As college basketball's regular season winds down this week, the Charleston Civic Center is preparing to once again host the Mountain East Conference tournament.
And this year, with the conference preparing to put the tournament out for bid and Charleston's status as the tournament's host city up in the air, organizers are doing everything they can to make next week's event a showcase for both the MEC and the city as a whole.
"Right after last year's tournament, we had conversations with [MEC commissioner] Reid Amos and talked about some of the things we could have done better in the past," said Rod Blackstone, senior assistant to Charleston Mayor Danny Jones. "We started to work on things at that time to do better and really put our best foot forward this year.
"We want to roll out the red carpet like it hasn't been done in the history of the Mountain East and make sure they know we want them here not only this year but for the foreseeable future."
The first change that was made to the tournament this season is that all games will be played in the Civic Center, rather than starting with a round of on-campus play-in games before the teams head to Charleston. Instead, the games will be played from March 1-5 at the Civic Center with the top 10 of the league's 12 teams earning bids.
That alone has been a boost for the tournament and the people who are helping to run it, as they now will know who will be in town ahead of time as opposed to the last few years when they didn't know of the teams until a few days before the games in Charleston started. As schools have clinched a berth in the conference tournament, the MEC and the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau have worked together to run digital advertising where the schools are located, as well as Facebook ads targeted at fans and alumni of those colleges, to help get the word out that their teams will be coming to the Civic Center with information on how to get tickets.
"We're very thankful to the conference for making that change because it certainly makes our jobs a lot easier," CVB vice president of sales and marketing Tim Brady said. "It's been big for us from a marketing standpoint and we're hoping it can push ticket sales ... We want to tell the fans that their team is qualified now, you know they'll be in Charleston, so buy your tickets and come watch them."
The group decided to attack making improvements on the event with a three-pronged approach. It looked to promote the tournament the way it has been this season, while also making Charleston a financially attractive long-term option for the conference and helping to provide each team with a special postseason experience they will remember for years to come.
In order to do that, each team will have a host when they get into town - someone who will contact them prior to the tournament and will help them with anything they need when they get to Charleston. They have also worked with local restaurants, such as Adelphia and several others, to help provide meeting places for teams and their fans after winning the semifinal and championship games.
The hope is that the schools and fans in attendance will be encouraged to get out and see what Charleston has to offer while visiting some of the local businesses and restaurants surrounding the Civic Center area.
"This definitely was motivational for us to know that there was a chance that this could go away after this year," Brady said. "There's a strong community of people here in Charleston who feel very strongly that we want this to stay.
"We feel that we offer the best experience, and now we want to show them that we do."
They've done a lot to make it affordable as ever this year as well. The first two days of games on Wednesday and Thursday will be Youth Nights, where children will get in for free with a paying adult.
All-session tickets are available for the tournament, offering fans a reserved seat for all 18 games throughout the week at $40 while general admission all-session passes cost $30. The CVB is promoting March as Basketball Month in Charleston - with the MEC tournament kicking the month off before the girls and boys high school state tournaments come to the Civic Center in the following weeks.
With three teams nationally ranked on the men's side and several teams who are among the best in the region on the women's side, they believe that those deals make this tournament a week of must-see basketball for fans.
"It's the best deal in college basketball anywhere in the country, in my opinion," Blackstone said. "Especially on the men's side where you look and see we have three of the top teams in the country in Division II. This is the place you'll be able to come and some really good college basketball really affordably."