NCAA Women's Tournament Format (Home Games)

[KL31NY]

Noticed that only one "upset" happened on the opening day of the women's tournament yesterday; #11 Gonzaga beat #6 Rutgers, but the game was played at the 'Zags home court. I went through the bracket and noticed that nearly every subregional site features the team that plays at each site's arena, including 10th seeded Iowa State hosting 7th seeded Green Bay yesterday (Phoenix won 71-57).

Questions for discussion: does anyone think it's fair to assign home games for different teams in the tournament? How important is this feature to attendance and revenue? Any comments on the subject are appreciated...

[vuweathernerd]

from what i understand, those campus sites are selected long before the tournament field is ever determined. why they then end up letting the host schools play their games at home, however, i do not know. i have a friend who's sister goes to baylor, and she was a little peeved that baylor had to travel for their game despite being the 1 overall seed, while texas a&m, i believe it was, got to play at home.

it may have to do with decreasing travel costs, due to smaller budgets for women's basketball outside of a few perennial programs. but that's pure speculation on my part.

[StlVUFan]

Noticed that only one "upset" happened on the opening day of the women's tournament yesterday; #11 Gonzaga beat #6 Rutgers, but the game was played at the 'Zags home court. I went through the bracket and noticed that nearly every subregional site features the team that plays at each site's arena, including 10th seeded Iowa State hosting 7th seeded Green Bay yesterday (Phoenix won 71-57).

Questions for discussion: does anyone think it's fair to assign home games for different teams in the tournament? How important is this feature to attendance and revenue? Any comments on the subject are appreciated...

I did notice that Green Bay was not the only home team playing on the visitors home court yesterday.  Of course, in Men's basketball, Gonzaga is above the Red Line, which I think means Women's basketball is too, but obviously Rutgers is Big East so it's obviously not a conspiracy against mid-major powerhouses (unless Rutgers is a token crumb to mollify the masses).

I think fairness is not part of the agenda.  Your second question hit the nail on the head.  It's all about attendance.

Women's basketball is not nearly as popular as Men's basketball is.  If they played the 1st and 2nd rounds at neutral sites, those venues would make Kemper Arena in early March 2003 and 2004 look like a packed house.  As someone pointed out, young female athletes don't exactly flock to the sport either, so recruiting is far more a case of demand outstripping supply than in Men's basketball -- after UConn, Tennessee, Stanford, et. al. grab theirs, the rest of Division I is left with the dregs.

I see all of this as a perpetual motion machine, a kind of chicken-and-the-egg paradox.  Women's basketball is not as popular because it's not as good.  It's not as good because it's not as popular.  Very few are driven to play the sport because the real pros play at Storrs and a few other places and it's extremely hard to get in.  It's extremely hard to think of it as a good career choice because it's not popular nation-wide.  It's not popular nation-wide because it's extremely hard to think of it as a good career choice.

Good luck breaking that cycle.  If you do, your reward is going 30-1, getting a 7 seed and playing on #10 Iowa State's home court.  YIPEEE!!!  (I do love how Green Bay slammed the door on that undeserved advantage; my question is: how many fans travel to support the Lady UKs?)

[valporun]

Yes, the sites are determined well in advance. Has to be done this way because a lot of the majors use their arenas for various money making opportunities to help offset the costs of keeping the facilities open. The attendance is a huge factor in the women's game, and they can't have the first round games at neutral sites for the exact reason Stl mentioned. The sites would look as empty as Miami looked for the NIT game against Valpo. It's only when you get to the regional championship sites and Final Four that you start getting more of the major sponsors demanding the NBA-style arenas for the suites and getting seats for employees to go to games too. I honestly don't mind that the women's tournament has to start at actual college facilities. I mean the men's tourney should be the same way, but with the corporate sponsors, CBS television needs, and the hob-knobbing the NCAA gray hairs need, you'll never see each first weekend facilities be strictly home sites of college teams. There are a couple this year, The Pit in New Mexico, and KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, but most of the other sites host professional teams, like Bridgestone Arena in Nashville and the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh with NHL hockey.

The revenue is nice income for the host facility, but it isn't the biggest determining factor in who hosts a first round game, but how well that host school will sell tickets with the home team being at that facility. I remember at Williams Arena in 2004, the Valpo-KState game had a decent crowd for a 10AM start, and some of it was Valpo-KState, and then some trickle-in of Minnesota fans, then near the middle of the second half, you saw some of the UCLA crowd come in for the second game. I think the attendance in the men's tourney looks bad with the "pod system" developed to try and keep the top teams closer to home, and some of the smaller programs wind up traveling to places their fan base might not be able to afford to go. It all plays to the advantage of the fans of the major schools. The thing I still can't like about the "pod system" is when you're playing a West region game in the South or the East, and not in the West region in the rounds of 64 and 32. Does it really make that big of a difference?

[drewsaders11]

Turned on ESPN2 tonight, caught a glimpse of a women's game, and saw it was Louisville at Maryland, actually at Maryland.  Extremely surprised to see that. 

Also, in regards to the pod system and travel for men's basketball, IU is a great example.  Indiana, NM St, VCU, and Wichita St. all had to travel to Portland. Portland!  Now the winner of that quadrant plays in Atlanta.  Ridiculous travel.  And the Portland pod was in the south.  Crazy stuff.

[valporun]

drewsaders, as we mentioned above, the women's tournament is all attendance-based. They have to host the first two rounds at campus sites. If they tried to do it the same way as the men's tourney, the women's tourney would go broke with the rental fees for the same professional facilities used for the men. Not as many fans go to the women's game nationally, unless it's UConn, Tennessee, or Stanford.