Inaugural Big East Conference Tournament / MSG

[Xudash]

I just watched another interview session that X does with its AD bi-monthly.

Comments pertaining to our first BE Conference Tournament included:

1. MSG itself is a fabulous facility; world's most famous arena and all that. But specific mention was made of the $1 Billion renovation that has transformed it into what it is today. $1B. Damn.

2. Christopher noted that Fox was pleased with the Tournament. I'll leave that sentence to be beaten into submission by those who don't believe Fox will cut it in the long run.

3. Most importantly, we averaged over 14,000 for each of the three nights of the Tournament. I thought that was very good news.

Overall, good news and good first year results. IMHO, I don't see the ACC Tournament syphoning off too much, if any of our attendance moving forward. Were there 'cuse or ND or some local PITT fans that made it to MSG that will otherwise cross the river to Brooklyn when the ACC Tournament comes to town? Probably, but how many of them were at the BE Tournament, versus in a bar, watching their teams on television.

Bottom line: never going to replicate what the OBE accomplished, but we have strong enough brands to establish a solid, highly performing basketball-centric conference.

[LeMoyne00]

Do we like averaging 14,000 each night of the tournament in a 20,000 seat basketball arena? Otherwise, I'm glad Fox was pleased, the Garden makes for great television.

[Randy]

It is hard for me to believe the 14,000 number. I was at every night session. Was the Garden at 100% capacity? No. Was it 30% empty? No.

[Dew]

I thought it was absolutely tremendous. Don't be surprised if a few of the ACC fans wander over from Barclays to see a game or two at MSG if they're happening at the same time. I saw a few St Joes and Dayton fans at MSG this year and I imagine hoopheads from Tobacco Road might like to check out the Garden.

[BEwannabe]

14,000 in the inaugral championship is not good, period. If there is ever a banner year it's your first year, kind of like opening day in baseball, typically teams largest crowds of the year. At 14,000 that's only 1400 tickets per school.

regular season - St. John's had 11,700 and 12,500 for home MSG games with Nova & Marquette and Seton Hall had 6600 vs OU at Barclays and 6200 ooc versus the big gate draw of Eastern Washington and 8300 vs DePaul.

So if St. John's and Seton Hall didn't account for 5,000 people then that's terrible, so now you're down to 9,000 tickets for the other 8 schools. I doubt if DePaul brought anyone but Xavier, Creighton and Butler should've been there with bells on.

14,000 is weak by any rational analysis.

[LeMoyne00]

It is hard for me to believe the 14,000 number. I was at every night session. Was the Garden at 100% capacity? No. Was it 30% empty? No.

Do you seriously think the Conference would low-ball its numbers? As someone who has been to the Tourney yearly for two decades, the crowds were unusually sparse at times and none of the sessions were even remotely close to selling out. That said, it didn't hamper the atmosphere, the Garden has the ability to make anything seem huge. It was a successful tournament and with the Conference working harder to sell tickets next year, they can fill the place.

[xu2002]

The conference also went from 16 to 10 teams, losing mostly east coast schools, namely Syracuse. The 3 new teams are all in the midwest, so it's a big trip for people. Additionally, Georgetown and Marquette both had down years, so that had to hurt the turnout from those fan bases. 14,000 people isn't great, but it's not that hard to determine why it happened.

[BEwannabe]

It is hard for me to believe the 14,000 number. I was at every night session. Was the Garden at 100% capacity? No. Was it 30% empty? No.

That said, it didn't hamper the atmosphere, the Garden has the ability to make anything seem huge. It was a successful tournament and with the Conference working harder to sell tickets next year, they can fill the place.

5,000 or 6,000 people in a lower bowl can make a lot of noise so I'm not questioning the atmosphere but 14,000 sold tickets per session in an inaugral campaign is weak imho.

[Dew]

Let the A10 guys tell us horrible it was. From my perspective at MSG, it was great.

[adoraz11]

Well there's a solution of course for improving this. Dayton and vcu fan bases. Otherwise you need to hope Georgetown does well.

Some people blame Providence and Creighton were in, but Providence is closeby and starving for relevance and creighton had McDermott and a travelling fan base. It's possible this could be one of the better years.

Base case scenario I think would be Georgetown vs. St. John's. Just because st. John's is right there and desperate for a title and of course it's a classic Big East match up.