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VB Championship Day Thoughts / Observations

Started by sevenof400, November 01, 2014, 10:59:42 pm

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sevenof400

Leaving the specifics of each game to the thread already dedicated for that purpose, lets take a moment to focus on the tournament final today in terms of the location, facility, and all things ancillary to each game.

The arena and the staff
It's hard to say much positive here - I've seen Motel 6's with more charm and character than the Convention Center.  Drab gray, off white walls, uncomfortable seats, and a staff that literally jumps you the minute you walk in the door demanding a ticket for admittance.  Tickets which you have to walk around the outside of the facility to purchase for absolutely no reason.  There is enough access control inside the facility such that the staff could perform their duties within the confines of the building.

Concession Prices
are obscene. While probably not too far out of line with concessions at major college venues, AAA and the Convention Center should keep in mind this is a high school crowd.
$3.50 Hot Dog
$4.50 Corn Dog
$3 for a 24oz soft drink, $3.50 for a 32oz soft drink
$4 for popcorn

I'm glad I brought a supply of snacks with me.   

Clock / Board / Game Operations
I don't envy the people who have to work all of this for five straight matches - to expect they will get everything right every time without fail is unrealistic.  But in the 7A match, there was clearly a failure to communicate between the game officials and the table which caused a situation where Bentonville may have not been awarded a point they should have been. 

Let me be clear here - I am not faulting any of the people involved in what happened - where I want to place the blame is with the frenetic pace of the matches AAA has to push in order to keep on schedule.  Literally, this sort of thing is more likely to happen when the pace of play is being pushed to go as fast as possible.  While I like the use of the three ball system (and lets take a moment to salute and thank those three girls who worked their butts off today retrieving balls) to keep the game moving, there were situations that occurred in every set of every match where the table was trying to keep up with the events of the match and just could not do it.  This caused the problem in the 7A match that appeared to take a point from Bentonville.   

The crowds
were disappointing in terms of size.  These girls deserved a lot more people in the seats today.  Whether the problem is the geographical location, the weekend, the time of the year, or something else altogether this event needs to be relocated away from this facility.   

I'll put a bit more on this later but let me reemphasize my intention here is to focus on the girls who deserve a far better environment as a reward for making their classification's championship game.  I am really disappointed at the effort made by the Convention Center and the AAA today.   

Vballfan

If it is any consolation, there were more people there than the GAC D2 college volleyball tourney last year in a hot springs but I generally the girls deserve more support.

It starts with their schools and administration. Is volleyball not important enough to have a pep band and cheer leaders?  In our town, it is not and apparently all of the schools participating in the tournaments towns as well.  Those students are already committed to other sports we have been told. It's a volleyball problem is another reason we have heard.  So why then if you go to a major college game is there a band and cheerleaders with a marginally larger crowd, I suppose it's because they either value volleyball or they concerned with title 9 implications.

The AAA's bid process to host is flawed.  The schools that think they have a shot to be successful bid and create a home town advantage if not with fan support, the officials they hire.  There has been a lot of talk around the officiating piece of this and I heard they changed some things for this year.   I don't know what you do here but in the state we moved from the whole tournament was in one location for a week and has been for years.  They have good fan support, good tradition, etc.  Maybe you send half as many teams to the playoffs and create a one location tradition?

I don't think there will ever be a huge following to the tournament in hot springs, but I think it's better than going to a host high school for the finals.  If my team ever is good enough to make a finals in the next few years, I hate to think we might have to go to Fayetteveille or Bentonville to play the final game.   

Valleysports

I'm probably biased because of familiarity - but TECH's Dome would be awesome for the Championship Games.  Location (70 miles from Ft Smith/Little Rock on I-40) - TECH is used to hosting tournaments.  Town is used to watching Championship Volleyball.  If memory serves me correct - I say this every year.  ::)

SouthpawSensation

This was the first time I can remember that the finals were held at a neutral site. It's usually held at a high school that thinks its team has a good shot at winning the state title.
Perhaps if this is something that Hot Springs wants to do again, they will want to tweak things to make things better. Those concession prices — Ouch! Almost as bad at Razorback games, but not by much.
Pep band? That's not going to happen. The AAA won't allow them during basketball tournaments, so I'm sure it's already nixed any idea like that in volleyball. I don't even recall a regular high school match in which a pep band was there, or cheerleaders for that much.
The problem with having it on college campuses — even though it would be a great way to recruit — is that the college teams are still in the heat of their season. They would have to find alternate locations for practices, and most likely those places would have to be shared with basketball teams that are just about to start their seasons.

