Ticket Sales Brisk At The Ice Palace For NCAA Men's Basketball

The TAMPA BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL's Carl Cronan reported that "advance ticket sales for next year's first- and second-round games of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament at the Ice Palace appear to be well on their way toward a sellout." Two days prior to the deadline, "nearly 11,000 applications were received … for 14,000 seats being made available to the public." LightningVP/PR Bill Wickett, on the pace of ticket sales: "We're absolutely confident we are going to be sold out. It's just a question of when the last ticket is sold." A six-game ticket to all of the games scheduled in Tampa cost $165, with "a lottery system … used to distribute the tickets after June 1." Meanwhile, any remaining tickets "will be sold through the week of the games next March." The Ice Palace will hold 21,784 fans, with the NCAA reserving the remaining 7,000-plus tickets "for participating universities and corporate sponsors" (TAMPA BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/22).