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Re-visiting the "Coors Classic" bball tourney..

coereg

Well-Known Member
Just a side-note away from the normal hub-bub of the current season, and a look at future things that can help boost CU & front range hoops.

Call it the Mile High Classic, the Colorado Classic, whatever you want, but I wonder why CU has not revisited hosting (from '88 to '94, and a semi-version in '05) the tournament on an annual basis.

You've got some intriguing regional teams to consider and have had some big names in here in the past (No. Carolina, Purdue, Utah, UMass, Georgia). That plus the women have had success w/their tournament.
 
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I think it would be great to help generate some college hoop interest in the Denver area. I think they'd need to get a big-name team in here, a mid-level team, and another local team.
 
You could ask Coors, or perhaps Kroenke Sports to help partially fund the gig, have it in the Pepsi Center, and perhaps hold it on Altitude Sports. You then invite 4 or 6 teams in, playing 2 to 3 games, thus giving you a chance to invite other Big 12 teams in but not playing them - or MWC teams, if you have CSU ...

... and you could use ONE game as the CU/CSU game - promote it heavily and force a better/bigger fan following, and hold it as the last game of the event.

There are a load of regional teams that might take interest in showing.

Looking something like this (with 6 teams playing two games):

(Day 1)
Game 1- CSU vs. Utah State
Game 2- CU vs. Creighton
Game 3- K-State vs. New Mexico

(Day 2)
Game 1- New Mexico vs. Utah State
Game 2- K-State vs. Creighton
Game 3- CU vs. CSU

It would be better if you could make it a 3 day, 3 game event, but two would do. This would have a chance to be a fairly nice gig for the front range, that is if the powers that be are willing to do it, and they promote it right.
 
That should happen. Ideally, with a couple border state programs since they're close enough that they would be able to bring a few fans. And then one marquee team.

In addition (and what I'd really be passionate about):

I'd love to see a Colorado Classic that mimicked the Big 5 tourney in Philadelphia. Invite all 5 programs in the state (CU, CSU, AFA, DU, UNC) and play a round robin in both MBB and WBB over a Thursday through Sunday. Do a rotation of who hosts it until it got big enough for the Pepsi Center.
 
And you'd love to try and sell this to KU/OU/OSU/ or TX, and also to the BIGS of the MWC - BYU/UNLV/UNM/ or San Diego State.

You could probably entertain approaching Big 10 or Pac-10 teams as well. Maybe an Iowa or Minnesota, or perhaps a AZ St., Cal, or Washington.
 
Buffnik said:
I'd love to see a Colorado Classic that mimicked the Big 5 tourney in Philadelphia. Invite all 5 programs in the state (CU, CSU, AFA, DU, UNC) and play a round robin in both MBB and WBB over a Thursday through Sunday. Do a rotation of who hosts it until it got big enough for the Pepsi Center.
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I like that idea ... but unfortunately - for many reasons - you wouldn't get strong support with JUST that field of teams. It sucks and is a good idea, but you would ABSOLUTELY need a marquee team to get any interest in this thing. Particularly if you're going to spend two to three days in the Pepsi Center. You've got to have a selling point to the powers that be.
 
Plus behind the scenes, Rick Barnes, Bill Self and Doc Sadler are all good friends of Bzdelik. If the situation is right, if they have interests in the teams that they would be slotted against, I don't think they would mind helping CU out, to draw good fan support to the event.
 
Buffnik said:
I'd love to see a Colorado Classic that mimicked the Big 5 tourney in Philadelphia. Invite all 5 programs in the state (CU, CSU, AFA, DU, UNC) and play a round robin in both MBB and WBB over a Thursday through Sunday. Do a rotation of who hosts it until it got big enough for the Pepsi Center.
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The "Front Range Five" is a great idea...I think it would be best served though to do it at campus sites for a few years at first...
 
Saulbadguy said:
The "Coors Classic" was played in Mobile, AL this weekend.
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This I know. And actually, I should say that I don't believe it was ever called "Coors Classic" HERE. I believe it was initially called "Mile Hi Classic". Not sure where I got Coors from, but yeah I did see that.
 
The "Coors Classic" was a bike race that took over after the Red Zinger folded.
 
Not to rain on anyone's parade but the Basketball tourney failed because of lack of tickets sales and TV coverage.

You are not going to get conference teams to come in and play conference opponents before the conference schedule starts. In-season tournaments are not as prevalent as they once were.

A round robin with local teams would not be very economical, attendance would be poor and TV coverage would be low budget.

The MWC moved their Conference Tournament out of Denver because of poor attendance and that was with 3 area teams in the Tourney...

