NCAA Tix - got the letter over the weekend

[7brwnpsu]

I think the dynamics has changed at least for Cleveland and Pittsburgh. I've been to about 15 NCAAs and in the past, (pre Cleveland), many seats were not filled for Session 1 and 2. Sold but not filled. I assumed people were just not in town yet or meeting up with friends, the bar theory. I myself stood outside Bryce Jorden and Oklahoma City trying to sell extra tickets below face. Cleveland was different, Session 1 was packed and I expect Pittsburgh to be the same. If a ticket was available, it went and at a premium.

For The PSU NCAAs I was only able to sell the finals. If I could go back and have those NCAA Bryce Jordan tickets in today's market, I could retire. No wait, I'd keep em as my double digit NLC is not cutting it as it did for Oklahoma City.

 

[RoarLions1]

The change in ticket sales outside the arena in Cleveland was indeed different than previous years.

 

[aalion]

I was really surprised in NYC that the first session was pretty empty. My seats were in the middle of the row and there was only 2 guys between me and the aisle. That was my first NCAAs so I didnt have a frame of reference but I was surprised.

 

[RoarLions1]

I was really surprised in NYC that the first session was pretty empty. My seats were in the middle of the row and there was only 2 guys between me and the aisle. That was my first NCAAs so I didnt have a frame of reference but I was surprised.

Session I and Session V (Saturday morning) are normally the least-attended sessions, my experience over the years, though both were well attended in Cleveland.

Other than drinking one's self silly Friday night after Session IV, I don't get missing a minute of wrestling at NCAA's (and frankly, those that know me, know I don't understand drinking to that degree, either).

Tickets are expensive, and the wrestling at all sessions is fantastic.

 

[amattaro]

From an NCAA insider, this is an experiment of sorts...take an annually sold-out event, and attempt, or try, a venue where more can go...in this case, a football stadium. Not stated, but surely the case imo, is the added revenue this will bring in.

If I personally had any concerns, it's the distance some will be from the action.

An oversized building that doesn't trap the crowd's enthusiasm and with more bad seats and good. It will be just as bad, if not worse than NCAA hoops in a traditional stadium as opposed to a football field. Even the "good" seats won't be great. I sure hope it doesn't come to be the new normal, but if 25K tickets are sold, probably no going back.

 

[RoarLions1]

An oversized building that doesn't trap the crowd's enthusiasm and with more bad seats and good. It will be just as bad, if not worse than NCAA hoops in a traditional stadium as opposed to a football field. Even the "good" seats won't be great. I sure hope it doesn't come to be the new normal, but if 25K tickets are sold, probably no going back.

If you mean by "no going back" that the majority of NCAA tournaments are going to be held in football stadiums from 2023 on, I don't see that happening.

 

[dbldoofus]

An oversized building that doesn't trap the crowd's enthusiasm and with more bad seats and good. It will be just as bad, if not worse than NCAA hoops in a traditional stadium as opposed to a football field. Even the "good" seats won't be great. I sure hope it doesn't come to be the new normal, but if 25K tickets are sold, probably no going back.

This is how I feel about the outdoor NHL games. Not a good seat in the house. Unless you are on the bench or in the box for slashing.

 

[amattaro]

This is how I feel about the outdoor NHL games. Not a good seat in the house. Unless you are on the bench or in the box for slashing.

You literally couldn’t pay me to go to one of those. And I had Pens season tickets for eight years.

 

[7brwnpsu]

Roar, you are right, if we miss a session it is
Session V. Not from alchohol on my part but a little burnout from the deluge of wrestling. We still try to attend but sleep in a little and make it around 141lb. When your favorite team has 5 going at night, you have that luxury. One big exception was watching James English, he earned my early wake up call and attendenance.

 

[Chickenman Testa]

Roar, you are right, if we miss a session it is
Session V. Not from alchohol on my part but a little burnout from the deluge of wrestling. We still try to attend but sleep in a little and make it around 141lb. When your favorite team has 5 going at night, you have that luxury. One big exception was watching James English, he earned my early wake up call and attendenance.

Yeah - one of these days Session V is really going to be important for us. Lots of points to be had if you don’t have a slew of guys in the finals

 

[matter7172]

If you mean by "no going back" that the majority of NCAA tournaments are going to be held in football stadiums from 2023 on, I don't see that happening.

That will make it a really easy decision to stay home with two computer monitors or two tv's streaming ESPN for all 8 mats at once.

This is how I feel about the outdoor NHL games. Not a good seat in the house. Unless you are on the bench or in the box for slashing.

But you can say you were there. It's sort of like football games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, which has such a shallow bowl that half of the lower bowl and all of the upper bowls feel like a mile away from the field. You literally cannot read the names on the back of the jerseys from the 4th row of the upper level - and you struggle with the numbers if you don't have great long distance eyesight. Couldn't pay me to go there again.

OT rant - that whole stadium is an object lesson in making games a bad experience. Old Giants Stadium had 3 escalators at all four corners of the stadium. Each level had its own escalator. There were also circular ramps for walking up and down. It was a relative breeze getting in and out of the stadium and the old adage that "there's not a bad seat in the house" was largely true. Now you take an escalator with all levels of seating to get to the first level; walk with everyone until you get to another escalator shared by ticketholders for the second and third levels to get to the second level; walk with everyone on those levels until you get to a third escalator for the third level. If you are on the third level, you can walk 16 flights of stairs up or down as an alternative. 16 flights. If you are first row in the third level you are basically 8 stories above the field and 50-60 yards away from the outer edge of the field area. Pure genius. Compared to Lincoln Financial Field in Philly and Heinz Field in Pittsburgh (the only other modern NFL stadiums I've been to), it's a debacle on all levels. Rant over.

