The NCAA men's basketball tournament “remains a showcase, dominating the March sports calendar and pulling rabid and casual fans into the annual ritual,” but even this "crown jewel could be showing some wear,” according to Steve Wieberg in a front-page piece of USA TODAY. Total attendance a year ago “hit a five-year low despite an expanded field and one additional session.” Regionals in Newark, New Orleans, San Antonio and Anaheim “drew 77.1% of capacity, the lowest since the NCAA started tracking those numbers in 1989.” Technology is “almost certainly taking a toll.” Between TV, Internet live-streaming and other viewing options, “there's less incentive to pay for seats in the stands.” Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby said, “The regular season in college basketball is exceedingly irrelevant.” Bowlsby points to college football's mantra “that every game matters.” He added, "The TV ratings are better, the in-stadium attendance is better and the postseason is valuable. The only one of those three that's present in college basketball is the last. The tournament is the Holy Grail, and everything else is just prelude." Wieberg notes the Pac-12 “is struggling nearly league-wide," as schools saw just over a "16% drop to 7,289 this season.” At Stanford, where overall attendance “has dropped by more than a quarter the past four years, the answer has been to embrace technology.” The school “outfitted basketball's Maples Pavilion, football's Stanford Stadium and other major venues with free wireless Internet access this year.” Fans can “even order concessions via text message.” But the school's average basketball crowd over the entire season “dipped by 240 to 5,393.” The power of technology “clearly can only do so much.” If there is a place for optimism, “it's in TV ratings,” as healthy numbers “affirm that attendance drops don't necessarily reflect a decline in interest.” CBS Exec VP/Programming Mike Aresco said, “The tournament definitely has an impact. But there's an appetite for regular-season college basketball ... as long as the games are compelling” (USA TODAY, 3/9).
ON THE UPSIDE: In Indianapolis, Scott Olson noted total attendance for the four-day Big Ten tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis “is expected to top last year’s figure of 86,767 and could even surpass the 90,000 mark, last reached in 2006.” And the resurgence of the Indiana University men’s basketball team “is expected to help boost ticket sales at the Big Ten tournament.” This is the first year Nebraska is competing in the tournament “as the newest member of the Big Ten, which also should help push attendance higher.” But organizers said that the “team’s mere presence will boost attendance because a fourth game has been added to the first day’s schedule to accommodate 12 teams.” Under the new schedule, only “four teams receive a first-round bye instead of the usual five” (IBJ.com, 3/8). Also in Indianapolis, Terry Hutchens notes the announced attendance for Thursday's first session of the tournament, which featured the Indiana-Penn State game, totaled 17,936. That marked the most for "any Thursday session in the previous six tournaments." The night session last night drew a crowd of 17,257 (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 3/9).
SEC SEES ATTENDANCE DROP: In Georgia, Marc Weiszer notes attendance for the first-round of the SEC tournament at New Orleans Arena was announced as 10,703, the “lowest for the first session of the tournament since 1997 when there were 9,376 at The Pyramid in Memphis.” The crowd was “filled with Kentucky fans … even though the top-ranked and top-seeded Wildcats" did not play Thursday (Athens BANNER-HERALD, 3/9). Meanwhile, in Atlanta, Tim Tucker notes the ACC announced Thursday’s attendance for the conference’s tournament at Philips Arena “as a capacity-plus 19,520, although there were many empty seats for the first-round games.” The announced attendance figure “reflected tickets distributed, including at least 200 that the ACC says schools are still trying to sell” (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 3/9).
