"No event or season matches the cost of the NCAA
Tournament for Total Sports," according to David Sweet of
the WALL STREET JOURNAL, who wrote that about 100 company
employees work to cover the three-week event compared to the
10 employees who are assigned to the World Series. Total
Sports sends four-person crews "across the country" to
transmit information to the official Web site,
finalfour.net, and the company, which "wouldn't" release
figures for '99, spent well over $100,000 for it's inaugural
coverage of the tourney in '97. After receiving "record
traffic last Thursday," the company has "added three
servers" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/17). Finalfour.net
attracted a site record of 74,014,062 hits and 41,814,298
page views during the first and second rounds of the NCAA
tournament. Sponsors of the site, which is a collaboration
between NCAA Online, Host Communications and Total Sports,
include AmEx, Compaq, Pepsi One, Marriott, GTE, EA Sports,
AquaFina, Chevrolet and Continental Airlines (Total Sports).
In Pittsburgh, Chuck Finder writes that finalfour.net
covered the first rounds of the tournament "well," as the
site "delivered the very rush" that "hoop junkies needed"
with "shot charts, photographs, statistics and the like in
real-time" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 3/18).
