MISSOULA — The Big Sky basketball tournament is moving from the Biggest Little City in the World.
After three years of hosting its first neutral site men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Reno, Nevada, the Big Sky Conference will announce on Monday that the tournament is moving to Boise, Idaho.
Sources from five different Big Sky member schools confirmed the move to Skyline Sports, which take place for the post season of in the 2018-19 campaign. The contract for the tournament is expected to be three years long.
Sources with direct knowledge of the move confirmed the tournament will be hosted at CenturyLink Arena in Boise.
The Big Sky issued a press release on Tuesday indicating a press conference featuring commissioner Andrea Williams and “other guests” to announce the site of the 2019-21 Big Sky Conference men’s and women’s basketball championships. Sources confirm the press conference will be broadcast from the CenturyLink Arena. The live stream can be watched at WatchBigSky.com & Pluto TV Channel 231. It begins at 2 p.m. MST.
Big Sky Conference commissioner Andrea Williams/by Brooks Nuanez
Century Link Arena holds 5,300 spectators for basketball games. The multi-purpose area can host ice hockey, boxing, concerts and basketball tournaments. It opened in 1997 and was built for $50 million. The arena has been the home venue for the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL since 1997, the Boise Stallions of the Indoor Professional Football League in 2000 and 2001, the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League from 2005 until 2016 and the Boise Burn of the af2 (Arena football) from 2007 to 2009.
The venue has hosted the CBA All-Star game when the Stampede was still in the Continental Basketball Association. CenturyLink has also hosted the ECHL All-Star game. Other events hosted in the facility include concerts, trade shows, conventions, ice shows and various other sporting events, including professional wrestling, MMA, and roller derby squad. The Grove Hotel has 36,000 square feet of meeting and convention space in addition to the 22,247 square feet of arena floor space at the CenturyLink Arena.
The arena features 39 corporate suites, 1,100 Club Premiere seats and standing room space for 200 people, The arena is physically connected to the Grove Hotel at the corner of Front Street & Capitol Boulevard in Boise. The main entrance to the arena is from the Grove Plaza.
From 1976 until 2014, the winner of the Big Sky’s regular season championships — the Big Sky began hosting women’s basketball tournaments in 1989 — hosted the respective tournament. In 2015, the Big Sky relocated the men’s and women’s tournaments to the Reno Special Events Center.
The “Olympic village feel” of having all 24 teams — 12 women’s, 12 men’s — staying at a few Reno casinos just a few blocks from the arena received praise from coaches around the league. But attendance has been sparse at best during the marquee games and the arena has been nearly empty during the early games of the tournament.
The Big Sky signed a three-year contract with Reno-Tahoe USA, the tourism group that helps facilitate the event and the agreement with the casinos. The final year of that contract will play out in March in Reno. The North Dakota men and the Montana State women are the reigning respective tournament champions.
Kyle Sample contributed to the reporting of this story. This report will be updated.