500 hitter

The 4a game had a nice crowd. I thought the Hot Springs center was very nice. It was way better than the location last year as far as facilities. The people taking tickets were a bit cranky but I bet it was a long day. ATU would be a great location that might be food for thought. Yes the girls do deserve more attention, take the Little Rock paper for example, The write up was next to nothing. Very few pics or coverage.

sevenof400

Vballfan,

I missed something in your earlier posting I wanted to revisit.....

Quote from: Vballfan on November 02, 2014, 06:22:56 am
The AAA's bid process to host is flawed.  The schools that think they have a shot to be successful bid and create a home town advantage if not with fan support, the officials they hire.  There has been a lot of talk around the officiating piece of this and I heard they changed some things for this year.

I agree with you wholeheartedly on the flaws with respect to the AAA bid process (and that is a subject worthy of its own thread/discussion).  When so few schools bid on hosting tournaments in any sport, you know the host school isn't receiving enough money to make it worth their while.  How AAA deems itself worthy of the gate from a playoff game above any beyond paying the referee expenses should be the subject of a criminal investigation but let's put that aside for a moment. 

For the state playoffs, AAA assigns the referee crews -  not the host school - so the host school really cannot create a referee advantage from the standpoint of hiring officials.  I believe the host school for most conference (and district) tournaments do hire their own officials. 

With respect to the state tournament, AAA will send an email a few weeks before playoff time asking all Division 1 and 2 volleyball referees if they would like to work the state tournament.  There is no guarantee that a referee who says they are available will be asked to officiate.

One problem AAA has to deal with in terms of referees and state tournaments is the location for state tournaments versus where the referees are located.  Obviously locations around Central Arkansas, NW and NE Arkansas have more referees available and while referee availability is not the only factor considered when awarding the state tournament sites, it certainly can work against some areas. 

For the playoffs AAA pays referees $45 per match plus mileage.  However, mileage is paid for only ONE WAY and at the paltry rate of 40 cents per mile.  Also, consider that state tournaments are usually three day events.  AAA does NOT pay mileage each day - they will only pay mileage ONE TIME even if a referee is working all three days of a state tournament.   

So to review, lets say a good referee wants to work the state tournament but lives 100 miles away from the nearest tournament site.  If that referee worked all three days of the tournament, here is a pretty good guess on what s/he might make:

For day one:
$45 * 2 = $90 for working two matches per day (which is usually the case)
$0.40 * 100 = $40 for mileage 

For day two:
$45 * 2 = $90

For day three:
$45 * 2 = $90

so, $310 for three days work which might be as much as 4 hours each day on the court plus driving time. 

Some will say that isn't bad but let's look further at our 100 mile away referee. 
This referee might drive 600 miles if s/he commutes back / forth to the tournament each day.
600 * $0.40 per mile = $240 in commuting costs.  So basically this referee would net $70 for three days of work. 

This is one reason why a lot of referees do not work the state tournament.  There are other reasons as well.  This is one of many reasons the AAA needs to have a serious reconsideration of everything they do with respect to state playoffs.

Gulfhog

The AAA should really consider holding the finals in LR every year.  It is the state capitol and a central location for every team in the state.  There are multiple venues that could accommodate the state tournament and enough hotels that you wouldn't have to deal with consistently getting ripped off by paying for a "special event" rate.  Outside of the lakes and the horse track, Hot Springs is overrated as a host city.  Summit Arena is nice but the parking is horrible, the concessions are over priced, and the people working the event are very rude.  I don't care if they've been there all day, that's what they are getting paid to do. 

All of the football teams have an ultimate goal of playing in LR at the end each year for a state championship and I'm sure that tradition could be created for volleyball as well.  With a little planning, the city of Little Rock and the AAA could create an experience for the players and the fans that they would remember for a lifetime.

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