The Last Bridgeport Regional?

[visitingcock]

Didn't Saxon use that year this year? She was a senior last year correct?

Nope. She was class of 2018. A true senior this year so she could use a Covid year 5 if she wants.

 

[hoophuskee]

I hope I am wrong. But who do they lose? Who do we lose? Do we expect Piath or Amari to make a big enough jump to fill the void left by ONO? Will Aubrey fill the void left by Christyn? Will either of the freshman be that big of an impact to fill those voids? That's a lot to ask of a freshman. And then you ask them to beat SC in their back yard on top if it. Someone needs to tell Boston to jump to the WNBA or they will definitely be the pre-season #1 again next year and by a wide margin.

1-- We gain a full season of Paige. A definite 1st team A/A arguably POY better than Boston?
2-- We gain a full season of Azzi A possible 1st team A/A being possibly the 3rd best player on the floor vs SC. Or on some days possibly the best or 2nd best?
When you have the quality of 1 and 2 above- you need "A miracle" to beat another college team? It's just that you made it sound liek it's even harder than a miracle. UCONN is NOT "Creighton."
3-- We gain a full season of Edwards (has been our best inside player. The last month she has been much different.)
4-- We gain a full season of Ducharme (at one point during the season she was arguably our best/2nd best player)
5-- Boston is not a WNBA All-Star. On March 5th Ole Miss played SC to 61-51 game. Boston got 15 points. UCONN is defenseless? If UCONN has Dorka, Edwards and DeBerry and Piath, and Brady and Patterson, there is no way a defense can be put up to stop the player that scored 15 points vs Ole Miss?

 

[BBallF]

I don't think the site affects TV viewers. UConn vs a 1/2 seed is gonna get the eyeballs wherever they play.

I hope so. I am afraid however that the combined super regional will lose some of its TV appeal. I am sure however that the live attendance will suffer.

If you just take the live attendance difference in the Louisville- Michigan region versus the UCONN- NC State region it's 5,000 tickets. Probably a $250,000 to $500,000 revenue difference at a price point of $50 -$100 plus everything else the NCAA gets from what they sell. I think this is a cost cutting measure with a belief that by crunching the sites there will be greater attendance. I think it's the opposite. Now, if the venue was Vegas and you can turn it into a festival for all girl's and women's players and it became a resort draw then maybe it will work.

 

[UcMiami]

What I do not get in the next 4 years where only 2 regional locations will exist is why the over representation in the northwest when the majority of NCAA regional teams has historically been east of the Rockies - just makes no sense to me. No mid west sites? Two in Washington St? Even Sacramento is northern CA.

 

[ABCDFE]

Nope. She was class of 2018. A true senior this year so she could use a Covid year 5 if she wants.

What about Littleton and Grisset?

 

[visitingcock]

11,500 fans attended the Portland regionals in 2019. This year Spokane had attendance of 7,700 with the closest school being 900 miles away. Greensboro only had 6,500 with the closest school being 180 miles away.

Locations bid thinking they can get enough income from the event to justify it. Every so often the NCAA tries an experiment for 4 years to see if it increases attendance and/or fairness. 2005 they went to 8 sub-regional sites, like the men do. There was a period where schools could host regionals on their campuses. When these locations were bid on, Oregon and Oregon State were pretty strong and Washington had recently gone to a final four. UCLA should be able to make some noise the next four years with Kiki Rice. Hopefully Oregon and Oregon State will get better the next few years.

The NCAA hopes that having 6 regional games in one location will increase interest and possibly build new fans in the host area. I'm skeptical, but hopeful.

2026 the regionals will be in Sacramento (120 miles from Stanford- basically the same distance as UConn is from Albany) and Dallas.

Okay, so each of the "Big Three" have close to home sites over the next three years. Greenville is about 100 miles from Columbia. Not a home court but we've played a number of SEC tournaments there in the last few years.

 

[visitingcock]

What about Littleton and Grisset?

Grisset used her 5th year this year. Littleton will have the option.

 

[Charliebball]

Why only the Pacific Northwest? To be consistent, it should then be the Northeast. Or the Southeast on the coast. This is just idiotic and probably driven by money. The whole concept of the Final Four involves teams coming from 4 separate regions. Let's see if their fake regional finals will draw 2 million viewers like Bridgeport.

or why not the Midwest where WBB is so popular? Will anybody even show up in Washington state?

