SWAC basketball tournament expected to bring millions to Garland, area

SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp.

Dignitaries from the Southwestern Athletic Conference, Garland and Richardson officially kicked-off planning for the conference's 2011 basketball tournament Tuesday at the Garland Special Events Center. The conference, which includes 10 historically black colleges including Grambling State University, Prairie View A&M University and Texas Southern University, will hold the tournament at the center for three years.

SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp said he didn't know how much money the tournaments would bring to the area, but said Birmingham, Ala., which has previously hosted the event, realized about $10 million a year. Attendance at last year's tournament in Shreveport, La. was about 15,000 but he expected that to be higher in Garland. Sharp said the Dallas-area was a good fit for the tournament because it has the second-largest alumni base for the 10 universities.

The conference wants to expand and improve the three-day event which includes men's and women's tournaments. It has hired Urban Sports, a marketing firm, to plan and publicize the event. Garland school board member Linda Griffin said she is pleased to see the tournament because of the educational opportunities that are being planned for the event.

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SWAC Basketball Tournaments moving to Dallas Area

Birmingham, AL - The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Council of Presidents and Chancellors voted Tuesday to approve the bid submitted to the league office by The Special Events Center in Garland, Texas to host the SWAC Men's and Women's Basketball Tournament Championships in 2011, 2012, and 2013. The 2011 SWAC Basketball Tournament will be played March 9-12 at the 7,500-seat Special Events Center. The conference office requested bids from as many as 15 cities within the league's five-state footprint.

"We look forward to working with the Special Events Center in Garland over the next three years to develop the SWAC Basketball Tournament into more than just a basketball tournament, but a total entertainment and destination event," SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp said. "The league is thankful to the cities that submitted bids and optimistic about the growing relationship between the league office and the Special Events Center, the Garland Independent School District, the city of Garland, and surrounding cities."

The Dallas metropolitan area is second only to Atlanta in the number of living SWAC alumni, and it is the fifth-largest media market in the United States. Bids from 15 cities from Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas were requested by the SWAC. The tournament is moving from Bossier City, Louisiana, who also submitted a bid, but did not offer the SWAC a free venue or a reduced-cost venue and hotel rooms that the conference was seeking.