We can post about the Big XII tournament here. Conference teams include Baylor, Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A& M, and Texas Tech.

This is the first time the men's and women's tournaments have been held outside of Dallas or Kansas City. Here in OKC, the banners are up, the skybridges are wrapped with huge welcome signs, and people are starting to roll into town for the action. More tickets have been sold than ever before for the Women's tournament.

All 6 of Oklahoma City's downtown hotels (half of which have opened within the last 4 months) are booked solid. The ones that are still u/c must be feeling sorry.

The Cox Center Arena for the Women's Tournament and the Ford Center for the Men's are only "58 steps" apart. ("58 Steps" is the theme of the event, and they also have signage noting how many steps to other DT OKC attractions)

200,000 visitors expected from Tuesday to Saturday.

$40 million impact on economy.

Restaurants are doubling staffs and preparing "quick food menus." With other concerts and festivals this month, it could be a record for Bricktown business.

More pictures etc to come.

I love going to the Big 12 tourney whenever it's in KC. Looking forward to next March when it comes to the Sprint Center.

If only two places have ever hosted this tournament it's nice to see another city host it. Good for OKC. And also go Cyclones.

What team will you be rooting for, Shane?

Hm... I'm from an OSU family but I'll be an OU student this fall... One of those two... ;)

KU has a pretty good chance to win the tourney but I'll be rooting for the Cowboys!:)

Go Tech!http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n72/RaiderAficionado/TrickysMB/Emoticons/GunsUp.gif

I haven't seen SRG in a while.

I haven't seen SRG in a while.

He's been hiding out on the KC site for a while.

http://forum.kcrag.com/index.php/topic,11055.160.html

They're actually even more of a social experiment than this site was for me.

But I have been lurking on this site still, just haven't had the time to post anything. I'm actually dealing with a few family tragedies at the moment, but I'll be back around.

I didn't know we had a Stillwater, Oklahoma member on the forum.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t267/kcmetro1/KU_v.jpg

Erm congrats.

Thats great news,
good for OKC! Is this the first event like this its hosted?

Hardly. We've had the PGA a handful of times, the Senior PGA was here last summer at Oak Tree. We host the Big XII baseball and volleyball tournaments in OKC and we also host the lion's share of competitive gymnastics and rowing competitions in this nation.

Then there's also the NBA which will return in OKC soon after this season is over. The event was a success.

Average attendance for the men's was 18,879, higher than EVERY other tournament except 2000 which was 19,100. It was a huge success and I am pretty confident that the Big XII will be returning to OKC at least to share a rotating schedule with Kansas City.

This is because Big XII commish Kevin Weiburg has said he wants to regularity in the tourney but doesn't want ONE site for every year. It will likely rotate between the Big XII South and the Big XII North.

Big XII South: OKC (Dallas wasn't as popular when they hosted it and nothing's changing there)
Big XII North: Kansas City (Omaha isn't viewed as real competition to either OKC or KC for the tourney)

Easy enough to figure out.