sports in norfolk

[Virginia City]

You guys know nothing of college sports.  There is zero chance ODU will ever play in the ACC. 0% The next time there is conference realignment ODU may go to the AAC, the American Athletic Conference with the rest of the old CUSA; ECU, South and Central Florida, Tulsa, Cincinnati etc... That is their limit. CUSA will be rotating their tournament, this years was already scheduled prior to ODU ever playing in the conference. The TED will host eventually.

[carolinaboy]

34 minutes ago, Virginia City said:

You guys know nothing of college sports.  There is zero chance ODU will ever play in the ACC. 0% The next time there is conference realignment ODU may go to the AAC, the American Athletic Conference with the rest of the old CUSA; ECU, South and Central Florida, Tulsa, Cincinnati etc... That is their limit. CUSA will be rotating their tournament, this years was already scheduled prior to ODU ever playing in the conference. The TED will host eventually.

ODU in the AAC would be a great improvement for the Monarchs. Need to get that football stadium upgraded though. Only way I see ODU having a shot at the AAC is if UConn, Cincy, UCF, USF, Houston or Memphis go elsewhere.

[Up2313]

Actually if you look back at the comments we said that ODU should try, with the likelyhood that it won't happen. 

But 0 percent is definitely not the case. ODU has the 4th largest enrollment of public university's in VA and is growing, UVA is 5th and Tech is 2nd (VAs two ACC schools). ODU also has the benefit of being the most popular school in a large metro area. 

The key would be gaining more prestige the big two sports football and basketball, which ODU will eventually do because it has more resources than most other CUSA schools. 

Eventually there may be a conversion, but not anytime soon. I see ECU and UCONN as the ACCs next targets for that 16th spot. 

You can't deny that it would be awesome to watch ACC basketball in Norfolk though, I think that actually is much more likely than a pro sports team. 

[zeppelin14]

6 hours ago, Virginia City said:

You guys know nothing of college sports.  There is zero chance ODU will ever play in the ACC. 0% The next time there is conference realignment ODU may go to the AAC, the American Athletic Conference with the rest of the old CUSA; ECU, South and Central Florida, Tulsa, Cincinnati etc... That is their limit. CUSA will be rotating their tournament, this years was already scheduled prior to ODU ever playing in the conference. The TED will host eventually.

Who died and made you the king of college sports knowledge?

Anyway, as Lloyd Christmas once said, "So you're saying I have a chance?"

[Virginia City]

10 hours ago, Up2313 said:

Actually if you look back at the comments we said that ODU should try, with the likelyhood that it won't happen. 

But 0 percent is definitely not the case. ODU has the 4th largest enrollment of public university's in VA and is growing, UVA is 5th and Tech is 2nd (VAs two ACC schools). ODU also has the benefit of being the most popular school in a large metro area. 

The key would be gaining more prestige the big two sports football and basketball, which ODU will eventually do because it has more resources than most other CUSA schools. 

Eventually there may be a conversion, but not anytime soon. I see ECU and UCONN as the ACCs next targets for that 16th spot. 

You can't deny that it would be awesome to watch ACC basketball in Norfolk though, I think that actually is much more likely than a pro sports team. 

It would be awesome but conferences expand to gain new media markets for TV rights. ACC already owns VA with UVA and VT and they cover Norfolk by playing football against ODU in Norfolk. If the ACC expands it would be for UCONN but Boston College has stopped that in the past. ECU pushed hard to get us into CUSA because they were on an island by themselves and wanted us as a travel partner. However the dominos continued to fall and several teams ; ECU, Tulane, Tulsa, got to move to the AAC and ECU put themselves back on the same island they just got off of. If ODU can keep playing well than I can see them doing it again during the next round of realignment. ECU has hit their ceiling, ODU has one more floor. 

[BFG]

I think there's several other teams that the ACC would take before ODU. Keep in mind, ODU just got football back a decade ago, and only went FBS five years ago. They have a long ways to go before the ACC would look their way...at least a decade or two. The AAC would be a good fit for them, however.

As for the ACC tournament, I don't see us getting that here until if/we build a new arena. They rank in the Top 5 for basketball tournament attendances, and Scope is not going to accommodate what they are looking for, even with the proposed upgrades. It would be awesome, but I don't see them leaving the Barclays Center in New York for the "new and improved" Scope.

[oduengineer]

On 3/7/2018 at 8:16 AM, carolinaboy said:

Are any of you regular posters ODU guys? What do you think of the C-USA basketball tournament set-up in Frisco, TX? What do you think of C-USA in general? Is it time for C-USA to cease to exist?

