By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Civic Arena missed out on hosting the MIAA basketball championships to Kansas City’s Municipal Arena, but another conference cashed in on using the venue in the future.
The Great Lakes Valley Conference chose a bid from the St. Joseph Sports Commission to host its men’s and women's basketball tournaments in downtown St. Joseph, starting in 2027.
Executive Director Brett Esely says his office put together a bid for the tournament during the spring after speaking with the GLVC's commissioner
"Worked through some things with upper administration of that league over the summer, and then in the month of September about three weeks ago, we had an opportunity to make a final pitch to the university's athletics directors and the upper administration of that league and felt very good about it walking away,” Esely tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “And we got a very good, exciting phone call about 10 days ago from the conference commissioner expressing tremendous interest in St. Joe.”
The tournaments had previously been hosted at Lindenwood, a former GLVC member, but were looking for a new home after their university moved to Division One.
Esely says it's been a quest to get an annual March Madness event inside the Civic Arena
"We are very fortunate and thankful for the confidence that the administration and the athletic directors from the Great Lakes Valley Conference have put in us and given us the opportunity to host what is one of the marquee championships in their league,” Esely explains. “And certainly, look forward to the opportunity and we hope the community of St. Joseph and the surrounding area is excited and takes the opportunity to engage as well.”
The GLVC Tournament this year will take place in St. Louis. Civic Arena will first host the tournament March 4th-7th, 2027
With a year still to plan for the tournament, Esely says a big part of these championships will be community engagement.
Esely says much like with the Women's Elite Eight, he'd like to get young people in the building, with relationships with surrounding school districts
"Not only trying to get young people exposed to a high level of college basketball and a championship experience, but the beauty of Division II with engagement, and have had some opportunities outside the arena with those teams engaging with our young people here in our community,” Esely says. “And we envision something very similar with this particular championship, and almost kind of an adopted fan base maybe for the week they’re here.”
Esely says also he hopes the city gets invested in the opportunity to see championship basketball in March in the community, which should not be taken for granted.
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