium, fire, police etc, post game concerts, etc all out of the SWAC pockets every year. I am not sure how many tickets they were giving away - so that take away from what you actually are going to make of course. One year we had all of the bands - the Conference paid for all of that...again, with no help from the City of Houston - which aint a bad thing, they didnt feel like they needed the events - but not only that, we had no help from anyone else - Toyota cut their sponsorship after year 2 out there. So this goes back to Duer - but also the Presidents for allowing it. But as someone stated - this is what happens when you have consistent unstable leadership at the President's level - when you are an Interim or Acting President, the last thing on your plate is SWAC - and Duer served during a perfect storm for himself - he could operate with little to no oversight and do what and how he wanted.
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Toyota was the sponsor this year at Delmar.
 



Herbert77060 said:
Toyota was the sponsor this year at Delmar.
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Toyota was supposed to be the sponsor for the SCG and the Tournament sponsor when the events first moved out there. They reduced their financial sponsorship after year 2 which is also why they had to move from the Toyota Center....Think about it...Toyota, Toyota Center....don't you think Toyota should have been able to keep us at the ummm TOYOTA CENTER, I mean since they are a sponsor of course. I mean, I'm just saying....
 
I swear you folks are slow. I know the headquarters are still in Bham. Common sense....... The point was you all wanted everything in Texas. Including the headquarters.....
 
I'd like to see the balance sheet before commenting. My guess is Duer's work was the liability but really don't know until I see raw numbers.
 
majiksity said:
Toyota was supposed to be the sponsor for the SCG and the Tournament sponsor when the events first moved out there. They reduced their financial sponsorship after year 2 which is also why they had to move from the Toyota Center....Think about it...Toyota, Toyota Center....don't you think Toyota should have been able to keep us at the ummm TOYOTA CENTER, I mean since they are a sponsor of course. I mean, I'm just saying....
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We need to stop with the champagne taste and beer pocketbook. The SLC has played their basketball tournament in a high school facility for at least as long as we have played at Toyota Center. We also need to admit that unless certain schools are in the finals/championship attendance is putrid. We support other people more than we support ourselves.
 
Herbert77060 said:
We need to stop with the champagne taste and beer pocketbook. The SLC has played their basketball tournament in a high school facility for at least as long as we have played at Toyota Center. We also need to admit that unless certain schools are in the finals/championship attendance is putrid. We support other people more than we support ourselves.
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I have no problem admitting that at all. I am only pointing out that if Toyota is the sponsor, then shouldn't they have been able to take care of the fiscal responsibility of the actual building that bears their damn name? Well you know why they couldn't? Because they reduced their financial sponsorship, which goes back to my original statement of that after year 2 they reduced their financial committment in which you replied they were the sponsor at Delmar. They were, but at an extreme minimal financial committment. And while we are facing facts add this one - we are NOT a basketball conference, not from an attendane standpoint. If schools are only averaging 2k on campus for games, how can we expect to all of a sudden average 5k or more for the Tournament when fans won't even know who is playing in the tournament host city until 2 days before the tournament? We don't have a fan base that will be ride or die for the Tournament regardless of who is playing.
 
majiksity said:
I have no problem admitting that at all. I am only pointing out that if Toyota is the sponsor, then shouldn't they have been able to take care of the fiscal responsibility of the actual building that bears their damn name? Well you know why they couldn't? Because they reduced their financial sponsorship, which goes back to my original statement of that after year 2 they reduced their financial committment in which you replied they were the sponsor at Delmar. They were, but at an extreme minimal financial committment. And while we are facing facts add this one - we are NOT a basketball conference, not from an attendane standpoint. If schools are only averaging 2k on campus for games, how can we expect to all of a sudden average 5k or more for the Tournament when fans won't even know who is playing in the tournament host city until 2 days before the tournament? We don't have a fan base that will be ride or die for the Tournament regardless of who is playing.
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All of your points are valid but there are enough SWAC grads and former students in the greater Houston to make attendance not an issue. It all depends on who is playing. We have to start supporting the conference. I have not missed a SWAC tournament since the year before it left Birmingham and I did not go home if sTu was not in the championship game either.
 
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Herbert77060 said:
All of your points are valid but there are enough SWAC grads and former students in the greater Houston to make attendance not an issue. It all depends on who is playing. We have to start supporting the conference. I have not missed a SWAC tournament since the year before it left Birmingham and I did not go home if sTu was not in the championship game either.
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First let me say while it might not look/sound like it, I actually agree with you with what you are saying for the most part. What you have said above comes with a couple of caveats...the first one is that we don't have enough SWAC supporters that will show up for something like the Tourney just because we are willing to support to conference, we have a few old head alums that love us like that, but not nearly enough. Second, as you said there are enough in Houston to come out BUT it depends on what the match up will be. And again for folks outside of Houston, or Birmingham, or Shreveport or Biloxi...in the current set up, you don' know what the match up will be until Wednesday before the Semifinals because now you have the opening rounds on the campus sites.
 
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