If you want an In Season tournament it has to have a sponsor and an ESPN contract.
 
BlackNGold said:
Not to rain on anyone's parade but the Basketball tourney failed because of lack of tickets sales and TV coverage.

You are not going to get conference teams to come in and play conference opponents before the conference schedule starts. In-season tournaments are not as prevalent as they once were ....
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Yes, ticket sales were the primary issue as time went on - but when they first started that (in '88 & '89), and had Purdue, UMass, & North Carolina visiting, they had good turnouts. CU later got sloppy, deciding to invite smaller conf. teams ONLY.

I never said that conf. teams would play each other ... but they could play against other quality regional reams in a round-robin format. I'm actually confident that you could attract some nice teams to come in and play, to try and get this thing moving.
BlackNGold said:
If you want an In Season tournament it has to have a sponsor and an ESPN contract.
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Ok, so hence my initial comment on talking with Kroenke Sports for sponsorship and promotion, or perhaps Coors. And at least to begin with, Altitude sports and/or Fox Sports for potential t.v. coverage.

I believe the primary factor in all of this, if you truly want to get this thing off the ground, is to sell it hard and get good teams in here. You absolutely must have a marquee team or two. Teams that travel well. It's that excitement that will attract fans.
 
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coereg said:
Yes, ticket sales were the primary issue as time went on - but when they first started that (in '88 & '89), and had Purdue, UMass, & North Carolina visiting, they had good turnouts. CU later got sloppy, deciding to invite smaller conf. teams ONLY.

I never said that conf. teams would play each other ... but they could play against other quality regional reams in a round-robin format. I'm actually confident that you could attract some nice teams to come in and play, to try and get this thing moving.

Ok, so hence my initial comment on talking with Kroenke Sports for sponsorship and promotion, or perhaps Coors. And at least to begin with, Altitude sports and/or Fox Sports for potential t.v. coverage.

I believe the primary factor in all of this, if you truly want to get this thing off the ground, is to sell it hard and get good teams in here. You absolutely must have a marquee team or two. Teams that travel well. It's that excitement that will attract fans.
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I think they only had the tournament one year and that was the 89-90 basketball season, they brought in top teams and had poor turnout and they did promote it hard. North Carolina is a premier team...

Altitude contract is not going to cut it - not enough revenue to make it worthwhile.
 
BlackNGold said:
I think they only had the tournament one year and that was the 89-90 basketball season, they brought in top teams and had poor turnout and they did promote it hard. North Carolina is a premier team...

Altitude contract is not going to cut it - not enough revenue to make it worthwhile.
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It actually ran from 1988 to 1994, and they then had that ONE night/2 games/4 teams (CU, CSU, DU, & St. Mary's of CA) deal back in '05 at the Pepsi Center that I know didn't draw dick nor was it promoted hardly at all.

From 1988 to 1990, when CU invited premier teams like Purdue, UNC, UMass (under Calipari), and Utah (under Majerus), it had good turnouts, but wasn't promoted very well, or at least as much as it should have. Again, CU then got sloppy and decided stop inviting premier teams, opting for smaller conf. opponents and the thing fizzled out from there.

I agree with you on Altitude Sports but again, if it would help to get this thing rolling so be it. I TO would prefer an ESPN contract, or at least something w/Fox Sports but it will need to go small and build from there.

Again, I think if you find the right people who will promote this thing, and you invite a good group of teams, and I'm not talking about DU, Air Force, Montana, or Idaho ... I'm talking about inviting some Big 12, Mtn. West, & Pac-10 teams to play in a 2 to 3 day round robin (not playing conf. opponents) format; You then mix in some smaller (but fun to watch) regional teams like Tulsa, NM State, Utah State, Creighton, Nevada, or Missouri State, and you've got something that might get people excited.
 
Again, this is all just brainstorming ... coming up with some interesting ideas on how to potentially get the people of the front range excited about basketball.
 
coereg said:
Again, this is all just brainstorming ... coming up with some interesting ideas on how to potentially get the people of the front range excited about basketball.
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Has anyone tried building a consistent winning program yet? I'm not sure it'll work but it's worth a try. :smile2:
 
coereg said:
Again, this is all just brainstorming ... coming up with some interesting ideas on how to potentially get the people of the front range excited about basketball.
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And there's the problem. Colorado just isn't a big basketball area, period. Even when the Nuggets are good, they might sell out games, but they still don't get the support the Broncos do when they are mediocre. And college basketball, for the most part, is something that starts when people print out their NCAA tourney pool sheets...

I'm not sure any lineup of teams you can bring in will ultimately change that. It might be a good way to get the basketball fans in the area in the gym to check out the Buffs, though...:thumbsup:
 
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