Detroit could be a landing spot for Big Ten men’s hoops tourney, Jim Delany says – Lansing State Journal

Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press Published 5:29 p.m. ET May 16, 2017 | Updated 14 hours ago

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said he thinks Detroit could potentially be a host for a conference men's basketball tournament.(Photo: Chris Solari/DFP)

ROSEMONT, Ill. Commissioner Jim Delany showed the college sports world that the Big Ten is willing to take its mens basketball tournament away from its Midwest roots.

And Delany said Tuesday that Detroit could have a chance to bring it back within the leagues footprint.

I think that Detroit and Minneapolis and other cities should aspire, Delany said during the Big Ten joint meetings at league headquarters. That will be the decision of the universities and the athletic directors, but were a conference that is blessed by great sports fans, great cities. I cant tell you it will happen, but I would encourage interested parties to seek it.

Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis said he believes the soon-to-open Little Caesars Arena and The District Detroit will be a contender for Big Ten and NCAA events. The new home of the Detroit Pistons and Red Wings will host the Division I mens basketball first and second rounds in 2018 and 2021, as well as the 2020 Frozen Four in hockey and 2021 Division I wrestling championships.

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Theres no reason why it shouldnt be considered for Big Ten championships, theres no reason why it shouldnt be considered a site for the NCAA regionals, Hollis said. I know weve got two years of first-second rounds (2018 and 2021, and I think its going to be proven to be just a world-class experience for people to play there. Im excited about it.

Before I walked through it, I was excited about it. But after seeing what theyve developed there and what the building looks like and how it flows and how theyve thought about most everything, its going to be one of the top hockey and basketball venues in the country. Very tight, tight sightlines, very well thought-out. I commend them for that and I will help them in any way to make sure that we can get Detroit rocking.

The Big Ten tourney debuted at Verizon Center in Washington this year and will move up a week in 2018 so it can shift to New Yorks Madison Square Garden. That has been part of the conferences mission to capture two of the nations largest media markets, in conjunction with the additions of Maryland and Rutgers in 2014.

The Big Ten will return the mens basketball tournament to Chicago in 2019 and 2021, and it will be held in Indianapolis in 2020 and 2022.

That decision is off a little bit in the future, but probably not too far, Delany said. Were a conference that goes from Colorado to the East Coast, that encompasses great cities with great arenas. We started off in Chicago exclusively, then we built out to Indianapolis. Recently, we went to D.C., were going to go to New York.

We have obviously, by going to D.C. and New York, demonstrated that we are a conference that has got to serve a lot of different geographies.

Delany said there has not been any discussions about moving the Big Ten Football Championship Game, which has been anchored at Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium since its inception in 2011. He called the venue a turn-key operation and says the city is really quite good at doing what they do.

He stopped short of calling Indianapolis a permanent home and said it should remain competitively engaged to have that event, but later called the city a stable football championship home.

We felt that, since it was a new event for us, that we have to control some variables. The variables are the centrality of the location and the temperature of the location, he said. We didnt think that it would be smart to try and grow an event in the snow.

Maybe someday, but not this day.

Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@chrissolari.

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Detroit could be a landing spot for Big Ten men's hoops tourney, Jim Delany says - Lansing State Journal