The Pac-12 Basketball Tournament Maybe Moving From Los Angeles

The Pac-12 basketball tournament has been in Los Angeles ever since the conference tournament was reestablished in 2002 after a 12-year hiatus. The concern about the conference tournament is the lack of fans in attendance for the early rounds and the attendance for last year's title game between Washington and Arizona was the lowest since 2002. 

Commissioner Larry Scott is opening up the possibility of moving the conference tournament out of Los Angeles:

Scott is rethinking the tournament and said he's strongly considering moving it out of Los Angeles. The Pac-12 accepted formal proposals to host the event up until its deadline Friday, with Salt Lake City's EnergySolutions Arena and Seattle's KeyArena reportedly being a couple of the potential sites.

Scott declined to name the cities that sent in proposals and said the conference had yet to rule out different models for the event, including using rotating sites annually and holding games on campus. (The Pac-12 football championship game will be held at campus sites.)

"I really want a strong collegiate atmosphere around the basketball tournament," said Scott, who hopes to make a decision by this fall. "I don't want it to feel overly corporate. I want it to be well-attended and well-supported and there to be great buzz around the event."

Playing the conference title game on the home campus is probably not going to happen, but I could see the play-in games being played on a home campus for the higher seeds to make sure the game is attended well. Outside of those games it would hard to imagine a major conference like the Pac-12 hosting quarterfinal games and beyond on campus sites. 

With Scott's early track record as commissioner odds are good he will make the best decision regarding the Pac-12 basketball tournament.