Elite 8 Crowd...
- Thread starter kbo24
- Start date
UK numbers were very underwhelming last night. It was the worst UK crowd since the Tubby days. I think many fans are tapped out after SEC tourney and Louisville games. Excuses are Thurs/Sat games and saving up for Indy. The UK fans here made noise, but crowd was no factor in the game. I bet 1000 people will come up tomorrow.
It was amazing at halftime. 40 % of the crowd left and with 10 minutes to go there were only about 6000 people in the arena. It just shows that a significant amount of tickets went to local people.
It was amazing at halftime. 40 % of the crowd left and with 10 minutes to go there were only about 6000 people in the arena. It just shows that a significant amount of tickets went to local people.
I was out and about all over the streets of Cleveland ND, WVU and UK well represented, almost no one from Wichita was out and about. Definitely a healthy number of UK fans but not the total takeover I had been told to expect. However, on Saturday I expect UK fans to take over the city with it being the weekend and the drive isn't that bad.
Here was my take on the crowd last night. All four schools sold their allotment. I think if you had to rank amount of fans that were there, we were first. ND probably had the second most. West Virginia had a good crowd but not great. They were very loud at the very beginning and then nothing. I think UK will have the overwhelming crowd Saturday, but ND might be close.
And not just a weeknight, a 10pm start. Even if a UK fan lived in say Cincy they couldn't have been home until 4-5 in the morning. And a lot of people do have to work on Friday. I live 2 time zones away, and I still hate those stupid, late starts.
I would expect a much better showing from the BBN tomorrow. Now they can drive up in the morning, spend a night, or drive back home, and still be fresh for work on Monday.
This is another reason why teams like Kentucky should hate conference tournaments. It just takes away from the fans that could travel to an NCAA site. I figure that for a family of 4 to attend the SECT or a couple of NCAAT games, it is about the same $$$ as an average summer vacation.
Tix: $100 X 4 = $400
Hotel: $150 X 3 = $450
Gas: $3.00 X 40 = $120
Food: $100 X 4 = $400
Misc: $200
Total: $1570
This all assumes that you bought tickets well ahead of time (nose bleeds), stay in a fleabag hotel, eat McD's 3/day. It's probably not unreasonable to double most of these numbers. Then add in that you will use up at least 3 vacation days from work and taking the kids out of school.
Also add in that the NCAA regional is probably the toughest set of games to plan for, because you never really know what region the team will get placed in. SECT & F4 you know well in advance were it will be played. It is probably easy to know werre opening round games will be played (especially when YUM center is a site).
My hat is off to the fans that get there and cheer our team.
Tix: $100 X 4 = $400
Hotel: $150 X 3 = $450
Gas: $3.00 X 40 = $120
Food: $100 X 4 = $400
Misc: $200
Total: $1570
This all assumes that you bought tickets well ahead of time (nose bleeds), stay in a fleabag hotel, eat McD's 3/day. It's probably not unreasonable to double most of these numbers. Then add in that you will use up at least 3 vacation days from work and taking the kids out of school.
Also add in that the NCAA regional is probably the toughest set of games to plan for, because you never really know what region the team will get placed in. SECT & F4 you know well in advance were it will be played. It is probably easy to know werre opening round games will be played (especially when YUM center is a site).
My hat is off to the fans that get there and cheer our team.
Agreed. UK fans spend insane amounts of money at a meaningless conference tourney. It's tough to ask average Joe to pack up and travel four weekends in a row, so this is usually the weekend that gets left out. It's a shame, b/c saturday's game is far more important than playing vandy, miss st, and Florida in nashville.
Yeah I feel like we'll have a much bigger crowd for Saturday. If I didn't have plans on Sunday I'd be going up this weekend.
It cost me and my wife $2100 just for tickets and hotel. That doesn't include food and anything else we decide to do. We spent roughly 3 grand just for the SEC tournament and there was just two of us. I couldn't imagine what it takes for a family of four. There's no shot I could afford to go to the NCAA Tournament games after that kind of dent for a conference tournament.