 

[Carnac]

MSGRET (with my endorsement) has advocated the following suggestion, I'll do it again. If the NCAA is going to "screw-up" the regionals going forward like it appears they are going to, Play the 16 team regional games in Las Vegas.

Plenty of different venues that can accommodate ALL of the games. If necessary, games could be played at the same time. Plenty of Hotels and great restaurants along with plenty of adult entertainment choices after the games.

Several conferences already play their conference tournament games there every year. Attending fans could take their choice of the different games they would like to attend. You can Uber/cab it all over town. No need for a car. Curb to curb service from your hotel to the arena/venue.

A lot of fans will be forced to travel with this new proposed 2 site plan. One site for ALL games would be better. No one likes change, but sometimes change is inevitable. I know there are a plethora of fans that don't like this suggestion. They won't like the 2-site idea either, but it's coming. Pick your poison. You could do a lot worse.

 

[Waquoit]

This like the NFL, fighting the last war.

 

[dabears17]

Okay, so each of the "Big Three" have close to home sites over the next three years. Greenville is about 100 miles from Columbia. Not a home court but we've played a number of SEC tournaments there in the last few years.

And reduce the chances of Stanford being sent as the number 2 seed to the 2017 Lexington regionals instead of Stockton (80 miles from Stanford) when Oregon State was a higher #2 seed!

 

[dabears17]

or why not the Midwest where WBB is so popular? Will anybody even show up in Washington state?

Did anyone from the Midwest bid for these regionals? Dallas hosts a regionals in 2026. Like Albany/Bridgeport has bid and hosted a lot in the past 10 years because UConn fans will fill seats, when these regionals will bid on, 3 Northwest teams had recently made the Final Four-- Oregon (2019), Oregon State and Washington in 2016. 11,000 attended the Portland regionals in 2019.

I agree it would be interesting to host all four Regionals in Vegas for two years to see how that goes. Hopefully Vegas, Denver, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Minneapolis, or St. Louis bid for 2027-2031.

 

[visitingcock]

MSGRET (with my endorsement) has advocated the following suggestion, I'll do it again. If the NCAA is going to "screw-up" the regionals going forward like it appears they are going to, Play the 16 team regional games in Las Vegas.

Plenty of different venues that can accommodate ALL of the games. If necessary, games could be played at the same time. Plenty of Hotels and great restaurants along with plenty of adult entertainment choices after the games.

Several conferences already play their conference tournament games there every year. Attending fans could take their choice of the different games they would like to attend. You can Uber/cab it all over town. No need for a car. Curb to curb service from your hotel to the arena/venue.

A lot of fans will be forced to travel with this new proposed 2 site plan. One site for ALL games would be better. No one likes change, but sometimes change is inevitable. I know there are a plethora of fans that don't like this suggestion. They won't like the 2-site idea either, but it's coming. Pick your poison. You could do a lot worse.

I think UConn fans will enjoy Greenville next year. The downtown is small but tightly compressed with every major hotel. All clean and newish. Restaurants and bars galore. Park your car and walk to the games and after gatherings. Great March weather (but for thunderstorms)

https://s3.amazonaws.com/newsimg.fu...153332/aerial-downtown-greenville-cropped.jpg

 

[Charliebball]

Did anyone from the Midwest bid for these regionals? Dallas hosts a regionals in 2026. Like Albany/Bridgeport has bid and hosted a lot in the past 10 years because UConn fans will fill seats, when these regionals will bid on, 3 Northwest teams had recently made the Final Four-- Oregon (2019), Oregon State and Washington in 2016. 11,000 attended the Portland regionals in 2019.

I agree it would be interesting to host all four Regionals in Vegas for two years to see how that goes. Hopefully Vegas, Denver, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Minneapolis, or St. Louis bid for 2027-2031.

no idea but the great turnout in Iowa proves fans will come and I think they would buy tickets even if their teams weren't involved....

 

[visitingcock]

no idea but the great turnout in Iowa proves fans will come and I think they would buy tickets even if their teams weren't involved....

Kinda like Nebraska fans and the college world series.

 

[DefenseBB]

OK, I am bit bemused by some of these posts being made with virtually ZERO data to support their theories.

