The Birthplace of Basketball was doomed by economics and a scheduling conflict, officials said.
Even an appearance by the University of Massachusetts failed to draw crowds to Hall of Fame Tip- Off Tournament at the MassMutual Center last fall.By JIM KINNEY
and JEFF THOMAS
SPRINGFIELD – The Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic is moving from Springfield’s MassMutual Center to the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., taking with it a much-needed opportunity to draw people to downtown Springfield.
“Any time there is an event at the MassMutual Center it brings increased business,” said Keith P. Makarowski, co-owner of JT’s Sports Pub and Theodores', both located within a few blocks of the arena. “The return of the Tip-Off was encouraging to us.”
A disappointed Paul C. Picknelly, president of the Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place Hotel, said tournament organizers failed to reach out to either the local business community or to the downtown Business Improvement District, where Picknelly serves on the board.
“Springfield is the birthplace of basketball,” Picknelly said. “The first tournament of the year should be held in Springfield.”
Economics and a scheduling conflict with the MassMutual Center for the desired dates – the weekend of Nov. 19 and 20 – spurred the move, according to Hall of Fame president and CEO John L. Doleva.
“Financially, it made more sense for the Hall of Fame and secondly the dates for the MassMutual Center were not available,” Doleva said in a telephone interview from the west coast. “Economics have a lot to do with everything.”
According to MassMutual Center officials, the Market America Northeast Regional Conference will utiltize the main arena and other portions of the facility from Nov. 17 and 20. They said the conference has attracted between 5,000 and 6,000 people to downtown Springfield in the past.
The Tip-Off Classic was held in Springfield from 1979 to 2005, a successful college basketball game and event for both the shrine and the city. That ended when the event could not secure exempted status from the NCAA, meaning teams could schedule the game without it counting against their regular schedule.
The Hall of Fame brought the Tip-Off back in November, but the format – featuring on-campus games as well as Division II and III games – and ticket pricing led to very low fan turnout. A game between the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and New Mexico State drew just 2,274 fans. Overall, the event drew 4,842 fans over three days, well short of the 12,000 people that organizers had predicted. Basketball capacity for the MassMutual Center is listed at 6,679.
“We’ve done a real honest critique of ourselves about last year,” Doleva said. “We certainly don’t blame Springfield or the community or anyone else but ourselves. But that’s not the reason we’re going to the Mohegan Sun. It’s economics and it’s scheduling.”
For local sports fans, relocation of the tournament will mean missing the chance to see former UMass coach John Calipari and his University of Kentucky Wildcats this fall at the MassMutual Center.
Old Dominion and Penn State will play on Nov. 19 and 20, along with Marist College, Long Island University, South Florida, Vermont and Radford University. Kentucky, Old Dominion, South Florida and Penn State will also host two games each on campus as part of the Tip-Off.
Mitchell Grossinger Etess, chief executive officer of Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, said he expects the Tip-Off to return to Uncasville year after year unless it grows big enough for larger arenas like the XL Center in Hartford. The Mohegan Sun Arena can seat 10,000 for basketball. It hosts a lot of games, including the WNBA Connecticut Sun, this weekend’s Connecticut high school championships and a number of college games.
The old Tip-Off Classic grew to be such a big event that the black-tie ball associated with it was too big to fit in one hotel, Picknelly said.
“We had to host it jointly with the Marriott,” Picknelly said.
In 2005 NCAA rules changes made it harder to schedule teams.
The new format with multiple teams takes advantage of NCAA rules and allows teams to play four games with them only counting as one game against the maximum number of games a team is allowed to schedule in a season.
Etess said Mohegan Sun has long had a relationship with the Hall of Fame and has hosted events related to enshrinement weekend for years.
“Really, I think it comes down to dollars and cents for the Hall of Fame,” Etess said. “We are committed to the growth of that facility and its thriving in Springfield. This would give them an opportunity to make the tournament a little bigger and benefit the Hall of Fame.”
Makarowski said organizers have themselves to blame for poor attendance last year. People had to buy tickets for the entire event, not just the games featuring their favorite teams.
“I heard that complaint a lot,” he said. “I wish they would have tweaked the event and made it better here.”
Doleva also noted the ongoing relationship between the Hall of Fame and the Mohegan Sun. Enshrinement week for the Basketball Hall of Fame, for example, features a series of events – public appearances, a press conference, clinics, a tournament and the like – in the city that are capped off by the formal enshrinement ceremonies at the casino
Doleva said the Hall of Fame continues to be very much invested in bringing basketball events to city and points to the six-year run of the NCAA Division II Elite Eight as well as the three-year commitment to host the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men’s and women’s conference championships.
“We like to produce great basketball events and we’re hoping to produce another,” Doleva said.