Driving back to Chattanooga following his 20-minute presentation to the Southern Conference athletic directors Wednesday, Greater Chattanooga Sports & Events Committee president Scott Smith sounded upbeat.
The Committee's pitch at the SoCon spring meetings in Hilton Head Island, S.C., was to bring the league men's and women's basketball tournaments back to Chattanooga at least once from 2012-14. Six cities are bidding to host the tournaments: Chattanooga, Charleston, S.C., Greenville, S.C., Asheville, N.C., Charlotte, N.C., and Winston-Salem, N.C.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will host next year's tournaments at McKenzie Arena.
"We hit the high points on everything, and I guess the thing we stressed was our financial offer," Smith said.
Without disclosing the offer, for competitive reasons, Smith said it was $25,000 more than Chattanooga has bid for past tournaments. The money was raised "through the corporate community," Smith said.
"With the cutbacks that the conference is having, you have to think that finances is a big part of what they're looking at right now," Smith said. "At least I hope it keeps us in the ball game to try to get a year or two, whereas if we went in there and offered the same or less (as previous years), you could almost guarantee that that takes us out of the running."
Representatives from the bidding cities made their presentations Wednesday afternoon. An announcement on the site, or sites, for the future tournaments could come as early as today.