Wells Fargo Arena...

[JP4CY]

They should have bulldozed Vets and built a hotel or hotels with restaurants on the main floor, and a huge exhibit space underground.

As someone that goes to trade shows, that's what works well.

[theshadow]

There is only marginal difference in number of seats between here and Omaha, and they essentially cancelled that out in their bid by offering the arena rent free to the NCAA.

Marginal? From each venue's respective website:

Basketball Capacity
Omaha: 18,320
Des Moines: 16,110

[mtowncyclone13]

How does a regional tourney need 5 hotels just for the teams? This isn't football.

[SyracuseCyclone]

The best part? Taxpayer money funded a gigantic renovation of Vets. It's purpose has changed however. Don't think you can play hoops or anything in there anymore.

Makes sense, obviously nothing scintillating has been there and caused me to go and know this.

But yeah, mid sized arenas do not get regionals anymore they are held in NBA caliber ones almost exclusively. Heck, I think a dome like the Georgia Dome might even be hosting games the first weekend of the tournament these days?


If it was a real arena you can guarantee people like the Maloofs would kick the tires on what kind of 10 year contracts they could get out of Wells Fargo and Principal when looking for new spots for the Kings since the NBA won't let them move to Vegas. DSM wouldn't get the team but would be in the discussion. (And plenty of Iowans would buy the cheap seats attendance wouldn't be embarrassing and would be better than many cities even if there isn't the money to sell courtsides and such.)

[FDWxMan]

Marginal? From each venue's respective website:

Basketball Capacity
Omaha: 18,320
Des Moines: 16,110

Read the rest of the damn post. They made up the monetary difference to the NCAA by offering the arena rent free. The NCAA isn't losing any $$$ on capacity.

So it has an extra ~2000 seats. Big freaking deal. The WF crew said it's actually only 1,500 seats, and a lot of those are likely nosebleeds.

I'm going to take the word of the people that operate the arena and work for convention and visitors that would have direct knowledge of what is holding it back when they say it is HOTELS.

[SyracuseCyclone]

How does a regional tourney need 5 hotels just for the teams? This isn't football.

Teams can't share hotels. 8 will be playing. Each do need their own. Players and fans shouldn't have to see each other in the lobby and stuff.

Surprisingly few hotels in and around Des Moines. Even the Jordan Creek area where the money is should really have a couple more nice hotels.

[SeattleClone]

How does a regional tourney need 5 hotels just for the teams? This isn't football.

There has to be a different hotel for each team. 8.

[HiltonMagic]

Wait, a building that wasn't designed for basketball doesn't have as good of an atmosphere as ones that were? Shocking!

[alarson]

There has to be a different hotel for each team. 8.

Which still seems a bit ridiculous, its not like 2 teams couldnt share a large hotel, as someone said, its not football. But if other cities will provide it, thats what they'll require i guess.

[theshadow]

Read the rest of the damn post. They made up the monetary difference to the NCAA by offering the arena rent free. The NCAA isn't losing any $$$ on capacity.

So it has an extra ~2000 seats. Big freaking deal. The WF crew said it's actually only 1,500 seats, and a lot of those are likely nosebleeds.

I'm going to take the word of the people that operate the arena and work for convention and visitors that would have direct knowledge of what is holding it back when they say it is HOTELS.

Touchy, touchy.

It's still a 10+% difference. And of course the IEC/WFA folks aren't going to say "Yep, we screwed the pooch. Our fault." It was common knowledge during the construction of the building that they were going to be short of the recommended capacity for hosting NCAA men's basketball events. So, they were screwed from Day One.

[ISU1294]

While it isn't the greatest, it could be a lot worse.

Its a great place for state wrestling with all the floor room.

[FDWxMan]

Touchy, touchy.

It's still a 10+% difference. And of course the IEC/WFA folks aren't going to say "Yep, we screwed the pooch. Our fault." It was common knowledge during the construction of the building that they were going to be short of the recommended capacity for hosting NCAA men's basketball events. So, they were screwed from Day One.

Link?

I ask because I believe that this is also claimed to be another widely repeated myth and they are actually above it.

And if they are below it as you claim, it can't be by much, since Omaha is only 2,000 seats bigger. Omaha would have to be just barely above it by a couple hundred seats. So that's BS.

Info on Murph and Andy said the requirement was is has to be >10,000 seats. Won't go that low, but that's the hard number the NCAA had back a few years.

[Adam]

The number of seats is the biggest problem in Des Moines landing any men's NCAA tourney games,the arena is too small.

This statement just isn't true. See this article posted after 2014/2015 sites were announced this year that references the minimums required for hosting the first weekend of the tournament.

Viejas Arena to host NCAA men's basketball in 2014 | UTSanDiego.com

[FDWxMan]

" It was common knowledge during the construction of the building that they were going to be short of the recommended capacity for hosting NCAA men's basketball events. So, they were screwed from Day One.

Fail ribbon for Shadow.

Then known as Cox Arena, it hosted tournament games in 2001 and 2006 to soldout crowds and rave reviews, only for the NCAA to mandate a minimum of 12,000 “sellable” seats for future venues. Viejas Arena has a capacity of 12,414 for San Diego State basketball games, but seats “killed” for media, bands, TV and other reasons during the NCAA Tournament lowered it to about 11,500. Not enough.

What changed?
Viejas didn’t for the NCAA; the NCAA did for Viejas.
Last spring the NCAA quietly lowered its minimum “sellable” capacity for the tournament’s opening weekend to 10,000, and then asked to meet with SDSU athletic director Jim Sterk when the Aztecs were in Columbus, Ohio, for their opening NCAA Tournament game against North Carolina State.

Nice link Adam.

[theshadow]

Link?

I ask because I believe that this is also claimed to be another widely repeated myth and they are actually above it.

Every arena that hosted a regional from 2000-2011 had a higher capacity than WFA, except for four. And those four were all awarded a regional before WFA was built.

Regional sites, 2000-2011:

Phoenix (18,000+)
Anaheim (17,960)
Oakland (19,000+)
San Jose (18,500)
Washington DC (18,725)
Atlanta (Georgia Dome)
Rosemont, Ill. (17,000+)
Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Stadium)
Lexington (22,000+)
New Orleans (18,300)
Boston (19,000+)
Auburn Hills (21,000+)
Detroit (Ford Field)
Minneapolis (Metrodome)
St. Louis (Edward Jones Dome)
East Rutherford (19,500)
Newark (19,900)
Albuquerque (16,000) - awarded before WFA was built
Albany (15,200) - awarded before WFA was built
Syracuse (Carrier Dome)
Charlotte (19,000)
Philadelphia (20,000+)
Memphis (17,700)
Austin (16,240) - awarded before WFA was built
Houston (Reliant Stadium)
San Antonio (Alamodome)
Salt Lake City (19,900)
Madison (16,000) - awarded before WFA was built