Southern Conference commissioner John Iamarino made good use of his trip to the Scenic City.
He watched the first day of the SoCon softball tournament and took a site visit to Chattanooga State.
The Greater Chattanooga Sports and Events committee submitted a bid to host the 2012-15 conference basketball tournaments with the community college’s gym listed as the location for the first two rounds of the women’s tournament. The rest of the women’s event would be with the men’s tournament in McKenzie Arena on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus.
“We toured it today and we’re very pleased,” Iamarino said Thursday. “The facility sets up nicely for us. The locker rooms are right off the court; there’s a new hardwood court and we think it would work well. It’s very close to McKenzie, and that’s what they recommended.
“I think it was a good decision. I don’t think people want to play the tournament in Maclellan (Gym) like we did in 2005.”
Maclellan, the on-campus facility that preceded McKenzie as the home of UTC’s basketball teams, also was an option presented by the Sports Committee.
“We went with either Maclellan or Chatt State,” committee president Scott Smith said. “They were pleased with Chatt State. They thought it would work great. It has a new floor, new bleachers, a new sound system. It’s a pretty nice gym.”
The SoCon is reverting back to the two-venue system after three years of playing all games in the same location. That system led to 5 a.m. pregame meals for two women’s teams and midnight endings for some men’s games.
“All the constituents didn’t like it much,” Iamarino said. “It really wasn’t working and wasn’t a great experience.”
Chattanooga is in competition with five other cities that have submitted bids: Asheville, Charlotte and Winston-Salem in North Carolina and Charlotte and Greenville in South Carolina.
The SoCon can award the tournament in one-, two- or three-year increments to a site or locations. The bids will be awarded June 2 at the annual spring meetings.
“It’s great that we have so many people interested in hosting,” UTC women’s coach Wes Moore said. “Obviously Charleston has done a nice job with it. Charlotte, playing in Bobcats Arena was a great venue. Some of the other locations I’m not as familiar with.”
He’s also not very familiar with Chattanooga State’s facilities because he hasn’t turned onto that campus from Amnicola Highway in a couple years.
“I know that when we talked as a group in the conference, it was stressed that in the future whoever hosts has to be able to provide an equal venue for the women’s games,” Moore said. “I hope that whoever ends up with it that the venue is tournament quality.”