The Big East Conference officially announced a two-year extension to keep the Big East women's basketball tournament at the XL Center in Hartford at a press conference on Tuesday.

After holding the event exclusively at campus sites for the first 21 years, the tournament was moved to the XL Center in 2004.

The first year the event was in Hartford, it drew a record 10,322 fans per session. Attendance has dropped in each of the last three years but still the average attendance of 8,825 is more than twice the number of fans who attended the tournament in 2003, the last time it was not held in Hartford.

Predictably, there are some Big East coaches who don't like the idea of playing the tournament on one of UConn's home courts. Louisville's Jeff Walz made his opinion on the matter known after losing to UConn in the 2009 Big East final. Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw is another coach who has gone on the record stating her preference to play the tournament elsewhere. Mohegan Sun Arena has been touted as an alternative, although a move there would do little to appease the coaches who believe UConn should not have a home-court advantage in the conference's postseason tournament.

By signing a two-year extension instead of a longer deal, the Big East is giving other facilities a chance to make a push to secure the rights to the tournament.
The two-year deal will expire after the 2012-13 event.