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Message: [QUOTE="StephStorrs, post: 2109621, member: 7584"] One has to ask this question: if the games are played at neutral sites, who's going to go? It's unfortunate that only a few select teams are able to draw a crowd, and we are extremely lucky as UConn fans to have an arena that sounds and looks the way it does when it's packed with students and fans. But that's the way the cookie crumbles, and women's basketball games are simply not well attended enough across the board to justify regional games before the Sweet 16. If more teams were drawing larger crowds, I could potentially see it, but that's not the case. Regional games before the Sweet 16 would mean predominantly empty arenas with an average of [I]maybe[/I] two or three thousand fans per game (depending on the location and teams in said regional, of course), and when that camera pans out for an arena wide shot, it's going to look ugly. It's not a good look for the game, it's not a good look for ESPN, and frankly, it'd just be depressing to watch. And as a side note, I've always considered the home games to be a really nice reward for the 1-4 seeds. Clearly they've done something right all season to get the seed they've gotten, and are thus rewarded for it by hosting the first two games. It's a win-win, in my opinion. There's fans in the seats, and it's a nice reward to the teams that have earned it. [/QUOTE]