I have no attachment to ODU but I think C-USA has hurt ODU more than it has helped.

I am.... ACC will never happen, in its current configuration.  I guess we don't know how things will play out in 20 or 30 years, but ODU and Duke or UNC in the same conference won't happen anytime soon.  

CUSA has been a drag in all sports except football... so in some ways it has been a success.  We raised a lot of money to play "with the big boys" and, in some ways, it has been a success.  I have had season tickets from day 1 and ODU has grown a lot (both literally and figuratively).  Basketball has suffered b/c of a lack of local rivals even though attendance has been relatively stable.  I also support obscure sports like tennis and wrestling.... these sports are kind of on their own with tennis playing big name non-CUSA teams regularly.  Teams that have traveled here this year include Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, Utah, South Carolina and NC State.  Wrestling found its home in a different conference.

The new hope is for either the AAC or a new conference of Sun Belt, CUSA, and possibly some AAC teams forming an East Coast conference... App State, JMU, ECU, Temple, Georgia State, UCONN, Georgia Southern, FIU/FAU, etc are similar teams.  I personally hate CUSA.

[jeffconn]

C-USA and the Sun Belt should swap members. Between the two conferences, the Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana schools in one conference. The east coast states, Alabama, and Kentucky schools in the other. C-USA is not earning enough revenue for all the travel the Monarchs have to endure. Best to go regional, and maybe actually get some close rivalries.

[carolinaboy]

On ‎3‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 2:29 PM, jeffconn said:

C-USA and the Sun Belt should swap members. Between the two conferences, the Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana schools in one conference. The east coast states, Alabama, and Kentucky schools in the other. C-USA is not earning enough revenue for all the travel the Monarchs have to endure. Best to go regional, and maybe actually get some close rivalries.

Agreed. Would be a better set-up for ODU (at this time). I also think C-USA name needs to be killed....too much negativity and misfortune in that conference history. Conferences could look like:

 

Sun Belt: New Mexico State, UTEP, UTSA, N Texas, Texas State, Rice, Texas Arlington (Olympics), Arkansas State, Arkansas-Little Rock (Olympics), Louisiana Tech, Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana Monroe (until they kill sports or drop down), FIU, Southern Miss.

New Conference: FAU, GA Southern, GA State, UAB, Troy, South Alabama, Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, Appalachian State, ODU, Middle Tennessee, W Kentucky, Marshall, UMass, Liberty.

 

Or (perhaps better for ODU) S Miss, LA Tech, FAU, UAB, GA State, Charlotte, ODU, MTSU, W KY, APP State, Marshall, UMass. That would be a good mix of football and basketball, more regional (kind of) and some larger tv markets.

 

 

[Urbanlooker]

C-USA has strucka deal with CBS and each schools share will be greater by 200k so from 200k to 400k.

https://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/article_035d751a-27d6-11e8-a537-5bf6c33fcc22.html

[HRVT]

7 hours ago, Urbanlooker said:

C-USA has strucka deal with CBS and each schools share will be greater by 200k so from 200k to 400k.

https://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/article_035d751a-27d6-11e8-a537-5bf6c33fcc22.html

While a positive development for CUSA, it's hardly a game changer or anything. $200K is about the equivalent of the cost of 20 scholarships a year.... or about 1/4 of the football team. Now, going from $1.1 million down to $200K, that was a big deal...

[baobabs727]

What some of you seem to be forgetting is that these alignments are predicated on more than just geography or athletics, they are often  determined by shared culture and academic standards.  No offense to Old Dominion, but I wouldn't put them in the same league as University of Virginia or Virginia Tech, North Carolina and Duke.  

So, no, ACC is not happening. 

Edited March 15, 2018 by baobabs727

[lammius]

7 hours ago, baobabs727 said:

What some of you seem to be forgetting is that these alignments are predicated on more than just geography or athletics, they are often  determined by shared culture and academic standards.  No offense to Old Dominion, but I wouldn't put them in the same league as University of Virginia or Virginia Tech, North Carolina and Duke.  

So, no, ACC is not happening. 

I agree ODU doesn't fit in with the majority of ACC institutions, but the ACC kind of threw the implied academic prestige criterion out the window when they invited Louisville, tbh

[oduengineer]

On 3/9/2018 at 9:10 AM, Virginia City said:

You guys know nothing of college sports.  There is zero chance ODU will ever play in the ACC. 0% The next time there is conference realignment ODU may go to the AAC, the American Athletic Conference with the rest of the old CUSA; ECU, South and Central Florida, Tulsa, Cincinnati etc... That is their limit. CUSA will be rotating their tournament, this years was already scheduled prior to ODU ever playing in the conference. The TED will host eventually.

