The Holy Land of Hoops

For the sky is falling crowd, time for you to soak it up and realize that this conference is healthy as ever and is booming!!

The garden is rocking!!

I thought the crowd was great last year. The energy, the roar of the crowd during the Villanova and Providence game was off the charts!

I really think that they should consider moving the evening sessions up an hour. The game last night didn't get over until after midnight in the East. Most people won't stay tuned to a game that late unless there is some type of rooting interest. I know that the first game would compete with the news, and maybe that is part of the reason, but if the games started at 6 and 8:30 (E), they would finish at a reasonable time. For the second game on Wed. and Thursday, you could see that the Garden was starting to empty out by the end of the games.

jfan wrote:I really think that they should consider moving the evening sessions up an hour. The game last night didn't get over until after midnight in the East. Most people won't stay tuned to a game that late unless there is some type of rooting interest. I know that the first game would compete with the news, and maybe that is part of the reason, but if the games started at 6 and 8:30 (E), they would finish at a reasonable time. For the second game on Wed. and Thursday, you could see that the Garden was starting to empty out by the end of the games.

think a big part of it is TV. Having it start at 6 means none of the first game would be in prime time at all.

If I'm right, used to be 630/9 starts. that may be a smidge better.

TheBall wrote:For the sky is falling crowd, time for you to soak it up and realize that this conference is healthy as ever and is booming!!

The garden is rocking!!

Box score for X/G reflects 15k+ in attendance. Fantastic.

Also, I truly believe the ten schools have blended together very well and quickly. It should be clear to anyone that this thing is working. The NYT article about the BE is a glowing. Val made a great career decision.

It is an awesome conference. So much fun.

I'd love to hear from anyone else who has been this year....glad to see over 15k very similar to last year. Would love to see it inch closer to 17 or higher but with only the 10 schools and most of them small might be tough. Perhaps if SJU gets into the top of he conference at some point or if SHU as well they could draw heavy.

I wouldn't be surprised to see 16-18k tonight with many Nova fans making their way up from Philly for the weekend.

dmac80 wrote:I'd love to hear from anyone else who has been this year....glad to see over 15k very similar to last year. Would love to see it inch closer to 17 or higher but with only the 10 schools and most of them small might be tough. Perhaps if SJU gets into the top of he conference at some point or if SHU as well they could draw heavy.

I only care that MSG management are happy with how it's working. Did it use to sellout completely due to UCONN and the other larger state schools? I'll assume that it did. 19,763 seating capacity for hoops, according to the garden.com. 76% capacity yesterday, and what certainly looked to be a strong environment.

The city lit up the Empire State Building for it. The BET seems to be an institution in and of itself in the city. The "new" BE in its second year has clearly caught its stride. Assuming the world doesn't fall apart and the US economy stays healthy, we certainly seem to be on the right trajectory.

Xudash wrote:

dmac80 wrote:I'd love to hear from anyone else who has been this year....glad to see over 15k very similar to last year. Would love to see it inch closer to 17 or higher but with only the 10 schools and most of them small might be tough. Perhaps if SJU gets into the top of he conference at some point or if SHU as well they could draw heavy.

I only care that MSG management are happy with how it's working. Did it use to sellout completely due to UCONN and the other larger state schools? I'll assume that it did. 19,763 seating capacity for hoops, according to the garden.com. 76% capacity yesterday, and what certainly looked to be a strong environment.

The city lit up the Empire State Building for it. The BET seems to be an institution in and of itself in the city. The "new" BE in its second year has clearly caught its stride. Assuming the world doesn't fall apart and the US economy stays healthy, we certainly seem to be on the right trajectory.

According to Wikipedia and looking at some of the box scores from previous years they got over 20,000 to many games.