BURN THE HORSE
Steve
Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, made it clear Tuesday morning they want to
keep the Sun Belt Conference basketball tournaments. But, if that doesn’t work
out, they’ll be in the mix for other events.
 |
| Summit Arena in Hot Springs |
Arrison made
his comments during an appearance on KZNG-AM’s Talk of the Town with Dick
Antoine.
“We’ve got
two years remaining on our contract with the Sun Belt. They’ll be here the next
two years for sure. We’re trying to convince them to stay here after that. It’s
just a wait and see,” Arrison said.
Hot Springs
will also bid again for the state high school basketball finals, which will be
played this year at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock. Hot Springs also has
interest in the Great American Conference, which features in-state schools
Arkansas Tech, Harding, Henderson State, Ouachita Baptist and Southern
Arkansas. They also have interest in the Southland Conference, which features
in-state Central Arkansas, along with out of state schools surrounding the
state.
But it all starts
with the Sun Belt Conference.
“Our
agreement with the Sun Belt is that by May 1 of next year they’ll let us know
if we’re going to renew the contract or not. The original contract was that
they had to let us know by August 1st, but in our meetings in May
they agreed to let us know by May 1st of next year,” Arrison said. “We’re
looking at the Great American Conference, which might not even conflict. We
could maybe do both. It just depends. That would be a fun event for us. We’ve just got to play the waiting game to
see date wise.”
The Great
American Conference held its first postseason tournament last year in
Bartlesville, Okla. They initially signed a two-year contract for 2012 and
2013, but have since added on 2014. After that, it goes up for yearly renewal with
both the GAC and Bartlesville needing to approve it. That means the soonest Hot
Springs could host the GAC would be 2015.
The GAC
Tournament runs March 7-10 this year, while the Sun Belt Tournament runs March
8-11.
“We’re very
interested in them. We’re very interested in the Southland Conference which UCA
is a member of. Craig Drummond on our staff is bird dogging all of that, trying
to figure out,” Arrison said. “We’ve just sort of got to see how it all lays
out, which bid comes up first. Some of them are different, some are the same
dates. If we don’t get one, we might have the opportunity to get another. It’s
like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. Next year will be a big year for us in
seeing what we’re going to have, at least when it comes to sporting events, for
the next four years.”
The Sun Belt
has held its tournament in Hot Springs the past four years. Recently, Sun Belt
Commissioner Karl Benson has been openly flirting with other cities, including
New Orleans and Gwinnett, Ga.
Have an opinion. Discuss this story by CLICKING HERE.
