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My RENO experience

W

wazzuwildcat03

Active member
For all of you who could not make it to Reno, I just wanted to give you my thoughts on the whole trip and event. First of all I agree having the tournament not at the regular season champions court is pretty lame. However I thought the Big Sky Conference and the staff at the Reno Events Center did a great job. Out of all the sports trips I have been too, this one was the best I have ever been too and most fun. It helps that your team won the whole thing too. haha. I loved meeting all the Weber State fans that made it. I would say about 250 strong were there. We became a really tight group. I got pictures and pretty much met every player. I got to meet Mckay Cannon's family, Richaud Gittens parents and Joel Bolomboys dad. Really awesome people. My favorite was Richaud Gittens mom. She was so cool to talk to. The last couple minutes of the championship game I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown. Then seeing how happy and proud she was of Richaud and the team was alone was worth the trip. We stayed at Circus Circus, It was all very close and within walking distance of the El Dorado where the team stayed and the Reno Events Center. Reno is a great city with lots to see and do. I won about $370 playing blackjack too. haha. Jerry Graybill and I kicked butt together at the tables after the Portland State game. :rockon: Even if we would have lost in the tournament, it was a great time and will I never forget. My brother and I are already excited for next year. Seriously, if you can come next year win or lose you will have a great time. Go WEBER 8-)
 
I went into this thing with a fairly open mind. I wasn't sure about all 12 teams being invited and I was a bit miffed about not being able to host at the Dee. After seeing and experiencing the event, I am now a big proponent of all 12 teams and a pre-determined site. I prefer Reno over Vegas. It seems to be a friendlier place to me. They can put it up for bid again in a few years, but it will be hard to beat Reno.

I'm totally sold on the new tournament format. I'm looking forward to next year already. This is the way to do it. :coffee:
 
I totally agree with olds and wazzu, the tourney was a blast and Reno really filled the bill quite well. Yes, I know you are probably saying "he would like it cuz it's close to his home" which is true but I would go to the tournament if it's held in Vegas as well....there ARE other things to do which is a big draw...2 years ago in Ogden, I had a hard time finding a hotel (of course on short notice) and really didn't find much to do between games...having Men's and Women's games to go to helps with the single location argument too....Reno was the only bidder for holding both Men's and Women's tournament...one of the best things about the tourney was interacting with players and fans of almost all the other teams around the hotel, restaurants, tables, etc....I'm pretty sure that experience is a new one to the BigSky fan due to the fact that no location that the tourney has been held in the past was big enough to accomodate the numbers of fans, staff, players and families in one hotel complex....inevitably, elevator rides were more fun as you were almost always on a car with someone affiliated with a different school to interact with....This has been a complete success in my opinion....the sky didn't fall, in fact the Big Sky rose to new heights...
 
wazzuwildcat03 said:
For all of you who could not make it to Reno, I just wanted to give you my thoughts on the whole trip and event. First of all I agree having the tournament not at the regular season champions court is pretty lame. However I thought the Big Sky Conference and the staff at the Reno Events Center did a great job. Out of all the sports trips I have been too, this one was the best I have ever been too and most fun. It helps that your team won the whole thing too. haha. I loved meeting all the Weber State fans that made it. I would say about 250 strong were there. We became a really tight group. I got pictures and pretty much met every player. I got to meet Mckay Cannon's family, Richaud Gittens parents and Joel Bolomboys dad. Really awesome people. My favorite was Richaud Gittens mom. She was so cool to talk to. The last couple minutes of the championship game I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown. Then seeing how happy and proud she was of Richaud and the team was alone was worth the trip. We stayed at Circus Circus, It was all very close and within walking distance of the El Dorado where the team stayed and the Reno Events Center. Reno is a great city with lots to see and do. I won about $370 playing blackjack too. haha. Jerry Graybill and I kicked butt together at the tables after the Portland State game. :rockon: Even if we would have lost in the tournament, it was a great time and will I never forget. My brother and I are already excited for next year. Seriously, if you can come next year win or lose you will have a great time. Go WEBER 8-)
Click to expand...

Love me some BJ! Sounds like a good time. I've been to Reno several times and have nothing against it. I'll probably try to attend next year.
 