Let's get the facts straight on why the NCAA is doing this.
#1. The 1st Two Rounds on Campus sites of the Top 16 seeds have been shown to have very good attendance. The average was 6,778 for 32 sessions. Keep in mind many schools, like UConn were on Spring Break so some of the numbers were down (Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas and Stanford were the bottom 4).
#2. The Regionals have always been problematic for WCBB. UConn has been put in the East Region for all 8 years of the data I have reviewed (2013-2019; 2022). The average attendance for their 16 sessions is 8,903. Hosted by Bridgeport-4, Albany-3, Lincoln. The other regions are:
.....West 6,433 (Spokane-4/Portland/SiouxFalls/Stockton/PaloAlto)
...South 6,518 (Greensboro-3/Kansas City/Ok City/Dallas/Louisville/Norfolk)
.Mid-W 6,005 (Wichita/Chicago/Lexington-3,Ok City-2/South Bend)
#3. The 2021 Championship was held completely in San Antonio and the NCAA liked the larger gathering for synergies and view the opportunities to boost the attendance as paramount. They think by hosting bi-coastal, that will work.

How logical is it, that is the real question, especially when it has been proven UCONN has outdrawn all the other regions yet the Northeast is only getting Albany in 2024 while the Northwest gets 3-Spokane, Seattle, Portland.

While @dabears17 is right that in 2019, Portland averaged 11,450 with Oregon, that is the exception rather than the rule. Stockton, CA was abysmal with an average of 3,800 in 2017. Spokane has hosted 4 times since 2013 and averaged 6,365 fans per session.

To recap, UConn even in Lincoln, NE averaged 8,377 fans (BYU/TexA&M/DePaul) so UCONN travels well or has such a broad following, fans turnout.

Again, to me, put the West Coast in Vegas, plenty of rooms, lots of stuff to do, plenty of flights.

The fact is the First 4 rounds in WCBB really only average 6,500 fans per session. How does the NCAA grown that? There is NO CONSPIRACY against UCONN.

 

[BBallF]

MSGRET (with my endorsement) has advocated the following suggestion, I'll do it again. If the NCAA is going to "screw-up" the regionals going forward like it appears they are going to, Play the 16 team regional games in Las Vegas.

Plenty of different venues that can accommodate ALL of the games. If necessary, games could be played at the same time. Plenty of Hotels and great restaurants along with plenty of adult entertainment choices after the games.

Several conferences already play their conference tournament games there every year. Attending fans could take their choice of the different games they would like to attend. You can Uber/cab it all over town. No need for a car. Curb to curb service from your hotel to the arena/venue.

A lot of fans will be forced to travel with this new proposed 2 site plan. One site for ALL games would be better. No one likes change, but sometimes change is inevitable. I know there are a plethora of fans that don't like this suggestion. They won't like the 2-site idea either, but it's coming. Pick your poison. You could do a lot worse.

I have been talking about Vegas the last 2 days. You could have a girl's and women's basketball festival with contests, Hall of Famers, clinics, youth tournaments, mini basketball camps, exhibitors and exhibitions, and the like plus a great place for food and entertainment for the whole family. To grow the game you need a place the young players want to go to and the parents or grandparents want to take them to also. If I get on a plane to go 3,000 miles it will not be just to see games. I want other reasons also such as to make it a vacation. Seattle, Spokane and Portland ain't exactly the same nor are the other sites. Like someone said, when was the last time the NCAA did something right? They bungled the whole transfer hardship exemptions so badly they just scrapped it for the transfer portal. Do not think for a minute that was anything other than getting rid of potential future lawsuits due to the capriciousness of their decisions.

 

[BBallF]

OK, I am bit bemused by some of these posts being made with virtually ZERO data to support their theories.

Let's get the facts straight on why the NCAA is doing this.
#1. The 1st Two Rounds on Campus sites of the Top 16 seeds have been shown to have very good attendance. The average was 6,778 for 32 sessions. Keep in mind many schools, like UConn were on Spring Break so some of the numbers were down (Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas and Stanford were the bottom 4).
#2. The Regionals have always been problematic for WCBB. UConn has been put in the East Region for all 8 years of the data I have reviewed (2013-2019; 2022). The average attendance for their 16 sessions is 8,903. Hosted by Bridgeport-4, Albany-3, Lincoln. The other regions are:
.....West 6,433 (Spokane-4/Portland/SiouxFalls/Stockton/PaloAlto)
...South 6,518 (Greensboro-3/Kansas City/Ok City/Dallas/Louisville/Norfolk)
.Mid-W 6,005 (Wichita/Chicago/Lexington-3,Ok City-2/South Bend)
#3. The 2021 Championship was held completely in San Antonio and the NCAA liked the larger gathering for synergies and view the opportunities to boost the attendance as paramount. They think by hosting bi-coastal, that will work.

