RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Carol Anne]

D.C. Sports Bog
Sold-out Connecticut regional leaves ‘furious’ Maryland fans boxed out

...with Connecticut’s women’s team in the midst of a historic win streak and certain to be playing regional games in Bridgeport, the arena sold out of inventory on March 9, four days before the brackets were even unveiled.

Maryland fans, of course, were not about to buy tickets at four different regional sites in early March, just in case. The school reserves its 100 tickets for family and friends of players and coaches, leaving fans without an option.

And hosting sites do not maintain extra tickets on consignment, just in case the participating teams might want more. Which all means the group of die-hards that follows the Terps around the country is now staring at either heavy markups on the secondary market or skipping the short trip entirely.

As you might imagine, they aren’t thrilled...

http://linkis.com/washingtonpost.com/UquuN

[beknighted]

In the past, the NCAA reserved a good number of seats at regionals for the 4 schools, way more than 100, and they were sold via the school athletic departments. I wonder if they changed the system or if this information is wrong.

[Carol Anne]

[Phil]

[ripleydc]

[Phil]

[BamaEd]

[ripleydc]

Thank you, BamaEd, you get it. But sorry, Phil, you're still missing the point.

Your long rationalization is full of don't knows and speculations. But its all irrelevant.

The bottom line here is that the NCAA, by not reserving a reasonable number of tickets for the teams that earned their way in, have prevented the fans of those 3 teams (whoever they are or might have been) from being in the arena.

What if Tennessee were in Maryland's place? Do you think the Lady Vols fans would be any less upset? NO, I don't think so. And I would agree with them. Any team which has a significant base of fans who are happy to travel (and spend their money to do so) so they may be there to cheer on their team would, I am certain, find this situation just as mind-boggling as the Maryland fans do now.

[b1207]

I'm sure the other two schools are in the same boat as MD (although one would presume their demand for tickets would be far less due to geography). The simple fact is that UCONN gets to play a home schedule all the way to the final four. Not that they need the advantage, but it is an advantage to them none the less. I would prefer to see the eastern regional moved around to other cities - NY, PH, Bstn are all in the NE the last I checked.

[Phil]

There are two separate issues. The first is the shortage of available tickets. That arises because the venue was sold out before the selection committee even did their selections.

I trust no one will disagree that the NCAA thinks a sold out arena is a good thing not a problem that needs solving. One might argue that the NCAA should've been smart enough to foresee this, and reserve more than the 100 allotment on the chance that a team with a drivable base might be assigned there. Someone noted that this has been an NCAA practice, so it is unclear why it did not happen if it has been the practice in the past.

The second issue is who gets to bear the brunt of the problem. In this case it is Maryland which is close enough for a long drive, but it is my contention that Maryland is reaping what it sowed.

Perhaps the selection committee should have considered sending one of the other three seeds, Washington Florida State or Texas to the Bridgeport region, assuming that the allotment of 100 tickets would be enough for those teams. However, the selection committee has a tough enough job juggling all the constraints without adding this as well. As anyone who is trying to fill out a bracket following the constraints knows, moving one team to a different location has ripple effects.

[Phil]

ripleydc

I don't think I've missed the point. Can you tell me which point you think I've missed?

benighted stated that the NCAA used to reserve more than the 100 seats per school. Is it true that they used to and have stopped? If true, it is a reasonable question to ask why they stopped.

Attendance, and general has been a problem for women's basketball. First-rounds often had horrible attendance, which led to the present approach of letting the top four teams host, which I believe has helped. Regionals still generally have challenges which is why the reason Debbie Antonelli is pushing her Las Vegas option. When's the last time a regional sold out? When is the last time a regional sold out before the selections were announced? My guess is never. It may be easy, after the fact, to predict it, but default the NCAA for not considering a possibility that has never happened in history is asking a lot.

[Phil]

[Phil]

[patsweetpat]

[Phil]

Interesting. May be the same answer for Oregon.

I gave away two tickets last night to a charity auction - maybe I should have saved them for Stubhub. I just checked, and tickets in my section are starting at $275.

[ripleydc]

[purduefanatic]

There should definitely be some tickets withheld and set aside for visiting teams and if they aren't sold by a set date, then they are released for purchase by anyone. Just another way in the which the NCAA clearly doesn't really care about anything but the almighty dollar.

[cthskzfn]

I read with interest the suggested conspiracy involving the NCAA, the refs at the UCONN-MARY in CP last Dec., the Bridgeport Regional ticket allotment, and, of course, UCONN itself.

The begged questions are if, when and why were team ticket allotments changed.

100 can obviously be inadequate. Makes no sense to me, because, at Bridgeport at least, unused returned team tix would certainly sell.

_________________
Silly, stupid white people might be waking up.

[buckeyewoman]

Isn't the real issue that UConn fans KNEW they would be in Bridgeport and were able to order tickets (and sell out venue) well before selection day? Other teams had to wait to find out where they were assigned. So why doesn't NCAA not make tickets available until after first/second rounds? Or at least reserve a certain percentage (half?) for sale after first weekend?

_________________
Go Bucks!

[Phil]

I've mention multiple times that the NCAA did not reserve enough tickets, so in what way can you possibly argue that I missed that point?

It has been widely reported that the selection committee was intending to send a message to teams that played poor out of conference schedules. That was obviously directed at Maryland which I assume you know. While the main point was the three seed as opposed to the two seed, it is hardly a stretch to think that the assignment to Bridgeport was part of the thinking. That's hardly a long-winded rationalization, unless you have an exceedingly short attention span.

Not every result has exactly one cause. Just because the NCAA ticket purchase decision contributed does not mean that the selection decision did not also play a role.

I don't know where you live but in New England NE means New England not Northeast. Philadelphia is not New England. I honestly thought it was a typo and you meant New Hampshire.

[ripleydc]

[Phil]

Maryland is the third best team in the country, according to the Massey Ratings.

They are the third best in the Coaches Poll, and 4th best in the AP. If they had actually set up a good out of conference schedule, they might well be the host at a Regional. Maybe they'd be the headliner in Lexington.

I don't see why this point is hard to grasp.

[cthskzfn]

FWIW, I was able to figure out NE meant Northeast, not NE.

_________________
Silly, stupid white people might be waking up.

[Phil]

[Phil]