MEAC Tourney Hopes to Do Better in Raleigh

At its peak in Richmond, the MEAC tournament drew about 42,000 fans and had a $3 million to $4 million economic impact.

Raleigh officials are predicting that the 2006 MEAC tournament will draw 50,000 fans and have a $2.5 million economic impact on the area. Both figures have been scaled back since Raleigh announced in June that it would host the MEAC.

Back then, the city based its predictions on information gathered by Richmond officials. Raleigh likes to take a more conservative approach to attendance and economic impact forecasting, Dupree said.

"We feel pretty confident that Raleigh is the place where the MEAC is going to come into its own," Mayor Charles Meeker said.

When the CIAA tournament moved to Raleigh in 2000, its largest audience had been the 42,111 it drew a year earlier in Winston-Salem. By the time the tournament left Raleigh, overall attendance had jumped to 110,028. In its final year in Raleigh, the CIAA had a $12 million economic impact.

As Raleigh and Wake County look to the CIAA to predict the MEAC's trajectory, there are obstacles. The Triangle has no MEAC schools, but it has three from the CIAA. The MEAC is only 36 years old, and all but one of its schools are former members of the CIAA.

As a result, the MEAC shares at least a part of its likely market with the CIAA. And the 2006 MEAC tournament is sandwiched between the more popular CIAA event in Charlotte and the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Greensboro.

"This year will be the feel-out year for the league, for fans, for the city," Casper said. "It seems to me that Raleigh is a place where the MEAC [tournament] could move to that next level, but there are certainly going to be some challenges."

The MEAC also faces some challenges with its own roughly 320,000 students and alumni.

The official host school for this year's tournament is N.C. A&T State University in Greensboro, the state's only MEAC school. And the conference is not known widely for basketball. Home football games tend to draw larger crowds than basketball at most MEAC schools.

Other changes also have Thomas "realistically confident" that the MEAC will come into its own in Raleigh. N.C. Central University, currently in the CIAA, has indicated it would like to join the MEAC. Winston-Salem State University, another CIAA school, will join the MEAC next year.