Maryland WBB Fans Upset About Lack of Bridgeport Tickets

[Charliebball]

Per Raul: Oh to be a Terp fan these days..............apparently Bridgeport seats are sold out and there are a lot of disappointed Maryland fans shutout from seeing their beloved team play

Sold-out Connecticut regional leaves ‘furious’ Maryland fans boxed out

 

[Oldbones]

Per Raul: Oh to be a Terp fan these days....apparently Bridgeport seats are sold out and there are a lot of disappointed Maryland fans shutout from seeing their beloved team play

Sold-out Connecticut regional leaves ‘furious’ Maryland fans boxed out

Wait till they try to get seated at the Barnum Public House.

 

[EricLA]

They have a valid point. Perhaps Hartford should host the regionals instead of Bridgeport - Hartford seats 16,000 while it's only 7,800 in Bridgeport. It hardly seems fair that only 300 total seats were reserved for the other 3 teams in the regional, but the rest of the seats were sold out BEFORE the NCAA even announced the brackets.

 

[sarals24]

Connecticut sells tickets, so that's where they hold the games. WCBB is not yet at the point where completely neutral sites are feasible. If Maryland had not wanted to play UConn in Connecticut, like everyone knew they would have to do if they were in their region, they should have scheduled better and tried to be a one seed. No sympathy from me.

 

[trb123]

Jill Bodensteiner of Notre Dame is on the selection committee.
I believe that she played a key role in scheduling Albany, Syracuse, UCLA and Maryland to play UConn.
The hardest path to the final four.
I have no proof. Just my belief.
The Terp fans should be complaining to her.

 

[Charliebball]

On Stubhub there are:
32 - Two Day tickets
240 - Saturday tickets
400 - Monday tickets

 

[Vowelguy]

The fact that UConn fans knew the team would be in Bridgeport allowed them to purchase tix early, an advantage other schools didn't have. That's unfortunate.

The NCAA should increase the allotment, giving additional tickets in the upper deck to each school. But if still unsold say 3 days in advance, those tix shoukd be turned back to the facility for last minute sales.

That said, I did chuckle at the statement that Maryland typically sold twice its allotment to its fans. Wow, a whole 200 fans bought tickets!

 

[UcMiami]

Everyone talking about using Hartford is wrong - if Hartford bid and won the Regional, they would be assured that Uconn would be in another region as no team can play a regional game on their home court and Hartford is a home court. Hartford used to bid on tournaments but stopped when they went to their current format. Albany and Bridgeport jumped into the breach.
It also comes down to teams - do WCBB teams want to guarantee that they will buy 300 tickets to their regional site without knowing where it will be or if they will make the regional. If they do, then the NCAA will start setting aside 300 tickets for each school. But then schools will have to buy all 300 tickets whether they have 20 fans or 300 that they can sell them on to. Its like bowl games in football - Uconn typically lost a ton of money on the ticket guarantee whenever they got into a bowl game because they could never sell their allotment and had to still pay for the unsold tickets. For Maryland that is not a big deal, but you have to have all D1 schools agree and for Robert Morris for example the price of 300 ticket packages for first round games when they likely only get 100 fans is going to be a largish added expense to being in the tournament. How many fans did Quinnipiac get in Miami and how many will be traveling with the team to Stockton? I suspect it will not be more than 100.

 

[OldAlum]

It seems like no tickets should be sold before the brackets are announced.

 

[Vowelguy]

It seems like no tickets should be sold before the brackets are announced.

No. They count on being able to advertise all year to get fans to buy tickets. There's no way they'd be able to sell as many tickets at the last minute. In Bridgeport perhaps, but nowhere else.
A place like Stockton has surely been marketing "come see some great basketball at a WCBB regional, " thereby giving folks time to make plans, decide to come, tell friends, etc.

 

[Vowelguy]

But then schools will have to buy all 300 tickets whether they have 20 fans or 300 that they can sell them on to. Its like bowl games in football - Uconn typically lost a ton of money on the ticket guarantee whenever they got into a bowl game because they could never sell their allotment and had to still pay for the unsold tickets.

Are you sure about that? That was not my understanding.
If UConn bought up the unsold tickets, I believe it was because it's terrible PR if you don't sell your allotment - it hurts your chances of getting invited to future bowl games.

In regular season college football, the opponent gets a certain number of tickets to sell. If they don't sell them all by a certain date, they can turn them back to the host school who will then offer them to its fans.

 

[UcMiami]

It seems like no tickets should be sold before the brackets are announced.

The NCAA and the various venues are desperate for ticket sales and I don't think they want to do anything to discourage fans from planning and buying tickets. On home courts, the average attendance was below 5,000 for the first two days. Maryland got 3511 on Friday night and 6129 on Sunday which is just under that 5,000 average.
Uconn got 5670 on Sat morning and 8274 on Monday night or an average of about 7000. With a sell out for the regional, the NCAA is guaranteed of 7881 for both days. It is unfortunate that the arena isn't larger because they probably could have sold 300 more to MD fans and another 2000 to Uconn fans if the place held 10,000. That way MD would be guaranteed 400 fans and Uconn should they make the final would have 9,600 - much more balanced.

 

[Huskie78]

On Stubhub there are:
32 - Two Day tickets
240 - Saturday tickets
400 - Monday tickets

^^ Right there! Nothing is ever "sold out". Just gotta know where to look and how badly do you REALLY wanna be there?

 

[UcMiami]

Are you sure about that? That was not my understanding.
If UConn bought up the unsold tickets, I believe it was because it's terrible PR if you don't sell your allotment - it hurts your chances of getting invited to future bowl games.

