2012 Atlantic 10 Championship

The is the first editorial in a while, but an important one

The 2012 Atlantic 10 Softball Championship will be held from May 9th-12th at the Billiken Sports Center in St. Louis, MO

This is the first time that the Atlantic 10 Tournament will be hosted by St. Louis. St. Louis joined the conference in 2006 and has been a consistent performer on the softball field since joining. The Billikens made appearances at the Atlantic 10 Championship from 2007-2010, including a title game appearance in 2007. The decision to award the tournament to St. Louis truly reflects the success that the Billikens have had since joining the A10.

Unfortunately, this blog has a couple qualms about the tournament being awarded to St. Louis. Going back to 2005, UMass, Fordham, and Charlotte have each hosted the Atlantic 10 Championship twice and deservedly so. In addition to having some of the most consistent performers on the field, these schools have shown a commitment to softball. These schools set the bar for the conference both in terms of facilities and coverage. Live audio, video, and statistics should be the standard coverage for home games and these schools have done so for a couple years. These schools also provide excellent social media and video updates/highlights. Charlotte and UMass have had the top facilities in the conference since 2006, both in terms of the playing surface and for spectators.

UMass Softball Complex

Here are some of the issues we have with St. Louis hosting:
St. Louis has been incredibly poor at covering home softball games. There were numerous times in the 2011 season, when there was no coverage of home games. They were not able to provide live statistics or even a Twitter feed, frankly that is unacceptable for a Division 1 Program in the Atlantic 10.

The Billiken Sports Center is not up to the standard of other facilities in the conference. This includes the playing surface, dugouts, and spectator seating. The Atlantic 10 Championship showcases the best softball that the conference has to offer and it is our feeling that it should be played at the conference's finest facilities. This is also not the type of facility that would be good for a television broadcast.

DL Phillips Complex

It would be possible to overlook this last issue if the other two did not exist: St. Louis is geographically removed from the rest of the conference. All Atlantic 10 teams must fly to St. Louis for the A10 Tournament, Dayton is the only team that could possibly drive and they are 6 hours away. This problem could also be highlighted even further if St. Louis does not make the A10 Tournament for the second straight season: attendance could be downright dreadful.

Here are the blog's thoughts on future A10 Tournament hosts:
UMass, Charlotte, and Fordham have all made the past 6 A10 tournaments and they each have excellent facilities. They have also put on excellent tournaments every time that they have hosted.

St. Joseph's has also been one of the consistent performers in the conference, including two finals in the past three years. However they did not have a field of its own so they were unable to host. That will change, as the Hawks are getting a new home field. If the new field is up to par, the Hawks would be a logical host for the tournament.

Dayton has an excellent facility and has been doing a much better job in terms of softball coverage. However, the biggest factor in hosting remains success on the field, which the Flyers showed in 2011, but they need to maintain that level for a few years, to be considered. The same applies to Temple as well.

UD Softball Stadium

Hopefully, this blog will be pleasantly surprised by the job St. Louis does hosting the 2012 Atlantic 10 Championship. However, we are quite skeptical at the moment, we will keep an eye on Billikens' softball coverage throughout the year and they need to improve things. For one, internet access should be a requirement among other things...

Here is a past post on Game Coverage