The Illinois basketball team might have flamed out of the Big Ten Tournament but there is still some good basketball to watch the rest of the way.
This year, though, many fans couldn’t travel to the game. Why you may ask? Not because of the weather or their work schedule, but because the Big Ten decided to put the tournament in the Big Apple. They moved it to Washington DC last year and now New York holds the prestigious competition.
The two-year east coast trip will be ending after this tournament run, though. The Big Ten Tournament will be back in Chicago in 2019 and 2021 with Indianapolis hosting the postseason tournament in 2020 and 2022. This is probably a good move considering the awful attendance that was drawn last year.
In 2015, the Big Ten Tournament drew 118,496 total fans in the seven sessions. This number took a slight dip in 2016 to 117,051. But, in 2017, attendance plummeted as the venue moved out east. The total attendance ended up being 92,964 that year. The 2018 Big Ten Tournament hasn’t concluded in New York, but it will be interesting to see how those attendance numbers fare.
But, thankfully, the Big Ten Tournament is coming back to the Midwest – for at least four years – where it belongs. Chicago and Indianapolis have been the home to this great postseason shootout and should always remain that way. But, which city is truly the best to host such an event?
John Everette took a pool to see what fans thought about where the Big Ten Tournament should take place. The fans have spoken and it looks like they think Chicago is a better city to host the tournament than Indianapolis.
The @WritingIlliniFS crew will be doing a little B1G bracket challenge starting tomorrow. In the meantime, which is the REAL best city for the B1G basketball tournament?
— Vader Johan (@jobin_theman) February 27, 2018
I love Chicago and think it is an overall better city for things to do. There is something going on all the time in Chicago and that is why I would love to live there. But, for the Big Ten Tournament, I think Indianapolis would be a better spot for that reason.
Indianapolis is an event town and there is really nothing else going on there. They live to host events like this. Without big events, the city of Indianapolis would suffer greatly. If an event leaves Chicago, they can just replace it with something else. That is why I pick Indianapolis.
Next: 5 takeaways from the Illini loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes
But, the fans have spoken. I don’t care which city it is in between Chicago and Indy as long as it comes back to the Midwest.