The third and possibly final Southern Conference basketball tournament at McKenzie Arena will come at a discount.
This week’s showcase originally was scheduled for last year as the second part of a two-year bid obtained by the Greater Chattanooga Sports & Events Committee. That agreement was altered several weeks after the 2009 tournament in McKenzie, when league officials decided to move the 2010 event to Charlotte and bump Chattanooga back one year.
In making the switch, the conference knocked $50,000 off the Sports Committee’s $125,000 guarantee to host this week’s tournament.
“We would do that same arrangement if all those circumstances presented themselves again,” SoCon commissioner John Iamarino said Monday. “We had a great level of cooperation from the people in Chattanooga. They understood what we were trying to do.
“We were concerned about the economy, and it gave us the chance to play the tournament at a very central location.”