The CUSA basketball tournament was not set before ODU entered the league... the suburban Dallas location was chosen last year and will be there next year as well.  Last year it was held in Birmingham, Alabama (hosted by UAB) and, if I remember correctly, it was hosted by UTEP in El Paso Texas before that. 

One of the restrictions to hosting the tournament is that the host city needs to provide two arenas, one for men and one for women.  We haven't hosted because there is no paired arena for the TED that is available and deemed appropriate.  The MEAC uses Scope and Hampton was either being used or deemed too far away when ODU was considered for this year's tourney. 

The  worst thing about CUSA basketball is that there is little national interest so crowds will be small unless fans of each team travel to the tournament.  The Dallas site is good for the four Texas schools, but anyone east of the Mississippi probably won't travel to Dallas.  El Paso to Norfolk is almost the equivalent of a cross-country trip, which is unrealistic for the typical ODU fan.  Simply put, ODU needs to find a better option for conference alignment.

[BFG]

I was driving past the Attucks this afternoon, and saw a sign similar to the one below. Does anyone know anything about this? I know the CIAA might leave Charlotte in a couple years, and we did have the tourney here until the mid-90s or so. BUT...Charlotte is on a whole another level, and Scope is no TimeWarner Arena.

If Norfolk could land this, that would be huge.  No hyperbole, this would be close to ACC levels. Even though CIAA is D2, the attendance is rivaled only by the ACC and maybe one other D1 conference.

[Urbanlooker]

I just went through the upcoming events for scope, chrysler hall,  and attucks theater none of them have anything shown but it only went out to April 2019. Also if this were to happen it would be BIG news and would have made headlines. That being said maybe the heads of the CIAA are in town to see what the city/region has to offer 

Edited August 23, 2018 by Urbanlooker

[baobabs727]

wutchu mean, "similar?" that wasn't wut u saw? my apologies  if i missed a major clue... it wouldn't surprise me if I had...and I'm ignorant of the CIAA. Now, CAA and ACC...they're another story.

[BFG]

The sign wasn't as large as that one, lol...

Here's a little more: CIAA is leaving Charlotte in 2021, and the committee is looking at other cities. CIAA is an HBCU conference like the MEAC, but on the D2 level. While the MEAC has done pretty well at Scope, CIAA easily puts up three times as many people. Tournament week is actually an event down there!

A couple years ago, Mayor Alexander did an interview about his plans for the city, and mentioned that he'd like to see MEAC have more outside events. Knowing the tourney used to be here, I could see Norfolk courting (no pun intended) this pretty hard. But they'd better put the Scope renovation plans back on the table fast.

http://www.fox46charlotte.com/news/local-news/ciaa-leaving-charlotte-bid-process-launched

[baobabs727]

ok cool, thx. this would be a coup for norfolk, to be sure. noted in the article that  CIAA tourney officials said "amenities" was a factor under future review when the cities' apps come in. i dunno, that's very broad, but I fear Scope--in present or reno'd form--might not compete well in that category. For starters. Irony is that had VB built their arena, this area would be considered a very strong candidate due to geography (in middle of their expanded conference footprint) and # of avail hotel rooms. Oh, and the new arena wouldn't hurt chances either! Darn!

Edited August 23, 2018 by baobabs727

[BFG]

I thought I saw another article that said the CIAA would like an arena that holds at least 8,000, which would make Scope eligible there. But again, Norfolk has to do something, whether it's renovate the place or build a new arena. If they plan to move in 2021, looks like renovating will be the best option.

[baobabs727]

Agreed! They better get to hoppin'!

[Virginia City]

Both the Coliseum and the Scope held this tournament in the 70's and 80's and the conference was HQed out of Hampton until 2015.

[jeffconn]

FYI, the CIAA tournament is held a week before the MEAC, so there's no overlap. The CIAA ended on March 3rd this year, and the MEAC started up on March 5th. 

[BFG]

The Pilot has picked up the story...

https://pilotonline.com/news/government/local/article_846e64a2-abbb-11e8-b79f-b7553b1a577f.html

[BFG]

From the Post...it says Richmond is a possibility, but I'd love to see Arena Football return to the Scope...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2018/08/03/gambling-high-scores-and-rapid-expansion-inside-ted-leonsis-plan-to-resurrect-arena-football/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.eb52eb8ce739