Mountain East Conference commissioner Reid Amos put on his happy face.
And God bless him. It couldn't have been easy.
Concord and Notre Dame in the men's basketball finals at Charleston's Civic Center?
In a word, ugh.
Don't misunderstand. The players from those schools earned their places in the finals. Concord's Rob Reed and Notre Dame's Tyree Gaiter were, by themselves, worth the price of admission.
But those in the Kanawha Valley weren't paying that price. They weren't flocking to see the Notre Dame Falcons. Or the Concord Mountain Lions. It's just not the Valley's style. Around here, it's marquee or bust, baby.
And that matchup, around here, was a bust.
First, neither Charleston school - the University of Charleston nor West Virginia State - made the finals. Second, none of the three highly ranked schools - West Liberty, Wheeling Jesuit or Fairmont - made the finals. And last, none of the other schools, like Glenville, with nice fan bases made the grade.
And that hurt. It mostly hurts the MEC, which uses profits from this, its crown jewel event, to fund other championships, etc. But it also hurt Charleston, which may find it more and more difficult to keep the MEC tournament from, say, Wheeling.
Let's return to Amos.
"At the end of the day what we want is great basketball and a great product," he said. "Of course, as teams advance, there's a revenue impact. But we don't think about that. We're about a great experience for our student-athletes."
Happy face. But you know the deal. We all do. Concord wasn't marquee. And most folks in the area still don't identify with Notre Dame College. The Falcons (yes, same as Fairmont) are situated in South Euclid, Ohio, some three hours and 42 minutes from the Civic Center.
Likewise, folks still have trouble connecting to Urbana and Virginia-Wise.
And, hey, give us a bit of a break. We're still getting used to the MEC after 89 years of the West Virginia Conference.
But, again, back to Amos. Here he had the best Division II conference in the country on display. West Liberty entered ranked No. 1 nationally with Wheeling Jesuit No. 2 and Fairmont No. 5. West Liberty boasts the nation's best DII player in Seger Bonifant. Charleston was in the quarterfinals.
For a moment, life was good. Attendance had to be terrific, right? The golden egg had been laid.
But it was never hatched. And Charleston simply isn't a city to support an event just for the sake of supporting an event.
Which may cost it this tournament.
"We have a three-year agreement with the Civic Center," Amos said. "Next year will be the final year of that. The first year [of the league's existence] we just did one-year deals with all of our sports because we were pushing the league out of the dirt. Then we started with the multi-year deals."
Here's this deal, though: Amos can extract the event from Charleston now if ticket revenue doesn't reach $60,000 from this past week. On Saturday evening, it seemed that wouldn't be reached.
So the tournament's place in Charleston is in peril. And those in the Valley have to start taking this and other such events more seriously. As in now.
Look at the MEC. It's about innovation. It was founded on innovation. Meanwhile, Charleston offers the same Cretaceous Era setup for the tournament. One MEC official said off the record the Civic Center box office was a mess for the event. There's no bend-over-backwards feel to the tournament. There's no warmth. Folks don't turn out just to support. And the media from out of town dreads coming because of the poor Internet access (it drops every five minutes) and barren media room.
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, by comparison, hosts the Division II Great American Conference tournament. The city has a "Bartlesville Sports Commission." And that commission "has over 300 volunteers that helps put tournaments on," according to the BSC website. There are volunteers at tournament box offices. There are volunteers in the media room. Meanwhile, in Charleston, the MEC has to pay for such help.
What's sad is, Charleston has by far the best locale for such a tournament in West Virginia. Parking isn't a problem. The mall is across the street. Hotels are right by the Civic Center.
What's missing is concerted, overwhelming support. How about offering some free parking? How about making folks feel welcome with signs around the city? How about businesses and hotels offering specials with tickets? Heck, how about helping sell tickets?
Thankfully for the Valley, Amos is a glass-half-full guy. But promises need to be kept. Help needs to be given. Otherwise, this tournament is headed north. Bank on it.
"What we do is see who is interested [in hosting the tournament]," Amos said. "If there's interest expressed then we follow up with bidders. In Charleston there are areas for improvement, but we've made strides. Look at our work with West Virginia Radio-MetroNews. They have promoted us tremendously. It's not just the coverage of the games, but their ability to create a buzz. Combine that with the great relationship with the Gazette-Mail. There's a beat writer in Derek Redd. When people consistently see our product it's easier to follow and it helps. There are a lot of positives going on, although there are other areas where improvements can help entice people. I look at those as opportunities."
That's a nice guy, folks. But understand, too, he sees the support given to Wheeling teams and knows the Wesbanco Arena there would love to host the tournament.
"When we take a look at this," Amos said, "I think a fair comparison is how we stack up against the other 23 Division II conferences across the country. Where do we rank? I think we'll be in the upper end, without question, in attendance.
"I understand that, compared to the old days, television is much different. If there was a second game televised back then after Duke-North Carolina we were really excited. Now we can choose from nine or 10 and not leave our couch. It's completely different dynamic that we fight in small college.
"Still, I think there's a lot of room for continued growth. The product we put on the court in the semifinals, the great games, is something to see. If we can get folks out once to see it, they'll come back."
Maybe those in the Valley will heed the warnings. Maybe more fans will get out to see that product.
So maybe, just maybe, the MEC will continue to come back.