Rooted to Richmond: CAA extends their stay in the Capitol City

Adam Stern
Sports Editor
Commonwealth Times Sports’ Twitter

The proof is in the profit.

Colonial Athletic Association Commissioner Tom Yeager made as much clear to naysayers when talking about the conference’s decision — made in a joint announcement with Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones two weeks ago — to extend the CAA’s men’s basketball tournament stay with the city two more years.

The announcement means the league’s showcase event will be staying in the Commonwealth’s capitol until at least 2014. It also means the conference’s resident conspiracy theorists — fans from fellow universities who have a long-held belief that VCU gains a true and tangible advantage because of the tournament’s proximity to the campus — can once again start assembling accusations.

But to those that say the CAA continues to stay in Richmond because of their longstanding connection to the city — the conference has held the men’s basketball tournament at the Richmond Coliseum for 21 straight years — Yeager has a message.

“I’d say it was the opposite,” Yeager said in response to the notion that the conference extended the tournament’s stay in Richmond simply because of tenure. “This wasn’t an extension because we’ve always been here; this was an extension because we’ve been successful here.”

What’s the proof?

Even with concerns that the Coliseum is becoming decrepit and outdated, the CAA has reported record numbers of attendance over the last four years, including 44,000 total fans this past year’s event. Additionally, the city has pledged improvements, be they at the Coliseum or at another site in the city, to address the institutional issues.

It also doesn’t hurt that Richmond is almost smack-dab in the middle of most of the campuses in the conference that includes teams mostly from Virginia and nearby regions in the Mid Atlantic.

“There are 12 votes that make [the decision to where the tournament is held] and only one resides in Richmond,” Yeager said in reference to the 12 schools that make up the conference. “If other schools … didn’t think Richmond was a good place for the tournament, it wouldn’t be here because they’d out vote VCU 11-1.”

Credibility did play its part in the process though. The city’s relationship with the conference — whose headquarters are located in Henrico County — meant that when negotiations started, the CAA knew Mayor Jones meant business. The city has already begun improvements on the Coliseum, including replacing almost all of the lower-bowl seats— and are awaiting results of a $150,000 privately-financed study for options for the Coliseum before making more compelling — and costly — decisions.
“They followed through on what they said they were going to do, and we believe them,” Yeager said.

Of note as well is the fact that statistics back up the absence of advantage. Sure, VCU naturally draws a larger crowd to the tournament every year because of its proximity, but if you look in the record books, the crowd may be having less of an effect than skeptics claim. The four times VCU has won the conference’s crown jewels (1996, 2004, 2007 and 2009), the Rams entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed.

“The advantage comes in if your seeded 6th and you keep winning,” Yeager said. “When you come in as a No. 1 or 2 seed, there’s an expectation you’re going to be [in the final] Monday night to begin with.”

The city is also working in conjunction with the conference to continue improving the most critical aspect of any college basketball tournament according to Yeager: the fan experience. Something resembling a “Tournament Alley” is in the works with plans to expand activities from 6th St. to Broad St. which would extend to the Marriott Hotel/T-Miller’s Sports Bar.

Such events would surely do little other than elevate the tournament’s importance in a city that already comes out in droves to support VCU. But if someone thinks that, if the tournament did eventually move, Rams fans would cease to show up, Assistant Athletic Director Mike Ellis disagrees.

“I think [having more fans show up] is really the only place the university enjoys an advantage,” Ellis said. “But if this tournament was being held in Baltimore, and the Rams were playing Monday night [in the championship], there would be a lot of black and gold in that building too.”


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