The sentiment from most sounds like, if you you can go, it's great. I don't doubt that. The conference put a crap-ton of work into making this an enjoyable experience for fans who attended. HOWEVER, that doesn't take away from the fact that 95 percent of fans can't go. That's what this move to a neutral site has done to the experience. Most of us work, and even if we could find a way to miss an entire week from our jobs, it's hard to afford a hotel room for 3-5 nights and all the other costs associated with travel. I'd love to go and experience it, but financially, it's just not worth it for me at the moment.
 
I'm wondering what the non-student to student ratio was in Reno, compared to what it has been over the last several years. I'm sure there is no way to measure that, but it seems to me that this move has hurt students the most, especially at a place like Weber where a very high percentage of students work part or even full time.
I know Olds talked about the fun of the road trip back in his days in college, I too took a fun road trip to watch one of my college's teams compete for a regional championship. But we left on a Friday evening, drove all night, watched the game on Saturday and turned around and drove back. How many students from places other than Sac St or WSU could manage a trip to Reno like that?
One problem with the neutral site idea for a conference like the Big Sky is that the teams are simply spread out too far across the map. Missoula to Reno is a 14 hour drive, or a $700-800 airplane ticket.
Keep in mind, also that not every university in the Big Sky was on spring break last week, like Weber was.
Granted not many students from other schools were likely to make the trip to the conference champ's town in the past. But at least the home town students could attend in large numbers. And as Tal mentioned in another thread, the experience of watching your university's team win the championship is pretty cool. The neutral site tournament doesn't offer that chance to many students.
 
i agree with this thread that those who went loved it. i can promise you i would have loved it if i went. i have been to over 40 wsu away games in 7 states. Reno sounds similar to any away game of WSU i have been to, especially in the state of calif which is too far for fans to travel to for a game. they typically are fun, win or lose. even the cal poly game we lost 47-0 was fun. i even sat by kilty and talhad.

at most wsu away games there aren't many of us so you have access to the players, families...etc, i even sat next to ann milner at one game. another one i really enjoyed was sitting next to bovee at sjsu and chatting the whole first half. i used to sit by the lillard group too at the cali games in 2012 and it was a lot of fun. then he would come hang out with them after.

But...

none of this matters when there is no one at the tournament.
 
my only reason for not attending reno was poor weather. i looked into the train or flights last min but sky high prices. to get to reno from saint joe's would have been a lot of driving in snow. i dont have chains or suv. there was i-80 closures 3 days before the big sky tourney and also at the end of the tourney. i didnt want to go that badly to drive in shight weather. i would have had no excuse if it was in vegas but snow was the only thing to stop me from reno. flights last min or driving, both possible, if vegas, weather concern very low, with reno in march very high. :wall:

i only have 2 requirements to go to reno:
1. are we in the top 3
2. can i drive there without a big snow storm

time off from work isn't an issue. my plan was to show up for the semi on thursday. this means only 2 days off. drive is 4 hrs minus weather.

interestingly booking in advance for reno or a school hosting is no different. we wait until the last minute either way as fans. seed matters to fans. sure its great for the players families but when did the conf tourney become a charity case? ya they don't get paid but they are still getting an education. it has to matter that there was only 1,200 for early rounds and 2,516 for the final.
 
Sir Velo said:
my only reason for not attending reno was poor weather. i looked into the train or flights last min but sky high prices. to get to reno from saint joe's would have been a lot of driving in snow. i dont have chains or suv. there was i-80 closures 3 days before the big sky tourney and also at the end of the tourney. i didnt want to go that badly to drive in shight weather. i would have had no excuse if it was in vegas but snow was the only thing to stop me from reno. flights last min or driving, both possible, if vegas, weather concern very low, with reno in march very high. :wall:

i only have 2 requirements to go to reno:
1. are we in the top 3
2. can i drive there without a big snow storm

time off from work isn't an issue. my plan was to show up for the semi on thursday. this means only 2 days off. drive is 4 hrs minus weather.

interestingly booking in advance for reno or a school hosting is no different. we wait until the last minute either way as fans. seed matters to fans. sure its great for the players families but when did the conf tourney become a charity case? ya they don't get paid but they are still getting an education. it has to matter that there was only 1,200 for early rounds and 2,516 for the final.
Click to expand...

2,516 was the reported attendance, but take the 1200 that the 12 schools combined already had to buy your looking at a championship played in front of 1,316 :ohno:
 
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