Annual thread in which the absurdity of the current regional system is discussed

[theprofromdover]

This is PC where season ticket holders often do not attend the games (sometimes not a single game) at all. .

You know Whitey?

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Annual thread in which the absurdity of the current regional system is discussed

Obviously one of the more popular country stars is probably going to outdraw a college hockey event. It won’t even be close.

Even when these regionals are in huge cities, they top out at 11,000 people.

[Kepler]

Re: Annual thread in which the absurdity of the current regional system is discussed

Kill the hosts. Ship the 4's. If all else fails, sh-tcan the regional and go back to 1R and QF best of 3 at campus site.

[ticapnews]

Kill the hosts. Ship the 4's. If all else fails, sh-tcan the regional and go back to 1R and QF best of 3 at campus site.

Easy to say that but the coaches don't want it and the NCAA makes way too much money in the current format. It cleared an estimated $2.1 million from the regionals this year - the lion's share from Providence. Eliminate the bid-to-host scheme and you're eliminating a guaranteed $600,000 from the NCAA's coffers.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Annual thread in which the absurdity of the current regional system is discussed

It’s not like alternative formats for the first round and quarterfinals wouldn’t also bring in money, but I’d agree that there are many unknowns and hidden costs to doing top-seed hosting in the playoffs.

All the griping about the regionals… I don’t know, it feels like people complaining about their games in the NFL. Even if I could agree that there’s a serious problem (which, to differing extents, I don’t), the ideas being thrown out to forcefully solve the issue aren’t very good.

Attendance in regionals won’t be very good unless the sport grows in popularity. And for now, it’s stagnant.

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Annual thread in which the absurdity of the current regional system is discussed

Easy to say that but the coaches don't want it and the NCAA makes way too much money in the current format. It cleared an estimated $2.1 million from the regionals this year - the lion's share from Providence. Eliminate the bid-to-host scheme and you're eliminating a guaranteed $600,000 from the NCAA's coffers.

The NCAA could make up for the lack if the guarantee from the host by controlling the tickets and resulting revenue. After all, the tournament is their event. Home playoff games would almost certainly draw big crowds, sellouts in a lot of places. Charge 45 bucks a ticket, draw 5022 to a game at Notre Dame, for one example, and that's $225,000. Multiply that or a similar number at 8 schools. Even if you then pay the schools/arenas for their actual costs to run the game you are still left with a sizeable profit from each school's game. And that's with a single elimination. A best 2 of three would potentially be even better.

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Annual thread in which the absurdity of the current regional system is discussed

Attendance in regionals won’t be very good unless the sport grows in popularity. And for now, it’s stagnant.

This is likely true. At this stage I don't think even drastically reducing ticket prices would do much good. And the reduced prices would simply reduce revenue unless and until the venue hit the tipping point for selling more tickets to make up for the reduction in per-ticket revenue. My guess is the NCAA's marketing gurus have already crunched those possibilities and that's why the prices are where they are. I think absent multiple local teams (which differs somewhat between the East and Northeast regionals and the Midwest and West ones) you are going to see attendance relatively the same every year.

[cetihcra]

Re: Annual thread in which the absurdity of the current regional system is discussed

The NCAA could make up for the lack if the guarantee from the host by controlling the tickets and resulting revenue. After all, the tournament is their event. Home playoff games would almost certainly draw big crowds, sellouts in a lot of places. Charge 45 bucks a ticket, draw 5022 to a game at Notre Dame, for one example, and that's $225,000. Multiply that or a similar number at 8 schools. Even if you then pay the schools/arenas for their actual costs to run the game you are still left with a sizeable profit from each school's game. And that's with a single elimination. A best 2 of three would potentially be even better.

11 out of 60 teams have arenas that seat 5000+. It may be nice to use ND (or similar schools) as an example, but what happens when one of the 18 schools who's arenas seat less than 3000 are hosting? What if ASU earns hosting rights in their 800 seat barn? What if the arena is booked? The need for contingency plans, and the off-chance of financial disaster is much greater in this scenario. The current situation is viable, even profitable, which is the Mother Ship's ultimate goal.

r

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Annual thread in which the absurdity of the current regional system is discussed

11 out of 60 teams have arenas that seat 5000+. It may be nice to use ND (or similar schools) as an example, but what happens when one of the 18 schools who's arenas seat less than 3000 are hosting? What if ASU earns hosting rights in their 800 seat barn? What if the arena is booked? The need for contingency plans, and the off-chance of financial disaster is much greater in this scenario. The current situation is viable, even profitable, which is the Mother Ship's ultimate goal.

r

I'm mostly in agreement with you about it. I think if maximizing profits are what the NCAA wants, other systems MAY be viable too. After witnessing disastrous regionals in toledo and South Bend I was really on the home-ice bandwagon, but after a few years in a row now of enjoying them on TV, I have drifted back away from that. I think the modest attendance is driven by so many variables we probably won't see it fixed without just simply completely geographically regionalizing the whole tournament, and eviscerating any notion of bracket integrity. That WON'T happen. As it is, I'm OK with it mostly because I enjoy it from a distance as a fan watching the games on TV so much, which is what I suspect the vast majority of us did over the weekend. A different format with home ice for higher seeds means a very different TV experience. One I'm not willing to give up. At the end of the day the games are important whether there are butts in every seat, or butts in a third of them.

[cetihcra]

Re: Annual thread in which the absurdity of the current regional system is discussed

After witnessing disastrous regionals in toledo and South Bend I was really on the home-ice bandwagon, but after a few years in a row now of enjoying them on TV, I have drifted back away from that.

Do we know if the Toledo or SB Regionals were disastrous for the NCAA? Or just for the hosts? While obviously leaving a sour taste in the hosts' mouth, a disastrous Regional probably doesn't matter too much to the NCAA...they're getting their guarantee regardless. If it's returned to campus sites for the first couple rounds, does the NCAA require their guaranteed cut as well? That could suck for smaller rinks.

r

[Bruin]

Re: Annual thread in which the absurdity of the current regional system is discussed

You know Whitey?

Sorry... I'm not getting this one.

[Netman]

Re: Annual thread in which the absurdity of the current regional system is discussed

Sorry... I'm not getting this one.

I did!

[theprofromdover]

Sorry... I'm not getting this one.

There’s a PC fan and poster who’s has season tickets. I saw him at the Dunk Friday for the first time in over a year. 😂

[joecct]

There’s a PC fan and poster who’s has season tickets. I saw him at the Dunk Friday for the first time in over a year. 😂

And I thought it was about the late, somewhat lamented, Whitey Bulger.