NIC excited to host Region 18 tourney

North Idaho College athletic director Al Williams doesn’t mind the increased workload.

For the first time in nine years, NIC will host the Region 18 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, courtesy of the women’s team winning the Scenic West Athletic Conference championship.

That means six men’s teams (Salt Lake is ineligible), seven women’s teams, their fans and numerous four-year college coaches will converge at Christianson Gym next week. The teams will try to earn berths to the national tournament. The four-year coaches will be focused on recruiting. Williams will be trying to make sure the tournaments run smoothly and NIC doesn’t take a financial bath.

The SWAC requires a $25,000 guarantee from the host school. NIC should recoup most or all of that if ticket sales go well.

Sales of souvenirs (T-shirts, etc.) also go toward that $25,000 tab. NIC keeps the money from concessions, which figures to bring in $3,000-$5,000, and programs sales.

If there’s a surplus after $25,000, the money is used to fund the championship teams’ travel expenses for nationals, Williams said.

“In a gym our size, it’s tough, unless people buy tournament passes,” Williams said. “If we sell 1,000 tournament passes, that’s roughly $20,000. Realistically, if we were able to sell 850 tournament passes and then sell a lot of individual sessions, we’d probably be OK.”

NIC seats 1,700, split evenly between the lower section of wooden bleachers and the upper section with seat-backs. College of Southern Idaho, with the top-seeded men’s team and No. 2 women, usually travels well and could bring as many as 400 fans.

Williams said NIC will probably come out ahead financially because the Cardinals won’t incur regional travel expenses. That can amount to $10,000 or so, depending on the tournament site.

“Having the tournament here is a tremendous boost for my budget because we save on travel and hotels for our teams for as long as five days,” he said.

Aside from that, Williams said bringing the tournaments to Coeur d’Alene gives NIC a home-court advantage and brings outside money to area businesses.

“Friday night should be rockin’ (when NIC’s teams make their tournament debuts),” Williams said. “Tell people to buy those tournament passes – and eat a lot.”