There are two issues involved in hosting a tournament, irrespective of
whether it is in ice hockey or another expense.

Issue 1 is the financial issue
        Revenue comes from (by and large) ticket sales.  There may be
        some income from parking and concessions, but ticket sales is
        the main thing.

        Expenses include venue rental and staffing.

Issue 2 is the "local knowledge" issue
        This goes with running any tournament in a venue and can
        make or break a tournament.

Last spring, the west regional was in Colorado Springs. My
understanding was that it would take 4000 seats sold to cover the
expenses. My understanding is that the CC marketing people did an
outstanding job in selling seats far enough in advance that they were
guaranteed not to lose money even if CC didn't make the tournament.
Could that have happened without a host school? I don't think so. The
NCAA just isn't equipped to do a month long marketing campaign (once
every several years) in a location where their knowledge is minimal.


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