Southern Conference tourney returning to Asheville

Associated Press
June 3, 2010

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) -- The Southern Conference basketball tournament is heading back to Asheville. League officials voted Thursday to award the men's and women's tournaments to the North Carolina mountain city from 2012-14.

The move comes with promises from the city that $3 million in capital improvements will be made to the Asheville Civic Center in time for the 2012 event. Some of the early round women's games will be played at the University of North Carolina Asheville.

The conference's men's tournament was in Asheville from 1984-95. The league decided to return to Asheville, rejecting bids from Charleston, S.C., Charlotte, N.C., Chattanooga, Tenn., Greenville, S.C., and Winston-Salem, N.C. Charlotte hosted the tournament this year. The event will be held in Chattanooga in 2011.