Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="KnightBridgeAZ, post: 4255365, member: 591"] 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. [/QUOTE]