Women's tourney breaks attendance records through first two rounds, filling players with joy

[schmendrick]

NCAA women's tournament breaks attendance record on opening weekend that showcased growth

Exciting, even for losing teams.

Decibel levels reportedly hit 114 during a frantic fourth quarter in Iowa City. The noise blared through TV screens on ABC.

"Walking out of the tunnel and seeing that many people is almost unexplainable," Iowa center Monika Czinano said after the defeat. "It fills you with joy, and it makes the game so fun, and it fuels you."

 

[XLCenterFan]

2 reasons.

1 - More and more people are watching women's hoops and realizing, "gee, these girls can PLAY."
2 - People are SO excited to back into arenas post-covid. I was at the men's BE tourney in MSG and fan bases were not chirpy and talking trash as they used to do more often. Everyone was friendly to each other and happy to be back. It was more like a basketball convention.

 

[Jds]

NCAA women's tournament breaks attendance record on opening weekend that showcased growth

Exciting, even for losing teams.

Decibel levels reportedly hit 114 during a frantic fourth quarter in Iowa City. The noise blared through TV screens on ABC.

"Walking out of the tunnel and seeing that many people is almost unexplainable," Iowa center Monika Czinano said after the defeat. "It fills you with joy, and it makes the game so fun, and it fuels you."

Going from 4 regionals this year to 2 in the future is a mistake.

 

[UcMiami]

Can't remember the year, but there was a regional where the 'local' team failed to reach the S16 and yet the crowds were fabulous - somewhere in the mid-west and the local coach was a huge cheerleader for the games and all the coaches including Geno were really complementary.

Just looked it up - it was Lincoln, Nebraska and Nebraska got upset by BYU that year in the round of 32. Yori was the coach and really went all in on selling the games during the week. It was a huge class act.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Going from 4 regionals this year to 2 in the future is a mistake.

That remains to be seen. Except (generally) for #1 seeds, there is no guarantee with 4 regional sites that the teams playing will be close enough to provide an extra kick to attendance. In this year's 4 regions - as seeded, not as it plays out - in Greensboro you had Iowa, Iowa State and Arizona???, in Spokane - Texas, LSU and Maryland????, even Bridgeport - NC State, Indiana and Oklahoma.

Being rather centrally located, sort of, Wichita seeded teams are at least all from a rather large swath of middle America.

Largely, attendance is a factor of teams traveling well and the ability to draw local interest. I think the trade-off will be in costs (economy of scale, you probably don't pay double for the arena, you probably get more discounts with the greater volume at hotels and other services, and you need lower staffing. This could very well translate into a better experience for the teams.

UConn and South Carolina are big losers in this scenario, as South Carolina has a fairly local site next year and UConn the following year, but otherwise, not so much. Stanford is (arguably) of current strong teams the winner with the west sites of Portland, Seattle, Spokane, and Sacramento.

 

[LoboDays]

No team that makes the tourney should have to play on their opponents home court. I hope future changes does away with these games. It’s a National tournament. Not a regular season game.

 

[JellyBean]

Can't remember the year, but there was a regional where the 'local' team failed to reach the S16 and yet the crowds were fabulous - somewhere in the mid-west and the local coach was a huge cheerleader for the games and all the coaches including Geno were really complementary.

Just looked it up - it was Lincoln, Nebraska and Nebraska got upset by BYU that year in the round of 32. Yori was the coach and really went all in on selling the games during the week. It was a huge class act.

Wow! Coach Yori was a class act for doing that. Speaks volumes of her when she was at Nebraska and to the fans in Nebraska. Fun fact, Coach Yori is still involved with basketball. Helping out the Creighton WBB team. Some type of advisor. But it is great seeing coaches continue to be cheerleaders for growing the women's game of basketball.

 

[Puppy Love]

The year Svet and Shea got hurt I had tickets for the final four in Boston. Went anyways and had a blast watching Maryland come back to defeat Duke. I don’t think I would have bought the tickets knowing Uconn wasn’t going to be there.

 

[RogueDave]

Can't remember the year, but there was a regional where the 'local' team failed to reach the S16 and yet the crowds were fabulous - somewhere in the mid-west and the local coach was a huge cheerleader for the games and all the coaches including Geno were really complementary.

Just looked it up - it was Lincoln, Nebraska and Nebraska got upset by BYU that year in the round of 32. Yori was the coach and really went all in on selling the games during the week. It was a huge class act.

Yes I was there it was 2014 and an awesome atmosphere at the Pinnacle Arena, I stood in line at ticket window and a guy was walking up and down greeting fans he came to me with my UCONN shirt started talking WBB shocked him a bit when I told him Geno wanted us to WBB fans 1st and UCONN fans 2nd.

He gave me strange look I told him yes we are expected to cheer for both teams only louder for UCONN.

Then I proved it to him after a fashion, He was impressed when I started telling him about Nebraska WBB past success when they attended the last UCONN sponsored tournament in the later 1990’s 1997 I think, they played Western Kentucky Hilltoppers I mentioned the offseason the Nebraska coach became the Hilltoppers coach and the Hilltoppers coach had become the Nebraska coach then the teams played each other at our tournament. Lots of team hugs after that game.

He said diehard Cornhusker fans didn’t even know that, he gave me 2 tickets 3 rows behind the UConn bench for the tournament, he and his wife got seats in the box suite

He came down to check on me at halftime revealed he was on Nebraska WBB advisory committee…

He asked me if I was a UCONN super fan, I had to confess I told him I barely rate average on the Boneyard scale. 2nd best seats I ever got for UCONN game. Awesome experience and the fans were great!

 

[npignatjr]

The year Svet and Shea got hurt I had tickets for the final four in Boston. Went anyways and had a blast watching Maryland come back to defeat Duke. I don’t think I would have bought the tickets knowing Uconn wasn’t going to be there.

2001 was in St Louis

 

[Puppy Love]

2001 was in St Louis

Mea Culpa…somehow I had the events mixed up in my head. The point I wanted to make was that I wouldn’t have bought the tickets nearly a year in advance (even though Boston is close by) if I didn’t think Uconn was going to be there. I think the NCAA is crazy to think that women’s basketball fans will travel to far away regionals just to see random games. The four regionals are better supported by local fan bases. I will watch random games on TV, but I don’t care to see them in person. I think the choice of two regionals doesn‘t make sense. I’ve been to regionals in Bridgeport and Kingston, RI and final fours in Boston and Philly. I wouldn’t spend a couple of thousand to go to Birmingham, Alabama.

 

[GoUconn7961]

No team that makes the tourney should have to play on their opponents home court. I hope future changes does away with these games. It’s a National tournament. Not a regular season game.

Why? They do it in other sports. the NFL for example. The only time it's at a neutral site is the Super Bowl. They do it for the NBA and MLB, albeit there are multiple games in a series. But, the NFL playoffs are one and done.