Smaller Arena, Equal Shares Mean Fewer Tickets For ACC Fans
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Bobcats Arena, Equal Shares Reduces Schools'
Ticket Allotments For ACC Tournament |
Charlotte Bobcats Arena presents a "challenge" to ACC schools
making ticket allotments to boosters for this year's men's basketball tournament,
according to Ken Tysiac of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Bobcats Arena holds 20,035
fans compared to the 23,475 for the Greensboro Coliseum, where the tournament
was held in '06, and 40,083 for the Georgia Dome, where the tournament was held
in '01. Clemson Univ. Senior Associate AD Bill D'Andrea: "We know that
we're going to have some people whose nose is out of joint." N.C. State
Univ. AD Lee Fowler, whose school typically gives tournament tickets to certain
athletics staff members, this year "cut staff tickets to satisfy
as many boosters as possible." Fowler: "The staff members that are
going to be [at the tournament] are the staff members that are actually working."
Univ. of North Carolina Rams Club Exec Dir John Montgomery said the club "can
only sell what [they] have." D'Andrea said that schools "need
to use some quantitative method other than the 'good ol' boy' system to decide
who gets tickets." IPTAY, Clemson's booster group, allotted lower
arena seats "just to those who have accumulated 843 points on the school's
giving scale." Greensboro and Atlanta are scheduled as host sites
from '09-2015 (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 3/12).
LAST STOP: In Winston-Salem, John Delong writes Charlotte
"isn't as attractive to the ACC today as a host for the tournament as it
has been in the past. So it is very likely that Charlotte ... will be the host
for the last time in a long time" after this year's tournament. Charlotte
Regional Visitors Authority Chair Mike Crum: "The ACC is like a lot of
organizations, their priorities change over time. They're in another cycle right
now where expansion has triggered an emphasis on seating capacity." Charlotte
Regional Sports Commission Exec Dir Jeff Beaver said of the ACC: "What
they do is up to them. We all know we don't have as many seats as we had in
the old [Charlotte Coliseum]. It all depends on what they're looking for."
At the eight ACC tournaments held in the old Charlotte Coliseum, the
"24,042 tickets were split nine ways ... giving each school more than
2,000 tickets each, with the league also getting a share for corporate sponsors
and guests." Bobcats Arena, which normally seats 19,026 for NBA games,
"has increased that to 20,200 seats for this week's tournament." But
with 12 ACC teams now getting full allotments for the first time, "each
school's allotment is significantly lower." N.C. State Wolfpack Club Dir
Bobby Purcell: "This is just the year where it was the perfect storm, between
being in a smaller arena and everybody in the league getting an equal share
for the first time" (WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL, 3/12).
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