BREAKING: Southern Conference basketball tournament returning to Asheville in 2012-14

Today at 3:00 it will be announced at a joint press conference by the City of Asheville, Buncombe County, the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority, Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau and UNC Asheville that the Southern Conference basketball tournament is heading back to Asheville for the 2012-2014 seasons. League officials voted today that Asheville would received the honor (rejecting bids from Charleston, SC, Charlotte, NC, Chattanooga, TN, Greenville, SC, and Winston-Salem) based on promises from the city that more than $3 million in capital improvements will be made to the Asheville Civic Center in time for the 2012 event. The conference’s men’s tournament was last in Asheville from 1984-95.

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7 thoughts on “BREAKING: Southern Conference basketball tournament returning to Asheville in 2012-14

  1. Matt Mittan

    Unreal! A few years ago the Asheville Aces offered to do the very improvements that are now going to be paid for by the taxpayers! Speaking of the ‘taxpayers’, the city already has a defecit, has the Grove Arcade asking for a bail out, the Pack Square Conservancy is back due on thier debt… How the HELL does the city plan to pay for this? Raise taxes? Go deeper in debt? Transfer money from other needs? The blind leading the blind!

  2. KtotheB

    Relax people. You gotta spend a little to make a little. I see it being a guaranteed tourism $$$ windfall. Two years in a row. One rider though: the companies doing the $3 million worth of work have to be from here. What’s wrong with hiring local or at least North Carolina companies and workers?

  3. Roger

    Might the improvements benefit the city in increased sales tax revenue by growth of spending during this event… Those it draws here… And with revenue from future events. It’s not like we are buying a whole new arena afterall…. Just some upgrades. This is good news. Enjoy it.

  4. Matt Mittan

    KtotheB writes: “I see it being a guaranteed tourism $$$ windfall.”

    Are you personally willing to ‘guarantee’ this by getting bonded to the tune of $3.4 Million?

    The same “gotta spend a little to make a little” arguments are why we as taxpayers in Asheville are in the financial bind we’re in… How did that argument work for the Civic Center in the first place? Do you have ANY idea how munch money has been poured down that money pit? And it’s still in shambles.

    How did that argument work for Grove Arcade, for Pack Square Conservancy, for The Asheville Film Festival, for the Regional Airport, greenways – even Bele Chere for that matter (have we made back what has been spent in money and resources?)… the list goes on.

    Check out Mr. Barrett’s article a couple weeks back in the Citizen-Times about the MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of dollars spent by local government and quasi-governmental agencies to ‘recruit businesses’ to the greater Asheville area. We’re statistically WORSE off (job and wages wise) then before they started having the money flow like a tidal wave. Meanwhile, the city is going broke.

    Let me re-state this correctly for you… ‘Gotta spend a little (of other people’s money) to get a little (bit of recreation for me at ‘no cost’)…

    You also wrote: “What’s wrong with hiring local or at least North Carolina companies and workers?”

    Indeed. Privatize the Civic Center.

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