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Toliver...Holy Cow!
Joined: 15 Dec 2006
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 Posted: 09/25/07 7:25 pm ::: |
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The men's tournament has had issues with 1st and 2nd round attendance at times.
And how can we expect many women's tournament games to get great crowds when probably 80% of the teams in the tournament can't fill their home arenas to 50% capacity?
As an example, Duke has had great success in recent years, but really never drew consistently big crowds for its home games. Rutgers attendance stinks. Does Stanford draw anything? Why should it change for the tournament, especially when they are playing at a neutral site?
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Thrillrider08
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
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Location: Indianapolis, IN
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| Posted: 09/25/07 7:36 pm ::: |
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| Toliver...Holy Cow! wrote: |
The men's tournament has had issues with 1st and 2nd round attendance at times.
And how can we expect many women's tournament games to get great crowds when probably 80% of the teams in the tournament can't fill their home arenas to 50% capacity?
As an example, Duke has had great success in recent years, but really never drew consistently big crowds for its home games. Rutgers attendance stinks. Does Stanford draw anything? Why should it change for the tournament, especially when they are playing at a neutral site? |
Everytime I've seen a Duke game their arena is packed. Really the only teams that draw really well are Tenn., UCONN, Maryland and a few others. |
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Toliver...Holy Cow!
Joined: 15 Dec 2006
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| Posted: 09/25/07 8:38 pm ::: |
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Duke's arena holds roughly 9,000 people, so it shouldn't be that hard to fill- or at least give that appearance. However, I don't think Duke has averaged much past half of that most years. The best couple years, they might've been around 5500-6000. And that is despite a stretch of very good seasons.
As much as some of us love it, women's basketball is a tough sell in most markets.
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CamrnCrz1974
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
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Location: Phoenix
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| Posted: 09/25/07 8:41 pm ::: |
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| Toliver...Holy Cow! wrote: |
Duke's arena holds roughly 9,000 people, so it shouldn't be that hard to fill- or at least give that appearance. However, I don't think Duke has averaged much past half of that most years. The best couple years, they might've been around 5500-6000. And that is despite a stretch of very good seasons.
As much as some of us love it, women's basketball is a tough sell in most markets. |
Averaging between 5900 and 6300 in three out of the last four years.
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beknighted
Joined: 11 Nov 2004
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Location: Lost in D.C.
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| Posted: 09/25/07 10:10 pm ::: |
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| Toliver...Holy Cow! wrote: |
| Rutgers attendance stinks. |
I guess it depends what you mean by "stinks." Last year, RU drew an average of 3,650 a game, which is much better than the average women's program, and the team brought a lot of fans to the 1st round games in Trenton and the regionals in Philadelphia in 2005 and 2006.
For good home games, RU draws pretty well - 6,100 for Duke, 5,200 for Michigan State, and 7,400 for UConn last year. The Scarlet Knights even had close to 4,000 for a game against lowly Cincinnati. Keep in mind that the RAC only holds about 8,000 people (even fewer than Cameron), so there's no chance to draw a crowd like you can get at TBA or the Comcast Center.
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Grumps
Joined: 22 Sep 2004
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Toliver...Holy Cow!
Joined: 15 Dec 2006
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| Posted: 09/26/07 7:33 am ::: |
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| I saw that Duke-Rutgers game and thought that there might have been 3,000 people there. That 6100 seems padded, but it doesn't really matter.
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beknighted
Joined: 11 Nov 2004
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| Posted: 09/26/07 7:56 am ::: |
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| Toliver...Holy Cow! wrote: |
| I saw that Duke-Rutgers game and thought that there might have been 3,000 people there. That 6100 seems padded, but it doesn't really matter. |
Well, half the crowd probably left at halftime . . .
RU doesn't have luxury boxes that require you to purchase tickets for everything, so the attendance pretty much matches up with real ticket sales.
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Toliver...Holy Cow!
Joined: 15 Dec 2006
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| Posted: 09/26/07 6:54 pm ::: |
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| Fair enough...I didn't mean to digress.