In regular season college football, the opponent gets a certain number of tickets to sell. If they don't sell them all by a certain date, they can turn them back to the host school who will then offer them to its fans.

There was an article about the Uconn expenses of the Fiesta Bowl ten years ago I think where they spent a ridiculous amount of money on empty seats. Found it.
Report: UConn lost $1.8 million at Fiesta Bowl

14,729 unsold tickets at a cost to the university of $2.9M

I am sure they could and did return the tickets to the bowl organizers in hopes they would sell some of them, but Uconn and whoever they played didn't sell it out so Uconn was left holding the bag.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

There was an article about the Uconn expenses of the Fiesta Bowl ten years ago I think where they spent a ridiculous amount of money on empty seats. Found it.
Report: UConn lost $1.8 million at Fiesta Bowl

14,729 unsold tickets at a cost to the university of $2.9M

I am sure they could and did return the tickets to the bowl organizers in hopes they would sell some of them, but Uconn and whoever they played didn't sell it out so Uconn was left holding the bag.

Without reading the article I would agree with vowel's assumption that it is, indeed, bad PR not to buy up a significant portion of your allotment for a bowl game. Since how many tickets you can sell is a factor in what bowl game you get invited to. A limited factor, to be sure, what with conference commitments and such, but once you get past the "big" games, there is still an attraction to a team that travels well where the bowl has a choice. Many do not, of course.

On the original point, I know it is old history, but never had a problem with Rutgers selling its allotments to most NCAA sites, we had a good women's traveling contingent. I would have thought more than 100 tix, but I could be wrong. Any unused tickets (including 2nd day, if RU was eliminated the 1st day) went back to the arena (although, IIRC, you had an option of keeping them if you wanted to actually attend the game). If not, they were returned and you were reimbursed. Whether that is how they do it now or not, I don't know.

 

[ochoopsfan]

Could a turtle in Maryland make it to Bridgeport by Saturday? Would they take I-95 or go straight to the frigid Atlantic Ocean and swim to LI Sound?
I dont think they would be able to make it either way.

 

[JordyG]

Jill Bodensteiner of Notre Dame is on the selection committee.
I believe that she played a key role in scheduling Albany, Syracuse, UCLA and Maryland to play UConn.
The hardest path to the final four.
I have no proof. Just my belief.
The Terp fans should be complaining to her.

Such nonsense. How quickly people forget. Last year UConn had to go through Robert Morris, Duquesne, Mississippi State, and Texas to reach the FF. Please lets just relax on this toughest draw stuff.

 

[JordyG]

Could a turtle in Maryland make it to Bridgeport by Saturday? Would they take I-95 or go straight to the frigid Atlantic Ocean and swim to LI Sound?
I dont think they would be able to make it either way.

Whether they make it or not Frese is Fried.

 

[01Neaggrad02]

Per Raul: Oh to be a Terp fan these days....apparently Bridgeport seats are sold out and there are a lot of disappointed Maryland fans shutout from seeing their beloved team play

Sold-out Connecticut regional leaves ‘furious’ Maryland fans boxed out

It is not a day with an A or a Y without Maryland fans complaining about something

 

[UcMiami]

Without reading the article I would agree with vowel's assumption that it is, indeed, bad PR not to buy up a significant portion of your allotment for a bowl game. Since how many tickets you can sell is a factor in what bowl game you get invited to. A limited factor, to be sure, what with conference commitments and such, but once you get past the "big" games, there is still an attraction to a team that travels well where the bowl has a choice. Many do not, of course.

On the original point, I know it is old history, but never had a problem with Rutgers selling its allotments to most NCAA sites, we had a good women's traveling contingent. I would have thought more than 100 tix, but I could be wrong. Any unused tickets (including 2nd day, if RU was eliminated the 1st day) went back to the arena (although, IIRC, you had an option of keeping them if you wanted to actually attend the game). If not, they were returned and you were reimbursed. Whether that is how they do it now or not, I don't know.

I am not sure any AD would survive at a public institution if he used $2.9M of taxpayer money to buy tickets for a bowl game just to make the school 'look more attractive' to future bowl games. Uconn if you read the story lost over $4M on that bowl game. Yes they were getting back some nice money from the BE slice of the bowl set-up, but that is a significant chunk of change to be writing off.

 

[ZachCT12]

Hartford should of played host, could of easily sold the XL Center out, rather than limit it to 7K people in Bridgeport, anyways, can only hope for last minute tickets to be unused and put back on the market, but back to Albany next year.

 

[emjay]

It is not a day with an A or a Y without Maryland fans complaining about something

Or Uconn fans complaining about Maryland fans complaining.

 

[emjay]

OH MY GAWD! Where did that "Team Terrapin" avatar come from??? I didn't make it! (FYI: This is NOT a complaint! Just a surprise... )

Edited to add - I've changed it to something a little more "me," hope that's alright. I liked the anonymity of being a person without a face, but this works too.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

^^ Right there! Nothing is ever "sold out". Just gotta know where to look and how badly do you REALLY wanna be there?

Exactly, our men's team unexpectedly and luckily got sent to the Greenville sub-regional that was virtually sold out. Our fans still found thousands of tickets through secondary market sources. Same thing for the Regional at MSG. Of course, I might be eating PB&J for the next 6 months.

 

[oldude]

I purchased 4 tickets to the Bridgeport regional back on Jan 2. If UConn had ended up anywhere else, I would have been screwed. Sorry, I just don't have any sympathy for a turtle fan without a ticket.