Why SEC Women’s Basketball Has Found a Home in Greenville

Once the flight landed in Greenville, South Carolina, on a Friday afternoon, a person in first class wearing a Mississippi State polo shirt walked off the plane, followed a few rows back by a man in a purple LSU Tigers shirt.

In a downtown hotel lobby, a mother with her daughter — both wearing Vanderbilt gear — waited to check in at the front desk.

The next morning, at breakfast by the Falls River, the nearby walking paths were full of dog walkers, including a jogger dressed from head to toe in Florida gear, right down to the orange and blue shoes.

In the revitalized downtown filled with local shopping and restaurants — national chains tolerated but not encouraged, the locals buy local here — light post banners of all 16 SEC teams complemented the fabric stickers on the sidewalks with those teams and their mottos.

Greenville sits in South Carolina’s Upstate region, close to Clemson University. But for one week in March, the orange and purple is taken over by the various colors of the Southeastern Conference — mostly Garnet, which we’ll get to in a minute. Home of the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament nine times, more than any other city, Greenville will continue to host the SEC through 2028 at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

“Our community has really bought in,” VisitGreenville Chief Executive Officer Heath Dillard said at the beginning of Saturday night’s semifinals. “We feel like we’ve played a role, even if it’s a small role, in the rise of women’s sports and women basketball in particular. The SEC feels that when they come to our community, they take ownership of it. They see the pole banners when they come into our downtown. They see their team decals on our sidewalks. There’s really this wide open sense of welcome and belonging that the SEC feels while they’re here.”

Community Activation a Key

Thanks to the addition of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC, VisitGreenville projected this year’s tournament could have an estimated economic impact of $18 million. If that projection holds, it would mark the biggest single economic event in Greenville history for the second consecutive year.

One sign of how serious Greenville takes its partnership with the SEC; Bon Secours Wellness Arena’s main winter tenant is the ECHL’s wonderfully named Greenville Swamp Rabbits, its logo signifying an intense rabbit using a carrot as a hockey stick. But for the SEC to have an optimum playing experience, the Swamp Rabbits go on a two-week road trip and the arena melts the ice surface to ensure no chance of condensation rising to the court as sometimes is the case with other multi-purpose arenas. The day after the SEC title game, the arena begins the process of remaking the ice surface.

Outside the arena, a full fan fest area includes various activations for sponsors, Pop-a-Shot for kids and an SEC logo screen where fans could pose for photos with their favorite school’s logo. Within the arena’s concourses were multiple kiosks for merchandise, a spot where fans could take a photo with the championship trophy and plenty of food whether it be BBQ, pizza or chicken.

Aside from the clear South Carolina leaning within the fan bases, there was a significant number of fans from LSU, Texas and Tennessee, whose fans can be praised for staying in town throughout the tournament and taking in every game wearing their Vols shirts even after the team lost in Thursday’s action. Kayla Adams, national sports sales manager for VisitGreenville, said her city’s location is key to the SEC tournament’s success.

“It makes it fun to see so many South Carolina fans make that hour-and-15-minute drive from Columbia to Greenville to support their team,” she said. “Not only them, we have people hopping on flights from Louisiana and Texas, driving in from Knoxville and it’s just  special how fans travel for their schools.”

The South Carolina contingent, within the rest of the SEC, was a storyline from visiting media. Each coach that the Gamecocks beat was asked about the atmosphere.

Texas coach Vic Schaefer, after his team lost 64-45 to South Carolina in the final, said “it’s a road game. It is what it is.” But he also took time to praise the city for its hospitality.

“The reason we keep coming back here is Greenville just does a tremendous job,” he said. “This arena does a tremendous job. Until you can find another place that does the job that Greenville does, I think that’s why we keep coming back here.”

For her part, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley admitted the virtual home-court advantage. Yet, like Schaefer, she said the main reason the SEC is in Greenville is because of what is available to teams and fans beyond basketball.

“This location is great,” Staley said. “It’s a great city. There’s so much to do. There’s so much architecture. There’s so many great restaurants. There’s so many walking paths. There’s so much to do.”

Big-Time Events

Semifinals Saturday had the type of weather a tourism bureau dreams of with temperatures in the low 70s, little humidity and sunshine. Various downtown restaurants had outside seating, giving those who walked around the area a virtual tasting menu of smells from what could be one of the country’s most underrated food cities (check out our Instagram story from the trip for some recommendations).

The downtown area was even more alive on Saturday afternoon thanks to VisitGreenville’s Downtown Dribble community event. A free event for kids ages 5–14, the nearly 800 slots were reserved within 48 hours as each participant dribbled from NOMA Square to Bon Secours Arena ahead of the South Carolina vs. Oklahoma game. Each participant got a free basketball, T-shirt and a ticket to the first semifinal, leading to a nearly packed house.

“It’s the dream situation,” said Adams, who credited VisitGreenville’s Destination Experiences team of Gladys Sosa Jones and Michelle Guevara for organizing the event. “You have this awesome competitive basketball tournament, but you also are involving the residents of the very community that we live in. And when you can have everyone be a part of the tournament in that way, it just makes it so much more special, because it’s not just the basketball tournament. It’s engaging the community. It’s inspiring the youth to get active and play basketball and you have young girls that are participating in the Downtown Dribble and like, ‘Wow, I’m doing this, then I’m going to see women’s collegiate basketball at the highest level.”

In a city of just over 70,000 people, over the past six years, VisitGreenville’s sports tourism has generated a total economic impact in excess of $87 million. In spring 2022, Greenville hosted the Bassmaster Classic, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and the SEC Women’s Basketball Championships all within about four weeks.

Bon Secours Wellness Arena was one of two regional hosts during the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament and it will host early round NCAA men’s action. The Greenville Convention Center will be the site of the 2028 U.S. Bowling Congress Open Championships and Fluor Field, home of Boston Red Sox Class A-affiliate Greenville Drive, hosted a two-week college baseball event over SEC weekend and routinely sells out Drive games plus hosting Southern Conference baseball.

“We’ve built a reputation for doing big events really well,” said Dillard, rattling off past events. “We’ve hosted four Bassmaster championships. We’ll host more in the future. We landed (USBC bowling), which will be the biggest event we’ve ever hosted. This community’s decided it’s going to do big events and it’s going to do them with excellence.”