MEC Picks Up 3rd Year Option for Hoops Tourney

Guarantees event will be held in Wheeling through 2021

WHEELING -- Mountain East Conference officials announced in 2018 that the conference basketball tournament was going to move from Charleston to Wheeling the following year. An original agreement of two years with a third year option in 2021 was made. With the success of last year's tournament attendance-wise along with the support of the conference's sponsors, who also committed to three years of sponsorship, an easy decision was made by Mountain East Conference Commissioner Reid Amos.

With Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott by his side, Amos announced Tuesday at WesBanco Arena that the MEC picked up the option year guaranteeing the Mountain East Conference Basketball Tournament --Presented by the Health Plan --will be held in Wheeling through 2021.

"We believe that this is a partnership that has achieved significant mutual benefit already in the first year which has led us to picking up the option year in Year 3," Amos said.

"We've had tremendous sponsor support, quite frankly, unprecedented sponsor support associated with this event in bringing it to Wheeling. Those sponsors and the local organizing committee had the foresight to line up those commitments for three years when combined with the turnout we had last year; the top three crowds in Mountain East Conference tournament history.

"The combination of those two things made a decision to pick up the option year in 2021 very easy. The mayor announcing the economic impact numbers, so essentially, for events like this, there's mutual benefit. The economic impact the event brings to the city and then combined with the value that the organizers, the promoters have from the event in having sponsorship support in being in a facility where you can draw a good crowd. If we can continue to achieve all of those goals, it's a partnership that makes sense. We'll see what the future brings, but we're off to a great start in 2019."

And what a great start it was.

Along with tremendous support of its sponsors, and a great direct economic impact, the tournament saw record-breaking numbers for three straight nights.

Last year, during the men's quarterfinals on Friday night, over 2,800 people were in the stands breaking the record by more than 500 fans.

The following night, the record was set again as attendance rose to just under 3,000 (2,969). On championship Sunday, the session record was broken for a third straight day as 3,781 people were in attendance.

The total attendance for 2019 was just short of 14,000 fans, also a MEC Basketball Tournament record.

"Anytime you elect to make change as our conference did with the support of our board of directors, you're always concerned with how exactly will it turn out," Amos said. "We had very high hopes. We felt that the fact that this was going to be the only college basketball tournament in town was certainly going to be an advantage to us. But, even so, how successful Year 1 exceeded our expectations. Nearly 14,000 people in the seats over the five-day event.

"With teams playing out of the area on Wednesday and Thursday, you don't expect those two-day crowds to necessarily be that big. But, the weekend being the focus, which is why we play the championship on a Sunday, that's what we hoped and we had the top three crowds on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Hopefully that set a standard we can grow past in 2020. It's a great product, it's great basketball and we're anticipating a great event in 2020."

Mayor Elliott was also pleased with the tournament remaining in the Friendly City, an event which had a great direct economic impact.

"It's a great reflection on how well last year's tournament went that they're willing to extend into Year 3 and exercise that third year option," Elliott said.

"I think last year was a great marriage of two great organizations, the MEC and the city of Wheeling, I think were good fits for each other. This building, we're in (Tuesday), has seen a lot of improvements made it the last decade. Getting this tournament here for the third year is a great reflection. It's paying dividends on those past investments. We calculated more $2.1 million in direct economic impact, which can be traced to last year's tournament.

"That's money spent local here at restaurants, hotels, local vendors. It's money going into local people's pockets. So we need to use tournaments like this to really continue to showcase what we have here in the city of Wheeling and expand our marketing to the broader region.

"The MEC covers a pretty big expanse. All those people that are going to be coming here are staying up to three or four days at a time will get a chance to see Wheeling, maybe for the first time they see it ever or in many, many years. It's a chance to showcase what we have."

While the city of Wheeling has plenty to offer, the quality of basketball will remain at a high level as both the men and women are the high-scoring leagues in NCAA Division II.

And while it's guaranteed that points will be scored, there's one thing that isn't so easy to predict: a champion, especially on the men's side.

In the six years of the MEC, there has been a different winner each year on the men's side. On top of that, the No. 1 seed also has never won the tournament.

"That says a lot about the quality of basketball being played in this tournament," Amos said. "You've had two teams (West Liberty in 2014, Fairmont State in 2017) that played for the national championship in NCAA Division II and neither of the teams that played for the national title won our tournament the year they played for the national championship. That tells you how good basketball is in the Mountain East Conference.

"It's going to be the same again this year. If you are a basketball fan at all, I strongly encourage you to take a night and come out and see what we put out on the floor here at WesBanco Arena. I'm very willing to bet, that if you like basketball a little bit, it won't be the only night you come.

"That's our hope that anybody likes any basketball at all or a good family-friendly environment to take in a sporting event, come out and join us for the Mountain East Conference basketball tournament."

The sponsors for the tournament include Encova Insurance (Corporate Partner) along with Hall of Fame Sponsors: the City of Wheeling; Ohio County Commission; The Wheeling Convention & Visitors Bureau; McKinley-Carter Wealth Services, McKinley Architecture & Engineering, and Omni Strategic Technologies; Oglebay Resort; WVU Medicine; Wheeling Hospital; the Wheeling Nailers and RED and Kalkreuth Roofing.

Robinson Automotive Group has also been added as a sponsor in 2020.

All-Star sponsors include Main Street Bank, Panhandle Cleaning and Restoration, WesBanco and Huntington Bank.