I don’t see any truly viable alternative to Vegas. I’ll speculate that crowds would be an additional 40-50% lower than the sans-Gonzaga tournament if held elsewhere. While Vegas might not be a draw for some of us on this board, it is still a major decision factor for many.
Tahoe could be an interesting draw except for the dearth of accommodations (and risk of challenging weather).
One out of left field idea would be ASU’s gym. People love the weather in AZ in March and there is the added draw of MLB spring training and golf. Unfortunately, it probably isn’t viable because it would displace Sun Devil needs.
Not sure where the right place is to put this post, so feel free to move it as you see fit.
Does anyone (@TD_24 perhaps??) understand how the video rights are determined? Obviously, Gonzaga is going to get top billing for ESPN/ESPN2 mainline slots. And we are pretty much on ESPN+ whenever no else has claimed SCU games. But I just noticed tonight’s game, as well as the final three regular season games (at USF, at SMC, and home against OSU), will be on CBS Sports Network. Does CBS just say “hey SCU looks good this year, let’s take those games”? Does ESPN have first rights and then CBSSN gets to pick through the discard pile? I’m really curious.
I’m old school, but I did love it when the WCC Tourney was hosted at the schools. Could rotate it with SCU, USF, SMC and UOP (as that’s basically half the league within an hour 30 drive).
I went back to remind myself of the sites from the time of the inaugural WCC tournament in 1987 to the last year before the tourney moved to Vegas:
1987: USF
1988: SCU
1989: USF
1990: LMU
1991: SCU
1992: Portland
1993: USF
1994: SCU
1995: SCU
1996: SCU
1997: LMU
1998: SCU
1999: SCU
2000: SCU
2001: USD (first season the Jenny Craig Pavilion, AKA the Slim Gym, opened)
2002: USD
2003: USD
2004: SCU
2005: SCU
2006: Gonzaga
2007: Portland
2008: USD
2009+: Orleans Las Vegas
By my count, SCU was the host school 10 times in the first 22 seasons of the WCC Tournament. Out of those 10 on the SCU’s home floor, the Broncos won just 1.
CORRECTED: SCU did not win any of the 10 WCC Tournaments held on SCU’s home floor.
I worked for NFL broadcasting over the summer so I have some idea of how the scheduling works from the network end since my old team worked with them on scheduling NFL games. From what I am aware is that they have the rights to x conferences and x number of games, and they pick at the start of the season based on which games they think will have the most viewers for that time slot (although CBS and ESPN often go off vibes not actual data), and thats how they figure it out.
Edit: Also it doesnt particularly matter how good the teams are (although schools that are consistently good have more followers ofc), it also matters on size of the school ex. WSU, OSU, etc are much larger than some of the others, say LMU, so the floor for them is generally not as low, with a high ceiling if they are really good.
yeah generally what was said below is on line. ESPN and CBS get the first and second dibs on the linear games with the TV contract they have with the WCC. Rest of the home slate goes on ESPN+ per the media rights deal. Vibes win out with some semblance of projection in hoping that some turn good and while others eventually down turn on the national TV slate. I don’t know who goes first between the two networks but they generally turn in the selections around the same time with other leagues to fill out.
You can tell that vibes mattered quite a bit with the selection of games and the conference scheduling. I doubt that CBS would really want the SCU vs. Oregon State season finale at this point, but it looked like a great potential game at the beginning of the season. And that last week’s schedule looks like it’s intentionally designed to create drama based on anticipated standings with the final three slots featuring SCU at USF, USF vs. Gonzaga, SCU at SMC, Gonzaga at SMC, and Oregon State at SCU. Each game would, using 2024-25 as a guide, potentially set seeding for slots 1-4.
(Pretty cool that Gonzaga at SCU will be on main ESPN. When is the last time SCU played on the primary channel?)
What has happened the past couple of seasons is the total elimination of local broadcasts. I remember that NBC Sports Bay Area would sometimes pick up a game in the middle of the season. But that hasn’t happened in 2 seasons, it seems, and I wonder if the current ESPN contracts preclude the local affiliates from airing games.
I did a quick scan and don’t see any reference in the Keating/Sendek era of being on ESPN itself. The game @Duke was on ESPN2, as were some of the Gonzaga and SMC games.
You are correct in that we used to get a fair number of games on Comcast Bay Area/California, now NBC Sports Network. It seems like in the ESPN+ era, that has gone away for whatever reason, probably some guardrails around the rights.
