What's the attendance been like at Sweet 16?

[NCBacon]

I went many years in a row and enjoyed it immensely, however since I can now watch online for $10 it's sorta a no brainer that I can easily let my imagination take me there from my memory while I save a load of $$$. I used to do it on a dime as much as I possibly could've, and now I'm really doing it on a dime.

 

I worry that this rather inexpensive price will increase eventually, so I just hope it's not too much.

 

People have tossed around lots of ideas as to why the numbers have dropped, and I'm sure that it's a lot of different things. It's disappointing considering its 102 year old history, but the times they are a' changing, and while many like myself are absolute B-Ball junkies, I suppose that for lots others there's other things keeping them preoccupied.

 

I’m a junkie and fondly remember spending the entire tournament with my dad in Lex or Louisville. Nothing better then the years at Rupp and staying at the Hyatt. I’m not struggling financially, but far from rich. I’d love to take my 2 boys (not sure they could sit through 50% of the games) so I just can’t justify spending over $1000 on tickets, hotel and parking. Throw 4 days of food and drink on top of it and it gets really expensive.

 

A few other points:

1. Very few kids these days have he attention span to sit through 15 games. They’d want to be on an electronic device for a decent portion of those games.

 

2. Parents of kids who have children who would pay attention are all ready spending tons of money on other sporting activities. AAU, select soccer, club volleyball, travel baseball etc. The fees and the travel for those eat up a large portion of a sports loving familly’s extracurricular budget.

[Guest BehindTheLine]

1. You really don’t have to best teams in the state playing in this tournament as demonstrated with the 40 point blowout yesterday. You have a lot of matchups people do not care about. Just like in football, games really aren’t too exciting overall (some are, most are not).

2. I think with the size of the court (college vs high school) it takes a while for teams to get acclimated to the floor, again, don’t always have the best ball being played which does not create much excitement....just my opinion.

[Shuttlesworth]

I’m a junkie and fondly remember spending the entire tournament with my dad in Lex or Louisville. Nothing better then the years at Rupp and staying at the Hyatt. I’m not struggling financially, but far from rich. I’d love to take my 2 boys (not sure they could sit through 50% of the games) so I just can’t justify spending over $1000 on tickets, hotel and parking. Throw 4 days of food and drink on top of it and it gets really expensive.

 

A few other points:

1. Very few kids these days have he attention span to sit through 15 games. They’d want to be on an electronic device for a decent portion of those games.

 

2. Parents of kids who have children who would pay attention are all ready spending tons of money on other sporting activities. AAU, select soccer, club volleyball, travel baseball etc. The fees and the travel for those eat up a large portion of a sports loving familly’s extracurricular budget.

 

I've noticed adults on their phones just as much as the kids.

[NCBacon]

I've noticed adults on their phones just as much as the kids.

 

I was there today and on my phone quite a bit ... that’s the downside or plusside (depending on how you look at it) of being able to have your work hard drive in the cloud. There’s no escaping work now, yet I didn’t have to use a vacation day!

[Deaconjim]

When i was a young pup, all schools scheduled Thursday and Fridays off for the state tournament.

[cheapshot]

I don't think people have the passion about sports they once had. Also shows in football attendance and participation.

[Mustang]

Redbook, playing on Sunday, and being cost prohibitive have all contributed to the downturn of the Sweet 16.

 

From what I saw today, the commish appears to be eating up all the profits

[JDEaston]

I don't think people have the passion about sports they once had. Also shows in football attendance and participation.

 

I'm not sure if it's lack of passion, life obligations, etc. Or if it's that nearly everything can be viewed from your own home or nearly anywhere else that wifi or cell phone service exists.

 

With ticket prices at $14 per session, I can see why attendence would drop off. Like someone earlier in the thread mentioned it's not hard to rack up a lot of expenses, vacation days etc if you take a family to the tournament these days. Or you could sit at home and the whole family watch it for $10. So between work obligations and the monetary issue, I can see why people choose not to go, given that it's available on TV.

[Shuttlesworth]

Redbook, playing on Sunday, and being cost prohibitive have all contributed to the downturn of the Sweet 16.

 

From what I saw today, the commish appears to be eating up all the profits

 

Couple years ago he was on his computer the whole time during a night session game. I think during your biggest money maker of the year, you could find time to actually look like you enjoy it.

[sweet16]

I’m sure the commish was hoping there would be a spike in attendance since the NCAA tournament wasn’t going on. If anything I think the crowds maybe smaller.

[rjs4470]

I don't think people have the passion about sports they once had. Also shows in football attendance and participation.

 

Participation is up in sports as a whole. It’s just that there are more sports and activities to play. Plus, it’s not like basketball teams are only showing up with 8 guys, or struggling to find guys to play. The benches are full of players. That’s not true of all sports, but basketball for certain isn’t hurting for players.

[The Bigdog]

There are several factors that lead up to the lower attendance. One being cost, two being students from non playing teams dont attend, three even basketball coaches dont go because now they have to use thier sick days or personal days. One thing also is how teams are made up from All Star teams you dont have the community support.

[bulldog77]

This will be fun . . .

 

Want to increase the attendance? CLASSIFY THE SPORT

[CincySportsFan]

I think this says a lot. I see the countless number of people complaining on social media that Campbell County cancelled school for tomorrow (Note: Walton Verona did also).

 

Walton's Super took some heat for cancelling school as well. A lot of people saying they've got to pay for child care now, or that they extra days at the end of the school year are cutting into a vacation they've already planned, etc.

 

I can't speak for anyone else's situation, but for Walton, there's three contributing factors as to why it was smart to cancel. One, they're a small district, so if 100 kids miss for the game, it has a drastic impact on the ADA percentage. (Much more so than a 5A or 6A school.) Two, they may be hard pressed to cover with substitute teachers if a lot of the faculty take off for the game. And three, it's been 70 billion years since Walton last played in the Sweet 16, so it's not like this has been a regular occurance the way it may be with other schools...so why not party like it's 1999? :lol2:

 

In my opinion, it was the right call to cancel it. (As a sidenote, I told my son that if they hadn't cancelled it for the game, and it got cancelled today anyway for the snow, there'd be a bunch of people complaining about how they would've bought tickets for the game ahead of time had they known there'd be no school. You just aren't able to satisfy everyone.)

[tcjkbt]

As many as 400 students from Butler H.S. could not attend their game because the school could not find bus drivers for the 10 buses they had reserved due to the "sickout" of Jefferson County teachers.