Last Tuesday, the Missouri Valley Conference reported that a “historic” decision would be made regarding the future site of the MVC men’s basketball tournament known as Arch Madness.

The tournament has been held in St. Louis since 1991. The city has not been kind to Shocker’s until last year, when the Wichita State finally won the tournament for the first time since 1985 and for the first time in St. Louis.

Doug Elgin, commissioner of the MVC, announced on Wednesday, July 9 at a press conference that the tournament will continue to be held in St. Louis until 2018 with a two-year option to proceed into the years 2019 and 2020.

The decision was “historic” because St. Louis becomes the second-longest neutral site of any other conference tournament, except for the Big East’s tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY.

Now that the Shockers have won the tournament in St. Louis, Athletic Director Eric Sexton said in a statement that the team will prepare to defend its title in the Scottrade Center.

“St. Louis has been an excellent host, and will continue to be, and Wichita State fans enjoy what the city has to offer,” Sexton said.

The Scottrade Center, home of the St. Louis Blues NHL team, holds 22,612 fans.

Kansas City’s Sprint Center and Chicago’s Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates were also strongly considered as future sites for the MVC tournament.

Frank Viverito, President of the St. Louis Sports Commission, challenged the citizens of St. Louis to start taking advantage of the opportunity. The event has produced nearly 300 millions dollars in fan and visitor spending, Viverito said at the press conference.

“Let’s not take it for granted because purely and simply, Arch Madness is big-time college basketball,” Viverito said. “Many other communities would love to host it and the event is worth attending and enjoying every year.”

St. Louis is the most centrally located neutral site to all other MVC schools. Unfortunately, out of the 10 teams in the MVC, WSU fans have the longest drive to St. Louis, which takes close to seven hours.

Many Shocker fans are displaying their displeasure with the announcement on online forum boards and are unhappy with the Valley’s decision to keep the tournament in St. Louis.

One of these fans is 2010 WSU alumnus, J.D. Helms. Helms attended Arch Madness in 2007 and has gone back every year since.

“I thought the most fair thing to do was to have it be some type of rotation between Kansas City, St. Louis and maybe Chicago,” Helms said. “Give all the teams in the conference a little bit of variety, a mixture, because going to St. Louis every year does get kind of old.”

Helms seemed hesitant to decide so soon on whether he will attend Arch Madness in the future.

“I’ve thought about quitting going the last couple years and then I thought I would keep going until (the Shockers) won it,” Helms said. “Now that they’ve won it, I’d rather save my money on something other than the Valley.”

Helms said the combination of a seven-hour road trip and saving money to go to the NCAA tournament were also huge factors.

“The conference was probably afraid that if the tournament was in Kansas City, Wichita State would have 9,000 fans there,” Helms said.

Last year’s MVC tournament turned out to be less of a neutral court and more of a home court advantage for the Shockers. More than 3,000 Shocker fans attended the final day of the tournament. It was a sea of black and yellow with specks of other school’s colors scattered around the arena.