ESPN+ running its annual pre-tournament show during shootarounds with player/coach interviews. Still live as of this post but it’ll be on replay if you miss it.
Robin Harris dropped by and mentioned the future venue(s) of Ivy Madness and leaving the ultimate decision to the ADs. Reading between the lines, I think it’ll be a standardized location after the rotation concludes.
Continuing the rotation and going to Ithaca/Hanover for fairness purposes would be a mistake.
Why is that?
Take, for example, Princeton, with arguably the best arena (almost by accident - it’s also an indoor track stadium), 60 minute transportation from Philly and New York, and the Ivy League headquarters. Unless an agreement is reached to hold things at a neutral site, it’s hard from a logistical standpoint to see how this is not one of the best options.
Cornell and Dartmouth, both, deserve the opportunities granted the six other schools in their fraternity to host the event.
I agree with playing out the string.
I. think it was a well-intentioned
experiment, but probably not the permanent
solution.
If we stick with the 4 team format, we need
a neutral site. If we let everyone in, we could consider,
home courts of higher seeds, with time off between games.
I usually allow Princeton posters some leeway on arena issues, but come on. The Palestra is a national treasure in a major city easily accessible by all forms of transportation and with hotel capacity far in excess of what is needed for the Ivies. Princeton is charming but is a small town. And the arena has about 1000 good seats, dark and certainly not a draw in itself. It has adequate capacity, if you include the bad seats behind the baskets and on the roof. I agree that ideally, the tournament should be at a neutral site, but if it is not, there is only one real choice. It ain’t Jadwin.
Yeah, I mean look — we old-board types had this argument ad nauseum. It’s not really good practice to build in HCA for one school in perpetuity (granted, that hasn’t stopped the Mountain West), and I don’t think making a yurt village on the Dartmouth Green to house all the players and fans is going to be very good either. So you either have to award HCA by performance and split up the men’s and women’s tourneys, or you have to spring for a neutral site.
Now that you remind us that the Ivy League headquarters is in Princeton, of course Princeton is the obvious solution! And why exactly is the Ivy HQ there anyway? The reason we’re in Providence this weekend (not a bad location, btw) and Ithaca and Hanover the next two years still applies: no one school can have a permanent home court advantage. Let’s try for a neutral site, somewhat central to the eight Ivy locations and not in the boondocks please. New York is the obvious best choice if we can get a venue.
Wow! Talk about a uniquely, unbiased perspective!?!? And given your solid eastern Queens connections, why don’t you look into securing Carnesecca Arena, at a good price, of course, for the league? I think a nice, intimate Catholic school facility, having the New York City media at the IL’s disposal, may make for the perfect neutral site; or perhaps Jamaica High School off of Gothic Drive would be a good fit; with its bucolic campus and medieval European architecture- that’s where Jack Rohan (you, no doubt, remember him) played; Alan Seiden of St. John’s, too. Speaking of which, who do you like in tonight’s game - Marquette or St. John’s? And, why?
Good to see you here, Doctor! Be well.
Personally, I will be unsurprised if the ILT eventually takes place at the home of the champion of the prior regular season. There are eight fine arenas at the end of the day.
If a non-neutral semi-permanent option is agreed upon, however, the proximity of Jadwin, the Palestra, and Levien to NYC and Philly seems to make each of them attractive.
Levien is pretty small, and that is true
of most of the gyms if we are trying to
have room for fans of 8 teams.
You endorse mens and womens tournaments in different locations?
I am on the neutral site train.
Keeping the men’s and women’s tournaments together seems like an important consideration for fan experience. This in turn might be weighed against the competitive edge it may serve the best performing men’s and women’s teams, respectively, to have HCA.
My limited experience suggests that hosting at Ivies is tried and true. I am curious whether there have been neutral site Ivy contests at the past, and how they were for fans.
The only realistic and correct change to the format is finding a neutral site. Somewhere that holds at least 6-7k fans. Seems like most people other than maybe Penn and Princeton agree. There is no chance they have the women and men at different sites. And I really doubt that they create a method to give the 1 seed additional advantage. They play the 4 seed and get more rest. That’s fair.
Before the tournament, there was often a one game
playoff for the NCAA bid at a neutral site. I have
been to Harvard-Princeton at Yale (the best), Princeton-
Yale at the P, but only
Lehigh alestra and Princeton- Penn at Lehigh.
Al of those venues worked, but only Lehigh
would be dependably neutral, and it is
probably not central or big enough.
Why in the world the women and men have to be together I don’t understand. They are two different sports, two different qualifying processes, etc. Adding this constraint to an already difficult siting problem is just bullheaded stubbornness.
In fact, the whole “old home week” approach to the ILT is probably misguided. Games should be on the home floor of the regular-season champ. In the event of a tie for first (no tiebreakers beyond record, as in the good old days), play on a convenient neutral Ivy floor.
Easy peasy and it gives the regular-season champ some actual advantage in contrast to the current setup.
The only available, affordable, big enough, centrally located neutral sites would probably be on ships floating offshore.
Mid-size basketball-ready arenas that might fit the bill:
MassMutual Center (Springfield, MA). 7,300 capacity.
CURE Insurance Arena (Trenton, NJ). 8,600 capacity.
I watched the women’s show on demand but never saw the men’s posted for on demand viewing.
Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport seats 10,000. But, with respect, I don’t the league is well-served to be in Springfield, Trenton, or Bridgeport. If the Ivies want a neutral site, it should be in NYC. It works best for geographic and public-relations purposes. Unfortunately, there is no arena in New York that works from a size perspective. Fordham in the Bronx only seats 3,200. Then you jump to the Barclay’s Center or MSG – way too large. I’m a Princeton guy, and I’m loath to give props to Penn, but If a permanent setting is desired, I’d opt for the Palestra. There is no place better to watch basketball, and at least Philly is a major metropolitan area.