For 1st time since 1966 ACC doesn't sell out its tournament

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SS: interesting post, but to me just another example of people having less discretionary spending available. How about the Big Ten Tourney in Indianoplace? Is that sold out?
 

Some of the comments under the story are fairly insightful, which surprised me a little.

The specific insight that I think says it all is (paraphrased) why should I pay $300some to watch a game from the upper deck of a football stadium when I can get a great view of the game on my TV, HD if I have one, from my couch without spending an additional dime?
 

Even though it's being played at a dome, it's definitely a sign of the economy if the ACC doesn't sell out its tourney. That's a pretty amazing streak to go 43 years with all sellouts.
 

Big Bucks, and bad seats

prevent people from buying the tickets. BTT is in a better venue and is $60 cheaper than ACC and averages about $25/game spread through the whole tournament, cheaper than Williams Arena on a pergame basis. I would be very reluctant to purchase upper deck seats in a dome for a basketball game. Even the upper deck at United Center feels a mile and a half away to me. Consumers have to draw the line somewhere, and it looks like they have in ACCville.
 


The guy that said why not stay home and watch it on TV instead of paying a lot of cash to sit in the upper deck makes a great point.

I would much rather watch it at home or at a sports bar and that is just getting to be too much money just to be there.....
 

Only difference for me

is that if I am "home" I am on duty, and enjoying the tourney becomes a challenge. If the price is reasonable, and I have the time and a decent seat, I much prefer being there to watching it on TV.

I predict a prolonged recession (more than two years) will have conferences rethinking the formats and prices of their conference tournaments. Obviously, the big conferences are hauling in big dollars for their tournaments through the gate and TV, but I can't help but think for some of the lower rung conferences, neutral site tournaments may not be economically viable for long.
 

The other factor in this is the location of this conference tournament -- in Atlanta.

When the event is in Greensboro (where it is almost every year), there are four schools within 90 minutes of the building and literally 10s of thousands of fans who can commute from home to the games if they choose. Now many choose to get a hotel room and make a weekend of it, but they have choice of driving back and forth -- or splitting the total ticket with others.

While Atlanta is certainly a big city, it adds another layer of cost to the equation. A hotel is mandatory for more fans, the ability to split tickets is gone and there are more bad seats in the building. Throw in the economy and I can understand why people might sit this one out.
 

Giant arena in a city without a reall ACC following (sorry GA Tech) equals empty seats. Wasn't GA Tech very good last time it was in the ATL? I'm guessing that helped.
 



Don't forget that the basketball configuration of the Georgia Dome holds about 32,000, compared with 23,500 in Greensboro.

Longer driving distance + higher ticket prices + a lot of bad seats = Not all 32,000 tickets are sold out.
 

From the Barn said:
Giant arena in a city without a reall ACC following (sorry GA Tech) equals empty seats. Wasn't GA Tech very good last time it was in the ATL? I'm guessing that helped.
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GTech sold out the last 4 years and usually has a decent fanbase. This year, GTech is terrible (1-12) and still drawing better than FSU (8-5), BC (8-6) or Miami (5-8) and right behind #12 Clemson.

ACC AVERAGE HOME ATTENDANCE THROUGH 2/13

North Carolina 20,922 (97.0%)
Maryland 16,790 (98.2%)
NC State 13,127 (66.6%)
Wake Forest 11,491 (79.8%)
Virginia 10,005 (65.7%)
Virginia Tech 9,847 (100.0%)
Duke 9,314 (100.0%)
Clemson 8,311 (75.4%)
Georgia Tech 7,448 (81.0%)
Florida State 7,379 (59.0%)
Boston College 5,202 (60.4%)
Miami 4,261 (60.9%)
 


For those of you who have not been to the BTT in Indy it is really alot of fun and I would suggest going sometime. Last year Spring Break lined up with the tourney so I went with my dad and few others we bought tickets for all the session ahead of time. We are going again this year and are simply planning on scalping tickets off the street. I wouldn't expect prices to be insane. IIFC the only ticket that was crazy spendy last year on the street was the session with Purdue vs. Ill and IU vs. the Gophers(of course we all remember how that turned out). Overall I would really suggest you should go. I would be fine with a bunch of a Maroon and Gold running around.
 



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