At Tuesday's City Council meeting, the Sports Commission is expected to guarantee $50,000 to C-USA if it chooses El Paso over any other bidders. Brian Kennedy of the Commission said his group will also guarantee $100,000 in case there is that much in financial losses (poor ticket sales.)
Now if other entities (city/county) add guarantees in case of losses, that helps make El Paso look good to the conference. It would mean the conference is guaranteed to make money here.
The near week-long event is expected to mean a $3.5 to $4.5 million economic impact on El Paso's economy. The tournament will see 10 other conference members' men's and women's teams eat, sleep and recreate in El Paso.≤p≥ This year's event is at Tulsa. Here's some thinking: UTEP men's team is leading the conference this season, and there are no seniors on the squad. Conferences make money if the home team lasts at least into the championship game, and don't usually make much money if the host is knocked out early (ticket sales).
UTEP looks to be the team favorite next season, thus would be a good bet for C-USA.
the tourney at tulsa looks like its going to be a big bust this year. they havent been able to sell out one game in their 8,000 arena. n many fans in the tulsa blogs are saying they will not be attending the tourney. come on el paso lets show c-usa why we have the best fans in conference
Posted by: javi | February 22, 2010 at 01:28 PM
Don't worry y'all! In George Lopez's high screechy voice tapping my chest, "We Got This!"
Posted by: Juggernaut | February 22, 2010 at 02:00 PM
Tulsa's late season flop is helping with El Paso' bid, I am sure the
Conference leaders didn't anticipate that happening. Their loss is El Paso's gain. But then again anything can happen in the tournament and Tulsa can change things in their favor with an apperance in the CUSA tournament final. I am sure they are crossing their fingers in Tulsa. As far as I am concerned Tulsa can
get to the final as long as the Miners are waiting on the opposite side of the
tourney bracket.
Posted by: Pugapalooza | February 22, 2010 at 02:11 PM
www.minerrush.com -- Good UTEP site by buddy just sent me a link to
Posted by: Manny | February 22, 2010 at 03:37 PM
@ Manny I agree,
www.minerrush.com is a great site to talk UTEP sports.
Posted by: Conyo | February 22, 2010 at 04:36 PM
spam.
Posted by: Spam Buster | February 22, 2010 at 04:44 PM
If C-USA means what it says about spreading the tourney out to places other than Memphis, then El Paso is a lock for next year. I do know that EP would get behind the tourney more than Tulsa fans. Has anyone else noticed how Tulsa's venues are hardly ever full whether they're team is doing good in basketball or football? If the Miners had been in 4th place with the top team in conference coming in to play, the Don would have had twice as many people as there were Saturday at Tulsa (only 5,500 I heard somewhere). UTEP and Memphis will be the favorites next year in C-USA by a long shot as well, so there's a good chance those two teams make it far in the tourney..... we may even get to see the Tigers and Miners play twice at the Don next year in a battle of two Top-25 teams, if both teams live up to their 2011 billing.
Posted by: Lorenzo | February 22, 2010 at 05:37 PM
So a pick-up game starts in Miner fantasy land.
Julyan Stone 6-6 G
Randy Culpepper 6-0 G
Jeremy Williams 6-7 F
Arnett Moultrie 6-11 F
Derrick Caracter 6-8 C
on one side. On the other:
Filiberto Rivera 6-2 G
Miguel Ayala 6-6 G
Jason Williams 6-6 F
Omar Thomas 6-6 F
John Tofi 6-8 C
If it's just those five I say it's a hell of a game. If we include bench players, Miners of the present pull away in the second half.
Posted by: Lorenzo | February 22, 2010 at 09:00 PM
I hope El Paso get's the CUSA tourney, it is just flat out fun!
When Las Cruces hosted the WAC tourney in 2007 and 2008 me and my buddies took most of the week off and made almost all the games.
Since I work in El Paso, it will be that much easier to attend. Good luck!
Posted by: Aggietude | February 23, 2010 at 04:18 AM
Lorenzo, that would be a great match. For now, I would go with Rivera and Thomas combo. Our current team is way more talented but that old bunch was all heart. The ability of Thomas to score at will being that he was only 6'6 was phenomenal. In the tournament, those guys gave it all they had against a very talented Maryland team. I think this team has way more depth and can upset a couple of teams in the tournament. I'm sure after the this season is over, I will feel the same for our current team but they first have to make the NCAA tournament and play at their potential.
Posted by: OZ | February 23, 2010 at 08:27 AM
WHERE IS JOE HIDING AT?
Posted by: javi | February 23, 2010 at 04:39 PM
Turn Up the Orange has Parrish saying in a couple of tweets, that for UTEP to be safe as an at-large entrant into the dance, they have to take the league title and be in the league tournament title game. To me that sounds about about right. Winning the regular season title of a conference, one that has a tournament, only guarantees you a spot in the NIT. Winning the conference tourney is the only auto bid into the dance.
In the CUSA Tourney, the first round will consist of teams seeded #5 to #12. For CUSA, this will probably consist of teams with RPIs worse than 100. So the second round will consist of the winners from these matchups going against the #1 thru #4 seeded teams (they have a bye in the first round). If you have any aspirations of making it in as an at-large team, you better not lose here.
Being that the only out of conference win that UTEP has left over an RPI 100 team is NMSU (68), this is not going to impress the selection committee. So you better win in the next round as well. That would put UTEP into the Final game.
At that point UTEP should be no worse than 25-6, on a 16 or 15-1 game winning streak and be the CUSA regular season Champ. Anything less than this and we can start sweating as to whether they'll get into the NCAA Tourney or not.
Posted by: Lowercase Ray | February 23, 2010 at 11:24 PM
In regards to the 20-11 Tourney, I hope this one in Tulsa doesn't bomb because it only gives Memphis more fuel to move it back to their city. They also will be very good next year and we may all think parity is a good thing, but who knows what the conference thinks...maybe they want a natl. power every year. If this Tulsa tourney does well(ticket wise), then conf. reps I think would be more comfortable keeping it away from Memphis for another year.
Second, we are by no means in the clear for an at large bid right now. Most analyst have us in the tourney because we are currently leading the conference.
Forget about the ranking, we cant slip up now!
3 out of the next 4 games are iffy.
If we lose 2, then we absolutely need to get to the final or most likely win the CUSA Tourney.
What also worries me is that SMU/Houston are slated for the 8/9 game right now, then we'd possibly looking at Tulsa (IN tulsa) in the semi's.
All those teams play us tough.
Also take a look at NMSU's remaining sked. At Nevada and Utah State to end the year, so their RPI will probably take a hit.
Again, we cant slip up now, gotta beat USM on the road tonight.
Posted by: rj | February 24, 2010 at 05:57 AM
RJ,
Even though it is never alright to have loses, especially when you're in the midst of a battle to win the conference, losing to Nevada or Utah State wouldn't take NMSU's RPI down very much. Now if they were to lose to Idaho or Boise State, that would be a killer on the RPI. UTEP is in the same boat with Southern Miss and Rice coming up.
Posted by: Lowercase Ray | February 24, 2010 at 12:10 PM
Found this article on ESPN. Very interesting about the coach sets that we have in CUSA.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=4940844
Posted by: Lowercase Ray | February 24, 2010 at 12:43 PM