SEC makes it official: Women’s tournament coming to Greenville

The seats are burnt orange.

Next March, they’ll be garnet and black.

Greenville’s Bon Secours Wellness Arena confirmed on Monday what The State first reported last week, and what had been rumored for months – the 2017 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held in South Carolina. It’s the first pre-determined postseason event to be held in the state since the Confederate flag was removed from the Statehouse grounds, and opens the door for several other pre-determined conference and NCAA events to be held in South Carolina in the future.

“When the change happened last summer and the flag came down, we had a conversation in our office and with our leadership about the opportunity to return now that one of the hurdles had been removed from the table,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said. “We had a bit of a map where we thought we were going to head in 2017, but it was a relatively quick pivot.”

The flag coming down immediately lifted the boycott of NCAA pre-determined events in the state (baseball regionals, as well as recent women’s basketball regionals, are earned in-season) and Greenville was available for the tournament. The SEC, already contracted in Nashville in 2018 and having been in North Little Rock and Jacksonville the last two years, was quickly contacted by the city.

“VisitGreenville jumped right on it, along with Bon Secours Center,” Mayor Knox White said. “They deserve the lion’s share of the credit for not letting any grass grow under their feet on it.

“The biggest thing we had working for us was the success of the 2005 tournament. It was sort of an epic success, the SEC folks said, that they remembered well.”

That tournament, won by Tennessee, brought an estimated 40,000 fans to Greenville. At the time, the state’s flagship university was not very strong in women’s basketball and had a one-day stay.

Next spring, Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks are expected to be heavy favorites to win their third straight SEC tournament, and the crowds that have routinely packed Colonial Life Arena since her program rose into a national power are expected to make the trip.

“We were here in 2005 and I can recall walking down the street with my two daughters to come to the games, and we had strong crowds when South Carolina’s team maybe wasn’t at the same level they are today,” Sankey said. “But that’s certainly a benefit to Gamecock fans.”

“The Well” seats just under 15,000, and the plan is to curtain off the upper deck and have fans fill the lower bowl. However, the plan changes by demand – if more tickets are sold than the lower bowl can accommodate, the upper deck will be opened as general admission seats.

USC fans could give The Well as much of a homecourt feel as CLA. It could be the last chance some fans have to see the team before the NCAA Tournament – while the Gamecocks are certainly expected to host the first two rounds, they have to earn it. And the next round of NCAA Regionals, like they were last year, are in far-flung locations (Lexington, Ky.; Bridgeport, Conn.; Stockton, Calif.; and Oklahoma City).

Greenville’s walkability in downtown and the amount of restaurants and hotels close by the arena made it a natural fit. Governor Nikki Haley, also in attendance, pointed out how many schools beside USC are in driving distance (Georgia and Tennessee are two hours away, Auburn, Alabama, Kentucky and Vanderbilt are within six) and the Charlotte airport is close by, with Greenville-Spartanburg International offering flights to and from Atlanta.

“This, to us, is going to be the best of many that you’re going to start to see in South Carolina. That makes us very excited,” Haley said. “Let’s be clear – we are going to throw the best 2017 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament that the SEC has ever seen. We’re going to do it in such a way that they’re going to want to come back.”

Which only left one question. Who would Haley, a Clemson graduate, be pulling for?

“You know what?,” she asked. “If Dawn Staley is up there, I’m going to be cheering for my Carolina girls.”

This story was originally published May 16, 2016 at 12:03 PM with the headline "SEC makes it official: Women’s tournament coming to Greenville."