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WHEELING -- One of the state's biggest sporting events will remain in Wheeling, as the Mountain East Conference announced Sunday that both its men's and women's basketball tournaments will continue to be played in the Friendly City through 2025.
"I certainly feel that our event being here is benefiting Wheeling and the support we're getting is greatly benefiting the Mountain East Conference," said MEC Commissioner Reid Amos.
The extension was announced during the conference's two championship games Sunday, where Charleston took home the women's championship and West Liberty claimed the men's title.
The MEC basketball tournaments have been played in Wheeling each of the last four seasons, dating back to 2019. For five years before that, the final three rounds of the tournament were played in Charleston.
Amos said the MEC is very happy to be able to play both tournaments in one location, something not a lot of Division II conferences can claim.
"There are a lot of NCAA Division II conferences across the country, and many of them play their conference tournaments on their campuses," Amos said.
"It's much harder to deliver the kind of experience that a neutral site can, being in a location where you can get a good crowd in the building and create a good environment.
"We're very blessed to be able to have a neutral-site event and to have a local organizing committee that helps bring together the kind of sponsorship that we need so that we can make it a first-class event."
Amos lauded the basketball tournaments as the MEC's "marquee event" and said being able to host them in WesBanco Arena allows for a top-notch experience for all parties.
He also praised the venue itself, including the arena's large video board and comfortable seating for adding to that experience.
"Roughly 5,000 seats is a perfect size for an event like ours," Amos said. "For a long time, I think (WesBanco Arena) was thought of as a hockey arena, it's much more than that. Basketball looks great inside WesBanco Arena."
A centralized location also makes broadcasting every game of the tournament, either online, radio or television, a much easier task for the conference.
"To do it with the level of quality that we're able to do it, it's crucial to have the entire event in one place," Amos explained. "Just looking at the television aspect of it, the two games live (Sunday) on AT&T Sportsnet Pittsburgh, you really can't make that work if you're not sure where the championship games are going to be until a day or so before."
Aside from the practical benefits, Amos said making the tournament as good as possible is simply a good showcase for the conference and its 12 member institutions.
"I've always said that athletics is the front porch of our institutions and it is a great way to sell our institutions as a whole," Amos said. "It's important for us to have events like this because it helps elevate the profiles of all 12 of our institutions."