Burnishing image of the Asheville Civic Center part of city’s plan to bid for Southern Conference basketball tournament

The city of Asheville is preparing to launch a public relations campaign to burnish the image of the Asheville Civic Center as part of the city’s plan to make a bid to host the Southern Conference basketball tournament. The Asheville Citizen-Times‘ Keith Jarrett has covered the city’s desire to land the tournament, which once brought a great taste of March Madness to the streets of Ashvegas. Hordes of face-painted fans roamed the streets during the big weekend, and the excitement was palpable because the winner of the tournament received an automatic bid to The Big Dance. 

From one of Jarrett’s recent stories which details a proposal to create a local sports commission to lure more events to Asheville:

The proposal also mentions future possibilities like the Southern Conference basketball tournament, which had a successful run here from 1984-95 when the men’s tourney was conducted at the Asheville Civic Center.

According to the proposal, the SoCon tourney — which now includes women and totals 23 teams playing over five days — produces $3 million annually for the host city.

The city of Asheville plans to submit a bid to host the SoCon tourney from 2012-14. The proposal stated that three-year event would produce nearly $700,000 in tax revenue.

So here’s the deal: the city will launch a public relations campaign to brush up the image of the Civic Center, which hasn’t had the greatest reputation over the years (can anyone say “leaky roof?). Then the city will apply to the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority for money to make significant structural improvements that Southern Conference officials say must be made before they’ll bring their tourney back to Asheville. The cost of those improvements is some $3 million, according to Jarrett’s reporting.

Once that’s all done, the city make its bid. We’ll be watching.