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umbeta1455
Joined: 18 Apr 2005
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Location: Maine
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| Posted: 09/27/07 8:59 am ::: |
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| ucdt3 wrote: |
I have said this over and over to friends.....
The women's tourney should be incorporated with the men's if it wants to do the pre-determined site thing.....take the 8 Best markets (i.e. - NY (City), IN, NC, LA, Chi(IL), Bos(MA), Atl(GA), and Hou(TX)) for both the men and women and stick them together (alternating days) and keep playing the 1st and 2nd Rd's at the SAME 8 sites EVERY year....then do the same for the 4 Sweet 16 sites (keep them at the same 4 venues (NYC, LA, Ind, and Hou) EVERY year) and then keep rotating the Final 4 like it is NOW but have the MEN and WOMEN's Final 4 in the same city and the same venue!!!!! |
I like this idea but what about doing this idea up to a certain point like the elite 8 or final 4 and having the men and women seperate for the bigger games where attendance isn't as hard to come by??
I could see a chance of this working for the first 2 rounds.
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Michael
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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| Posted: 09/27/07 9:17 am ::: |
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| umbeta1455 wrote: |
| ucdt3 wrote: |
I have said this over and over to friends.....
The women's tourney should be incorporated with the men's if it wants to do the pre-determined site thing.....take the 8 Best markets (i.e. - NY (City), IN, NC, LA, Chi(IL), Bos(MA), Atl(GA), and Hou(TX)) for both the men and women and stick them together (alternating days) and keep playing the 1st and 2nd Rd's at the SAME 8 sites EVERY year....then do the same for the 4 Sweet 16 sites (keep them at the same 4 venues (NYC, LA, Ind, and Hou) EVERY year) and then keep rotating the Final 4 like it is NOW but have the MEN and WOMEN's Final 4 in the same city and the same venue!!!!! |
I like this idea but what about doing this idea up to a certain point like the elite 8 or final 4 and having the men and women seperate for the bigger games where attendance isn't as hard to come by??
I could see a chance of this working for the first 2 rounds. |
I still prefer where the top 16 seeds host. Going to predetermined sites takes it from earning hosting to buying it. Fixed sites would be a nightmare for travel and for the women's games would hurt attendance as few programs have fans that travel well. The only way the women's tournament draws decently is hosting on campus where the home team plays. Why not go back to the system that worked for everyone but ESPN? It cannot be that hard to get organized in a week for TV broadcasts, especially since you can pretty much pick 10-12 of the top seeds even before they are announced.
Michael R.
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Michael
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Thrillrider08
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
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Location: Indianapolis, IN
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| Posted: 09/27/07 5:57 pm ::: |
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| I agree, I think the Top 16 seeds should get to host until the Sweet 16. It's a way of giving them a reward for playing so well all season. Although teams in small arenas should play in a off court arena (close by) that can hold more people. |
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beknighted
Joined: 11 Nov 2004
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Location: Lost in D.C.
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| Posted: 09/27/07 10:07 pm ::: |
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| Toliver...Holy Cow! wrote: |
| Fair enough...I didn't mean to digress. |
No problem. I'm hoping for pretty good attendance for the Maryland game (although I probably won't be there - I usually only get to NJ for one game a year).
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PRballer
Joined: 18 Apr 2007
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| Posted: 09/28/07 11:46 am ::: |
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| I'm still curious to hear Voepel's reaction to this. Is anyone surprised she hasn't written about it - or is she just concentrating on U.S. National Team/Chile?
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Toliver...Holy Cow!
Joined: 15 Dec 2006
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| Posted: 09/30/07 12:50 pm ::: |
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Not a fan of Voepel. She is manipulated by the coaches she is close to.
I'm awaiting the next generation of media who give everyone a fair approach.
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PRballer
Joined: 18 Apr 2007
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| Posted: 09/30/07 1:26 pm ::: |
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Interesting. Can you elaborate on that? She seems to write positively of most coaches in her "editorial" columns. Of course, she has had to report on a number of serious incidents, such as the Portland mess at Penn State, Patterson's patterns of abuse at K State...and there are countless others.
Just curious about your statement that she's manipulated. Do you feel like she's not a fan of Brenda?
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