Why the SEC Women’s Tournament Belongs in Greenville — And Why the Complaints Don’t Change That
Every March, as the SEC’s best women’s basketball teams descend on Greenville, South Carolina, a familiar subplot plays out alongside the basketball: coaches venting about the tournament itself. This year was no different — but the complaints, examined honestly, reveal more about the complainers than the competition.
The Coaches Who’d Rather Stay Home
Kentucky’s Kenny Brooks was refreshingly candid: “It’s brutal, it really is. I love the SEC Tournament, but it is hard, it really is. If you gave me a truth serum pill, I might say something different.”
Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin went further: “I wish we didn’t have the conference tournament. Because all we do in the SEC is beat each other up. If you look at the history of our league, we always have four to five to six teams in the Sweet 16.” That observation has merit. The SEC is so deep that teams genuinely damage each other’s NCAA Tournament preparation in Greenville every year.
Then there’s Texas coach Vic Schaefer, who complained that Greenville is too far for his fans: “I’d love to see it go to some different cities. It’s not really that big of a feat if you have it in your backyard every year.”
Context, however, is everything with Schaefer. His grievance list this season alone includes complaints about tip-off times being too early and too late, a “vendetta” against Texas, soft players, and a sacrificed relationship with his assistant-coach daughter. His SEC Tournament grievances across two seasons span coin flips, daylight saving time, scheduling preferences, and consecutive-day turnarounds. His only SEC Tournament title, notably, came in Greenville.
LSU’s Kim Mulkey offered the most grounded perspective — and the most direct rebuke of her peers: “South Carolina and Greenville, they have invested in that, and they keep bidding on it. I would think that competitors want it in other places closer to their fans, but, hey, get off your rump and bid on it.” She added: “How can you say anything negative if nobody else is going to bid on it and nobody else is going to step up and try to compete for it?”
That is the entire argument, distilled into two sentences.
What the Numbers Say
Greenville earned its place through results, not sentiment. After years of the tournament rotating through cities where total attendance barely cracked 30,000 across entire weekends, Bon Secours Wellness Arena hosted its audition in 2017 and drew 34,322 fans. The partnership has grown exponentially since. The 2023 tournament set an attendance record at 57,801. That record fell in 2024. It fell again in 2025, reaching 71,910.
In just three years, the tournament drew 194,616 total fans. During the six-year rotation era from 2013 to 2018, total attendance across all cities combined was 185,807. The math is unambiguous.
The economic impact mirrors the attendance story. In 2025, Greenville reported $12.4 million in direct spending, a $19.5 million total economic impact, and nearly 4,000 jobs supported — figures that dwarf the $5.6 million in direct spending generated by the 2022 NCAA Men’s Tournament in the same city. Local governments are now finalizing approximately $282 million in arena complex renovations, including $193 million for Bon Secours itself. That is a city betting heavily on this partnership continuing.
Where Else Could It Go?
The honest answer is: not many places. Applying reasonable criteria — SEC geographic footprint, minimum 12,000-seat neutral venue, hosting infrastructure, and realistic attendance potential — the field narrows quickly. Nashville hosts the men’s tournament. Kansas City is committed to the Big 12 through 2031. Jacksonville’s arena was inadequate a decade ago. Tampa and St. Louis hosted the men’s tournament and were widely criticized. Charlotte leans ACC.
What remains is a short list: Birmingham, Memphis, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City — and Greenville. Fort Worth and Oklahoma City are viable for occasional appearances but are logistically prohibitive for most of the conference’s fanbase. Memphis has the arena but little SEC cultural connection. Birmingham, renovated and centrally located, is the most credible alternative — but has never hosted either SEC tournament despite decades of opportunity.
The deeper structural reality is this: SEC women’s basketball attendance has been driven, almost entirely, by two programs — Tennessee and South Carolina. Since 1995, those two programs have led the nation in attendance every season but two. Greenville sits roughly three hours from Knoxville and under two hours from Columbia. Any city that wants to replicate Greenville’s numbers must first answer one question: how are Lady Vol and Gamecock fans getting there?
No city on the alternatives list answers that question as convincingly as Greenville already does.
The Bottom Line
The complaints are real, the frustration is understandable, and the idea of rotating the tournament deserves honest consideration. But the evidence points in one direction. Greenville didn’t inherit this tournament — it earned it, grew it, and invested in it while other cities opted out. As Mulkey said, you don’t get to complain about the location if you haven’t tried to change it. Until a genuine competitor emerges, Greenville remains not just the default answer — but the right one.
