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Securing CIS basketball final a mixed blessing -- SMU coach

Regional conference final pays the price for national event – Quackenbush

When Carleton University outbid the Atlantic University Conference (AUS) for hosting rights to the 2008 Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) men’s basketball championship, Halifax was denied the honour of being the home of the tournament for a 25th consecutive year. However, its almost as certain as seeing a LeBron James dunk on a highlight reel that the event will return to the Metro Centre in 2011, the 50th anniversary of the CIS.

Halifax was the only city to bid on the 2011 and 2012 events.

Holding the hosting rights to one of the highest-profile events on the annual Canadian university sporting calendar has advantages for the AUS conference. In addition to the conference champion playing in the national tournament, a second team from the AUS will enter as the host team -- a perk that helps coaches when  recruiting players.

“It is good for the immediate team, but also future teams,” Ross Quackenbush, head coach of the Saint Mary’s University men’s basketball team said. “There’s nothing better than having a recruit in town as your team is on the floor and there’s 8,000 to 10,000 people chanting SMU, SMU. Yeah, it works good, put the kid in the skybox with a few of the other athletes, there’s no question it’s a great selling feature.”

SMU is the AUS 2008 champion.

The CIS men’s basketball tournament also offers a significant economic benefit particularly for businesses in downtown Halifax.

“In 2004 we did an economic assessment of the event. We had a local economist prepare that for us and what he determined is that for the event’s duration it generates about $8.1 million in direct spending and about $19.4 million in indirect spending,” Phil Currie, executive director of the AUS said. Currie added that he expects the same or better in 2011.

When some of the country’s best university players gather in Nova Scotia, it provides an opportunity to help develop the skills of players at lower levels as well.

“One of the things we’ve strived to do as a committee hosting this particular championship is to engage with the grass-roots programs. We have the all-Canadians when they’re here in town involved into clinics throughout the community,” Currie said.

Quackenbush says as a coach he is glad to see the national tournament return to Halifax, but when he steps back from that role and looks at the financial implications on the conference tournament, he says it would be better for the AUS not to host the national event. Quackenbush says the conference has higher attendance and generates more profit for itself without the national event happening the following week. Plus, the AUS doesn’t  have to share conference tournament revenue with the CIS like they do when hosting the national championship.

“When we had the [CIS tournament] it was like 80 or 90 cents on the dollar was leaving town. We were just making a lot of money for the CIS, at the expense of the AUS tournament where we keep 100 cents on the dollar”.
 
Currie says the 2008 AUS tournament generated more revenue than past events, but he feels having the CIS championship back again in a few years won’t hurt the conference tournament.

“The event revenue from the [AUS tournament] went up by approximately $20,000 probably associated with the loss of the [CIS tournament] and we would expect to maintain that even with the [CIS tournament]as we will have established a larger fan base for the [AUS tournament].”

Quackenbush sees the situation differently.

“Seven out of 11 days you’re expecting basketball fans to get off their wallet and take their family of four down to the Metro Centre . Quite frankly people are making choices. They will choose the nationals because it is the higher-profile event,” he said.

The budget for the CIS basketball tournament is $490,000, which includes a $130,000 guarantee to the CIS that must be paid by the tournament hosting committee. Currie says the AUS conference has been in discussions with both the provincial and municipal governments about obtaining funding, but nothing is determined.

Thinking as a citizen and not a coach, Quackenbush says having government money help pay for the CIS tournament to be hosted here is wrong.

“As a citizen of Halifax and as a citizen of Nova Scotia, I don’t approve of the government spending my tax dollars on supplementing events that I think need to stand on their own two legs. Of course the people who have a vested interest like the bars, hotels and restaurants the downtown business community and all that – they, of course, would be pushing for the province and the community to be spending money on it, but why wouldn’t they?” Quackenbush added. “If these restaurants, hotels and bars are so hyped on that concept they should get involved in sponsorship and they should invest their money.”

Regardless of the perspective taken on the return of the CIS men’s basketball championship to Halifax in 2011 and 2012, when it is made official early next month,  it seems unlikely there will be another 24-year hosting streak established in Halifax.

 “Having it in different parts of the country I think is key to the success of CIS men’s basketball,” said Sheila Ann Newton, manager of events and programs for CIS.