What makes a basketball program or, for the sake of this discussion, a conference tournament, “big time?” The ACC, Big 10, Big East — their conference tournaments all seem to carry the mantle of a “big time” event. They get the prime ESPN coverage and the crowds always seem to be really into it.

The Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament, on the other hand, has traditionally had about as much visual appeal as an Amway convention — playing to a half-empty arena and generating all the intensity of a curling match. Let’s put it this way: if you weren’t an A-10 fan and you just happened to tune into the tourney, there hasn’t been much there to make you want to stay and watch.

Linda Bruno, the A-10 Commissioner, wants to change that. A few months back, she announced that the A-10 shindig would be coming to the UD Arena next year. If you’ve read the A-10 Message Board, this has been the subject of raging debate, with much of the heat coming from the Philly schools. Hell, even John Chaney got into it, saying that the tournament was moving to “the sticks.”

What sealed it for me was the following article by Dick Jerardi of the Philadelphia Daily News, which I posted on the UDPride Message Board under the heading ‘Philly Logic’:

http://dailynews.philly.com/content/daily_news/2002/01/09/sports/JERA09S.htm

His basic message is that because the A-10 is moving the tourney to a smaller city, it’s small time. I got news for you, Dick — it ain’t the size of the city, it’s the size of the crowds! As the announcer for GW cryptically asked when the Colonials were in town, “Dayton has an undergraduate enrollment of 6,500 and UD Arena seats 13,400 — how is that possible?”

I emailed Dick the following:

Dick:
Why don’t you wait and see how the A-10 Tournament does in Dayton before you write an article that says it should be moved back to Philly? They just announced the move 2 months ago and UD doesn’t host it for another 14 months.

I’ve got news for you: Linda Bruno is no dummy. If the A-10 Tournament makes money at UD Arena–and it will–there’s no way it’s coming back.

Jim Meadows

Thanks to my good friends at AOL, his response has already been deleted, but it basically said, “is money what it’s all about?” To which I replied:

Dick:

The message that Linda and the A-10 want to send is this: The A-10 is big-time. Can you accomplish that by hosting the tournament in a half-empty building?

Check out this article on CBS Sportsline:
http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/ce/multi/0,1329,4816959_55,00.html

The UD Arena knows how to throw a party (and more importantly, have the guests show up). Philly never did.

Jim Meadows

Dick emailed me back the following, which I retrieved before the gremlins at AOL could delete it:

Jim:
I would argue that you can’t be big time if you take your tournament out of a building that sold out to a hideous place and then wonder why the excitement is no longer there. That was the point of the piece. Also, how can a league call itself big time if it takes its tournament away from an area that is accessible to nearly all its schools and fans to an area that is hardly accessible to anyone. I am sure Dayton will do a great job with the tournament. But will anybody outside of Dayton notice?

Dick

This isn’t a Palestra vs. Spectrum thing, Dick. It’s about having the A-10 Semis and Finals in a building that will put 13,500 butts in seats — more than the 3 Philly school averages put together.

Let’s face it, for the next 14 months nothing you or I can say is gonna convince anybody from Philly otherwise — until they come to the UD Arena or turn on ESPN and see what we are talking about.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”