SEC still mulling future of women’s basketball tournament in Greenville
The Southeastern Conference women’s basketball tournament will remain in Greenville — at least for now.
The league’s current deal with the city runs through the 2024-2025 season. However, what happens beyond that is still to be determined, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said on Friday at the conference’s final day of spring meetings.
“We’ve really been pleased with Greenville,” Sankey said Friday on the final day of SEC spring meetings. “Our membership is going to ask us to look just given it’s on the east side (of the league). Just at least be open to other locations. I think we’ll continue one way or another to have a relationship with Greenville.
“The good news is we’ve built something (in Greenville) that’s continued to grow and it’s continuing to draw fans in from places outside the state of South Carolina Our fans have become accustomed to the downtown area, the ease of travel, many travel options, the hotels.”
The SEC women’s basketball tournament has been held in Greenville at Bon Secours Wellness Arena between 2019 and 2021 before coming back this past season. It also was previously held at the venue in 2005 — then called the Bi-Lo Center — and again in 2017.
South Carolina has won the event in its home state in four of those six years (2020, 2021, 2023).
“We had a reception down in the Arts Center (in Greenville) looking over the river and I remarked to a colleague, ‘I don’t know what people know about Greenville, but standing here, they need to know,’ “ Sankey said.
Sankey also noted the discussions about the future of the tournament and where it will be hosted have yet to really begin given the deal with Greenville runs for another two years.
SEC baseball tournament future still being decided
The SEC baseball tournament also had its share of discussion this week as the league has reportedly contemplated moving the event out of Hoover, Alabama.
Sankey told reporters on Friday there should be more determinations made about the event at athletic director meetings later this summer, but pointed to the announcement earlier this week that Hoover is planning to spend $37 million on upgrades to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
“Certainly a great point of information for us,” Sankey said. “... We’re gonna move efficiently. We have an athletics directors meeting in late summer where we’ll spend a lot of time on baseball. I would expect in June, July, August — 75 days or so. We’ve been working on the issue and we’ll work to bring that matter on our future to conclusion. We are really honored to have interest from other cities. And that’s just part of the consideration.”
The Hoover Met has hosted the SEC baseball tournament every year outside of one since 1996. The current deal with the stadium runs through the 2024 season.
The last time the SEC baseball tournament was held outside of Hoover was in 1997, when it was played at the Golden Park in Columbus, Georgia.
