I thought the Alerus was a great overall venue for the State B. I understand some of the complaints, but many of them can be fixed.
But I'm talking about more than just the actual basketball court and seats. Having a big connected complex like the Alerus with a hotel, water park, five restaurants (that I counted), a couple bars, and an arcade was really great.
I think when you judge a venue you have to judge more than just the game experience itself. Of course that's important, and I hope they improve on that the next time they host it. But there's only so much they can do with portable bleachers and such. You also have to take into account the other things the venue has to offer, for what to do between games, or during games you may not care about watching.
The Alerus was excellent in those regards, and I couldn't help but thinking that the Alerus is the venue the Fargodome wishes it was (and I'm from Fargo!).
Sportsrube wrote:And yes, I know the networks bid on the tournaments, but broadcasting in HD should be a prerequisite to making a bid.
I don't think any North Dakota affiliates have a truck that will allow them to broadcast live events in HD. Heck, Fargo just got their first network (WDAY) broadcasting local news in HD about a month ago, and that's from a studio! If KVLY isn't even doing their studio newscast in HD, no way they'll be doing sporting events in HD anytime soon.