How logical is it, that is the real question, especially when it has been proven UCONN has outdrawn all the other regions yet the Northeast is only getting Albany in 2024 while the Northwest gets 3-Spokane, Seattle, Portland.

While @dabears17 is right that in 2019, Portland averaged 11,450 with Oregon, that is the exception rather than the rule. Stockton, CA was abysmal with an average of 3,800 in 2017. Spokane has hosted 4 times since 2013 and averaged 6,365 fans per session.

To recap, UConn even in Lincoln, NE averaged 8,377 fans (BYU/TexA&M/DePaul) so UCONN travels well or has such a broad following, fans turnout.

Again, to me, put the West Coast in Vegas, plenty of rooms, lots of stuff to do, plenty of flights.

The fact is the First 4 rounds in WCBB really only average 6,500 fans per session. How does the NCAA grown that? There is NO CONSPIRACY against UCONN.

There is however a conspiracy in the NCAA against common sense and business acumen.

 

[Zinethar]

Reading all of this made me wonder why Disney or Orlando in general didn't bid (maybe they did and I didn't hear about it?) Loads of hotels, loads of things to do, usual great weather at that time of year, east coast and south venue. During the COVID times the pros took that choice.

 

[dabears17]

While @dabears17 is right that in 2019, Portland averaged 11,450 with Oregon, that is the exception rather than the rule. Stockton, CA was abysmal with an average of 3,800 in 2017. Spokane has hosted 4 times since 2013 and averaged 6,365 fans per session.

Agree with everything you say, just want to point out that attendance was low in Stockton, CA because the S curve sent the closest school, Stanford, to the Lexington Regional. Stockton was a poor choice for a regionals for numerous reasons.

 

[DefenseBB]

Honestly, Stanford NEVER draws well regardless of where the games are played. Heck, even at Maples Pavilion the don't sell out in ANY Round of the NCAA. In 2014, the games were held on their campus for the Regionals and they sill only had 6,700 and 6,145. Granted it only holds 7,500 but still. Their season attendance is abysmal considering it is one of the top 3 programs all-time.

 

[Notyetready]

I hope I am wrong. But who do they lose? Who do we lose? Do we expect Piath or Amari to make a big enough jump to fill the void left by ONO? Will Aubrey fill the void left by Christyn? Will either of the freshman be that big of an impact to fill those voids? That's a lot to ask of a freshman. And then you ask them to beat SC in their back yard on top if it. Someone needs to tell Boston to jump to the WNBA or they will definitely be the pre-season #1 again next year and by a wide margin.

South Carolina has four seniors and one graduate student this year. The seniors are Destanni Henderson, Victaria Sexton, Destiny LIttleton, Elysa Wesolek, and the grad student is Lele Grissett. Henderson will be drafted if she declares for it. Sexton might as well. Sexton has been a pest in UConn games in my view. So, not so dire with that in mind.

 

[Notyetready]

What I do not get in the next 4 years where only 2 regional locations will exist is why the over representation in the northwest when the majority of NCAA regional teams has historically been east of the Rockies - just makes no sense to me. No mid west sites? Two in Washington St? Even Sacramento is northern CA.

Well, since the Washington Huskies are on the outs for the tournament, how could you find a more neutral site? Besides, Seattle is a great town to visit and the Climate Change Arena is good for basketball. Loved watching the Sonics there.

 

[DrummerDee]

With the exception of Spokane, all these arenas seat more than 15,000 (Spokane approx. 12,600). Bridgeport only seats about 10,000. Don't know if the NCAA will want to go with such a comparitively small arena, though Bridgeport fills the arena, while the others tend not to.

They didn't/ don't use the upper teir for any of first round or the regional games in the bigger arenas. They drop the upper curtain and only use the bottom.

 

[LETTERL]

I think UConn fans will enjoy Greenville next year. The downtown is small but tightly compressed with every major hotel. All clean and newish. Restaurants and bars galore. Park your car and walk to the games and after gatherings. Great March weather (but for thunderstorms)

https://s3.amazonaws.com/newsimg.fu...153332/aerial-downtown-greenville-cropped.jpg

I have lived in Greenville since 1994 and have seen tremendous growth in this area. What the city has done to the downtown area is nothing short of awesome. It really is a treat to spend a couple of hours downtown. There's so much to do. You MUST visit Falls Park if you come to visit.

I will be attending the Greenville Regional, regardless of which teams are there and hope I will finally get to meet some of the Boneyard posters I have interacted with on this message forum for the last few years.