 

[CropDuster507]

I think I have to make US Bank my first nationals experience.

 

[RoarLions1]

Roar, you are right, if we miss a session it is
Session V. Not from alchohol on my part but a little burnout from the deluge of wrestling. We still try to attend but sleep in a little and make it around 141lb. When your favorite team has 5 going at night, you have that luxury. One big exception was watching James English, he earned my early wake up call and attendenance.

A couple years ago, Oklahoma State made their big move Saturday morning. NoVa and I suspected they would, as we both understand tournament scoring well, and saw it coming. Based on the seeds, OKST had a lot of potential that morning, and added to their totals with a bunch of bonus point wins. Many PSU fans that travelled with us believed our championship was in the bag. It wasn't, and we ended up winning by a mere 4 points. The arena for that Saturday Morning was not very full. I know that situation doesn't happen every year.

I understand 3 days contains a lot of wrestling. For me, missing any of the action isn't an option.

One thing possible this year that hasn't happened for the last couple, is that we have PSU guys going Saturday Morning at the lighter weights.

 

[NoVa Lion]

A couple years ago, Oklahoma State made their big move Saturday morning. NoVa and I suspected they would, as we both understand tournament scoring well, and saw it coming. Based on the seeds, OKST had a lot of potential that morning, and added to their totals with a bunch of bonus point wins. Many PSU fans that travelled with us believed our championship was in the bag. It wasn't, and we ended up winning by a mere 4 points. The arena for that Saturday Morning was not very full. I know that situation doesn't happen every year.

I understand 3 days contains a lot of wrestling. For me, missing any of the action isn't an option.

Yeah, that was Des Moines. We had 5 in the finals and no one in the consys while OK State had a bunch of guys and went something like 8-2, After Chris Perry beat Matt Brown in the finals we were down by 4 points. Then Ed & Q won their finals matches and we won our 3rd team title in a row. Saturday AM has some great matchups and with only 3 mats going it's a lot easier to follow the action.

 

[Chickenman Testa]

Yeah, that was Des Moines. We had 5 in the finals and no one in the consys while OK State had a bunch of guys and went something like 8-2, After Chris Perry beat Matt Brown in the finals we were down by 4 points. Then Ed & Q won their finals matches and we won our 3rd team title in a row. Saturday AM has some great matchups and with only 3 mats going it's a lot easier to follow the action.

I had to go to a baby shower that day (coincidentally the father was a friend and a big Okie State Guy) and I nervously followed that morning session on my phone.

 

[Chickenman Testa]

A couple years ago, Oklahoma State made their big move Saturday morning. NoVa and I suspected they would, as we both understand tournament scoring well, and saw it coming. Based on the seeds, OKST had a lot of potential that morning, and added to their totals with a bunch of bonus point wins. Many PSU fans that travelled with us believed our championship was in the bag. It wasn't, and we ended up winning by a mere 4 points. The arena for that Saturday Morning was not very full. I know that situation doesn't happen every year.

I understand 3 days contains a lot of wrestling. For me, missing any of the action isn't an option.

One thing possible this year that hasn't happened for the last couple, is that we have PSU guys going Saturday Morning at the lighter weights.

While there’s not much to complain about with all the championships, it would be nice to have more guys in it into Saturday if only not to have huge gaps of time between our matches

 

[tikk10]

Most Saturday morning matches would be the feature match of most duals. They're not as memorable since their purpose is to slot everyone into their 3-8 AA slots--the motivations of the guys left varies. But it's still great wrestling.

 

[RoarLions1]

While there’s not much to complain about with all the championships, it would be nice to have more guys in it into Saturday if only not to have huge gaps of time between our matches

I agree on one point...there's little to complain about regarding the championships.

 

[NoVa Lion]

While there’s not much to complain about with all the championships, it would be nice to have more guys in it into Saturday if only not to have huge gaps of time between our matches

We had 8 wrestling on Saturday this past season. Tied for most ever for PSU and a number only rarely matched or bettered by any team. Without doing any research only Minnesota ever had 10 and the number of times a team had 9 AAs is pretty small.

 

[nerfstate]

I happened to be poking around youtube hoping someone put up more James English NCAA matches today, and came across this--a pretty memorable Session V if you ask me....

 

[RoarLions1]

We had 8 wrestling on Saturday this past season. Tied for most ever for PSU and a number only rarely matched or bettered by any team. Without doing any research only Minnesota ever had 10 and the number of times a team had 9 AAs is pretty small.

Six, all Iowa...if my data is correct.

Edit: Found one more year for the Hawkeyes, confirmed number is six.

 

[nitlion6]

A couple years ago, Oklahoma State made their big move Saturday morning. NoVa and I suspected they would, as we both understand tournament scoring well, and saw it coming. Based on the seeds, OKST had a lot of potential that morning, and added to their totals with a bunch of bonus point wins. Many PSU fans that travelled with us believed our championship was in the bag. It wasn't, and we ended up winning by a mere 4 points. The arena for that Saturday Morning was not very full. I know that situation doesn't happen every year.

I understand 3 days contains a lot of wrestling. For me, missing any of the action isn't an option.

One thing possible this year that hasn't happened for the last couple, is that we have PSU guys going Saturday Morning at the lighter weights.

Friday night I knew Saturday morning was going to be interesting. What made it really interesting was Okie State just kept piling up bonus wins.

A couple years ago I sat in MSG on Saturday morning subtracting Okie State points every match they did not get win with a fall until the championship was secure. The section we were sitting in was rather fan diverse and congratulatory offerings were common. I would respond thank you but it is not clinched yet and would tell them how many more points Okie State needed to not earn to make it official. My entire section knew exactly when Penn State clinched the title.