On Wed, 31 Mar 1999, Eeyore wrote:
 
Another important difference is that the CWS is in the summer, when people
can more easily travel.  Driving to a west regional in March can be a
crapshoot.  Next year will be the first time a regional is within easy
driving distance of North Dakota.  It's also the first time a regional
will be held in a city considered West by anyone other than the NCAA.
(In fact, Mariucci probably isn't more than a mile west of the
Mississippi).  Here's to Denver getting a regional at some point.  At
least that is a desirable destination.
 
Brian Hvinden
 
 
 
> Ben Flickinger wrote:
>
> > Even though it's not exactly a neutral site (though neither is Madison,
> > Minneapolis, or Joe Louis), I still say Omaha could easily fill up the arena
> > for a NCAA regional no matter who played in it. I mean, if we can fill up a
> > 25,000 seat stadium for the College World Series despite only 1 hometown
> > team ever making it that far (Creighton in 1991, though Nebraska has a shot
> > this year), filling 8,300 seats for 4 hockey games should be no problem even
> > if UNO doesn't make it. And if Omaha ever builds a new arena (fricken
> > legislature is stalling this year's attempt again), I bet we could maybe
> > fill that up too - it's expected to have 12-14k seats for hockey under
> > current plans.
>
> This comparison is meaningless.  There are two very big reasons that the College
> World Series is a different proposition than a hockey regional, and the difference
> in sport is not one of them.
>
> 1) The CWS is an Omaha tradition.  Trying to gauge how a new event, that would be
> there at most on a rotating basis, would draw by looking at an established event
> that people go to every year is silly.
>
> 2) The CWS is a championship; a hockey regional is not.  The finals draw better.
> Two years ago in Milwaukee, with North Dakota, Colorado College, Boston U and
> Michigan, the final four drew a very respectable crowd, if not a sell-out.  Call
> it 17,000-18,000.  This past weekend, with two of the same teams, one from the
> same city as a third and three that are admittedly smaller as a combined draw than
> Michigan, in a city only an hour-and-a-half away, 2500 showed up for the regional.
>
> Ask yourself this question: If the CWS is such a big draw, why hasn't the NCAA
> held a baseball regional north of Wichita and east of the Sierra Nevadas in more
> than a decade?
>
> J. Michael Neal
>
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>
 
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