On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, Brian Morris wrote:

> Also, in this morning's T-U, NCAA committee representative Tim Dillon
> indicated they were quite pleased with Albany, despite the low turn-out
> (5223 Friday, 5614 Saturday.)  "Would we have liked to see more?  Yes,
> we would, and I think we will over the next several years."  He goes on
> to talk about the public needing to get used to the change from campus
> arenas to regional sites.  Of course the East has always had regional
> sites.  Apparently Albany wasn't much behind Colorado at 5128 and 6047
> or the two nights, and Grand Rapids, a paltry 5325 on Friday night.

That's pretty good attendance for Grand Rapids on Friday, considering the
games were on Saturday and Sunday. ;-)  That said, I thought the GR attendance
on Saturday and Sunday was a disappointment.  There was a substantial
Minnesota presence, and a few hundred fans from Duluth and Notre Dame.  I was
surprised at how few MSU fans showed up, though they were the most numerous
group in the arena on Saturday.  Let's just say there was a lot of elbow room.

> Of
> course the attendance pales considerably when compared to the last
> hosting job for the Pepsi in 2000, which drew an average of 8742 for
> the two nights.  (Let's see--UNH, good for 1500, Cornell/Clarkson,
> another 1500...)

Keep in mind that the 2000 East Regional was pumped up by sale of the infamous
package of tickets to the 2000 East Regional and the 2001 Frozen Four.

-- Erik