Editor’s Note: This is the first in a three-part series that is a lead-in to the Daily’s Big 12 special section which will be running Monday.

ISU fans who want to see their university participate in the Big 12 men’s or women’s basketball tournament this season will have to travel more than 500 miles farther than they did just one season ago.

The annual tournament will shift from Kansas City, Mo., to Dallas, Texas this season. It will stay there next year, but will return to Kansas City in 2005.

Bo Carter, Big 12 assistant commissioner, said the decision was made in 1999 after discussions on three levels. He said the championships and awards committee first discussed the move. After that, the athletic directors from each Big 12 school were able to voice their opinions and finally the board of directors voted to decide the tournaments’ fate.

He believes the decision to take the tournament to Dallas is a smart move and helps the conference gain more exposure.

“We just wanted to get it exposed to as many people as we could around the Big 12,” Carter said. “Just to give people from all parts of the Big 12 the chance to partake in the activities.”

Laird Veatch, ISU senior associate athletics director, said cities were allowed to make bids to get the chance to host the tournament. He said several sites were considered, including San Antonio, Houston and Oklahoma City.

“They go through a process allowing each city to submit their proposals and they discuss and vote on those as a conference,” Veatch said. “That’s a big political and fiscal battle to earn the right to have those tournaments in your city.”

Carter said the move has many benefits, especially for the schools in the southern division of the Big 12 — Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

“It will give people from the southern areas a chance for easier travel since it’s going to Dallas,” Carter said. “We’re hoping the weather is going to be a little bit warmer too, so if people want to go out and do some outdoor activities, then they can.”

But Carter admitted it wasn’t as easy to sell tickets in the Dallas area.

“We had a tremendous fan base in Kansas City, and you were almost guaranteed to sell out every year,” Carter said.

While the decision may make attendance easier for fans from the Big 12’s southern division schools, longtime Cyclone fan Jon Fleming said it hurts the fans of schools in the northern division. He said it will be much more difficult for ISU fans to make the trip.

“What it does is eliminate those fans, especially the students. It’s almost prohibitive for the students to go down there, because it’s a long, long drive,” said Fleming, an Ames resident.

“Kansas City was nice because you could just hop in your car and be down there in four or five hours. Moving it to Dallas is going to eliminate that flexibility with our fans.”

Veatch said he expects the number of Cyclone fans at the tournament to decline due to the move, but he’s still optimistic about the turnout. The 1,100 tickets allotted to each Big 12 school for both the men’s and women’s tournaments have been sold out at Iowa State.

“I can’t imagine our numbers would be the same as they were in Kansas City, but I think we’ll have a good representation. I really do,” Veatch said. “I think we’ll go down there and see a good group of Cyclone fans, whether they’ll be traveling or alumni from the Dallas area. We have good people, so we expect them to show up.”

Fleming, who has been to every Big 8 and Big 12 basketball tournament since 1980, said money will be a big consideration for many fans. He expects to pay almost $400 more than last season to attend the tournament in Dallas.

“It’s not inexpensive,” Fleming said. “We may be on the top end for fans, but it’s clearly going to be more expensive to go to Dallas because the hotels are more expensive and you’ve got to fly.”

Fleming said the Big 12 focused too much on financial factors when they made their decision. They didn’t consider the fans enough, he said.

“The Big 12 is looking at the bottom line, and that’s the dollars,” Fleming said. “They don’t care about the fans. They would rather have it in Dallas and have money than have fans at the game.”

Carter said monetary factors did not finalize the decision. He said other considerations, especially the exposure of the conference, were the deciding factors.

“Some of it was monetary, but not totally,” Carter said. “We’ve had a policy since the conference started about trying to keep things moving around a little bit. We are of the opinion that this will get more exposure for the conference to have it in different areas. It’s not totally monetary.”

Regardless of how the decision was made, Dallas is lined up to host next season’s tournament as well. Carter said it’s anyone’s guess what city will host the Big 12 basketball tournaments after 2005.

With plans under way for the new Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Veatch said it would be great to see the tournament come this far north.

“Anything’s possible and we’d love to see that happen. We’d do anything we could to assist in that process,” Veatch said. “Having it in Des Moines would be a fabulous thing for our fans and we’d love to see what we could do to make that happen.”

Carter didn’t rule out a future tournament in Des Moines, but said it might be somewhat of a stretch. He said cities like Des Moines, St. Louis and Denver are on the outer boundaries of Big 12 territory.

“The thing about Kansas City and Dallas is that we’ve got a large enough fan base in those two cities to support the tournament,” Carter said. “If you were to move it to either St. Louis or Denver, you’re pushing the envelope a little bit as far as geography goes. The other two have a number of schools within easy driving distance. We’re trying to make it as convenient as we can for a lot of people.”