With Confederate flag down, South Carolina open for NCAA business
May 20 2016
The city of Columbia is bidding to host NCAA men’s basketball tournament games at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia
Earlier this month, a traveling party from the S.C. Sports Alliance journeyed to NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis. Its mission: To scout out hosting opportunities for NCAA championship events.
“It was interesting, because it was the first time any of us had gone there in 15 years,” said Kathleen Cartland, executive director of the Charleston Area Sports Commission.
Indeed, for 15 years there had been no reason for sports commission types to bother with the trip to the NCAA’s symposium on hosting championships. With the Confederate flag flying on Statehouse grounds in Columbia, the NCAA’s ban on holding “pre-determined” events in South Carolina rendered pointless any such trips.
But when the Confederate flag came down last July — the result of the tragic killing of nine people at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church by an avowed flag-wielding racist — the NCAA dropped its Palmetto State ban.
With the bid process for NCAA championship events in the four-year cycle from 2018-19 to 2021-2022 getting underway in June, South Carolina is once again open for NCAA business.
“It’s a whole new world,” said Scott Powers, executive director of the Columbia Regional Sports Council. “We’ve been waiting a long time. I’ve been in this business quite a while, and we haven’t been able to bid on NCAA events.”
At the NCAA symposium on May 4, state officials learned that there are 90 championships in 24 sports across three NCAA divisions held each year. For the four-year period from 2018-19 through 2021-22, more than 400 sites for NCAA championship events are up for bid.
“That’s a lot of business,” said Powers.
The most lucrative of NCAA business is the men’s basketball tournament, where the economic impact of a weekend of tournament games can range from $10 million to $15 million. Both Columbia and Greenville are bidding to host tournament games during the 2018-19 to 2021-22 cycle, Greenville at the 16,000-seat Bons Secours Wellness Arena and Columbia at the 18,000-seat Colonial Life Arena.
The bid process opens June 6, with selection committees meeting in the fall and host sites announced in December.
Ron Morris, a longtime journalist and former columnist at The State newspaper in Columbia, is working as a consultant to the city of Columbia on its bid.
“As soon as the flag came down, we went to the city and told them that they cannot afford to miss this chance,” Morris said. “I think it’s safe to say that Columbia has never hosted an effect that can produce that kind of economic impact for one weekend.”
http://www.postandcourier.com/20160...ag-down-south-carolina-open-for-ncaa-business
Great - so with the removal of the flag, the NCAA, an institution that many of these same activists characterize as a plantation system, is back in business.
You just can't make this shit up.
