Should Greensboro land the 2012 women’s Final Four, a sellout shouldn’t be a problem, reports the N&R’s Jim Schlosser:
The NCAA need not worry about a half-empty coliseum for a Final Four. Sell outs are automatic, wherever played. The four teams bring 12,000 to 16,000 fans.
The NCAA also sponsors a coaches clinic at the same time and place, which attracts 2,500 coaches. Some bring spouses and children.
The biggest strike against Greensboro may be that it’s not big enough. The NCAA appears to prefer the women’s Final Four in a major city, even if arenas are smaller than here, such as Cleveland’s 19,000-seat venue.
Another strike is the weak 4,834 attendance for last night’s Arizona State-Rutgers game. Such a poor turnout might not even get the Greensboro Coliseum on the radar scope for a Final Four.
Again, coliseum director Matt Brown compares apples and oranges when he professes Greensboro’s love for women’s college basketball:
Brown says the biggest proof of the city’s love of the game appears at the ACC’s Women’s Tournament. Attendance has grown every year since 2000. Several games have sold out. (A black curtain seals off most of the upper deck for women’s ACC and NCAA events, cutting capacity to about 10,000.)
Also, Brown says, North Carolina has contributed heavily to the growth of women’s basketball. N.C. State Coach Kay Yow is a NCAA icon. Her teams, along with Duke and North Carolina, usually are among the nation’s best.
“We aren’t asking for the Final Four every year — just give it to us for one year,” Brown pleads. “We deserve it.”
Still, I can’t help but be skeptical about the turnout for a women’s Final Four that didn’t involve an ACC team from North Carolina. Fans of both the men’s and women’s game have been spoiled for so long that it now seems like nothing less will do.
