Was the NCAA tournament a success?

[ZYX]

Well duuhhh, of course it was. I'm so sick of people saying that Tulsa did a terrible job of hosting the event and that it will never come back. These people do not realize that Tulsa wasn't the only city without a sellout crowd. NCAA tickets are expensive, and their sales were down all across the board. And with that said, Tulsa still sold a bunch of tickets, ending up about mid range compared to other cities.

So what do you think? Was the NCAA tournament a success?

[sgrizzle]

I also think that most Tulsans were still in shock. Plenty of people were thinking "you mean that thing, is HERE?"

I want to go to a future event. I predict NCAA Tulsa 2014

[Breadburner]

Of course it was.....Would it have been more of one with OU TU ORU or osu in the mix...Yes....

[ttownclown]

Yes.  Attendance was more than the first rounds in OKC last year (by a slim margin).  I also think that the "Thunder" has stole some of the state's college hoops thunder, so to say.  I think in years past, that OKC was able to draw ticket sales from Tulsa for their NCAA events.  However, I have an inking that Tulsa didn't pull very many from OKC.  This is due to the fact they now have an NBA presence and there was no desire to drive down to turnpike to see a non-Oklahoma based college bb team.  I really think this thing would have sold out if OU, OSU, TU or even ORU would have been in the mix.  Just poor timing for Tulsa. 

And again, please don't confuse me with a "new" poster with a similar name....

[ZYX]

And again, please don't confuse me with a "new" poster with a similar name....

Yeah, someone's not too creative.......

[Teatownclown]

And again, please don't confuse me with a "new" poster with a similar name....

Dude, I had no idea. Seriously! Did you play in the old Negro Minor Leagues?

So, you are now the second poster to complain about TNF messin' with your moniker. The other one was that evil doosche, AOX!

[Conan71]

Do any of the first round sites ever sell out?  Tulsa I think did quite well drawing KU, UT, and UM.

I hadn't heard of anyone calling it a bust other than some unnamed references in the news to some Brady District business people who were complaining not only did they not get their share of NCAA business, but their regulars stayed away.  Curious who some of these were.

Just guessing, but I assume those business owners didn't bother to buy advertising in any co-op ads with other merchants or official event literature or guides.  They figured they'd get free fall-off.  Just like the morons on south Lewis when the PGA and US Open came to Southern Hills.  You gotta pay to play or have a great location.

Along those lines, there really is no logical connector from the Brady to the arena by foot.  It can be a little sketchy to a visitor from out of town.  Anyone know if there were shuttles from the Main & Brady/Cameron areas?

[Teatownclown]

There was such a shuttle from the Brady.

Just wait until Boulder gets fixed.

[Townsend]

I watched the shuttle drive into Brady several times Sunday.

[we vs us]

A couple of good articles from the TW;

Tulsa likely to bring in more tournaments.

and

Turnout for NCAA games falls short.



From the hospitality standpoint, this was nothing but win.  Lots of high dollar revenue made it to town, and it was spread throughout the city, rather than just concentrated downtown.  Also, Klein is right.  Aside from the one-time boost to the economy that this represented, it's a HUGE proving ground within the sporting event community.  If you can put this feather in your cap -- almost regardless of how much actual revenue you generated -- it definitely allows you to book more, and more varied events in the future. 

I work pretty closely with the TSC, and they have some serious irons in the fire.  The things they can bring in might be less high profile but they have some real opportunity to generate lasting business. 

[sgrizzle]

Tulsa World's drama queen piece on low attendance made me roll my eyes and close the paper. Gee, Cincinatti had higher attendance. Of course they had Ohio State playing there, which is a good choice to win the tournament and within a short drive from the arena. Oklahoma had 0 of 4 teams in the tournament this year.

They also didn't compare against past years, etc. Not to mention, some places have tournaments every year or nearly every year. We had 3rd highest sell-out percentage in a town where people don't plan "in March I'm going to plan a trip to X to see the NCAA tournament"

[Conan71]

Random thoughts:

Grizz, I didn't read the World story as being so much negative but rather what we could do better next time.  I suspect we will get more prelim dates.  Tulsa is a great sports town and if we get one of the five area schools in (including ORU and Arkansas) on a future date, we could get closer to a sell-out.

I know there's a very strong KU alumni presence in Tulsa as well as Lawrence and Kansas City (another city with quite a few alums) being within a four hour drive.  What was attendance like for their games?

I also understand Memphis fans bought a lot of tickets, but Texas fans bought fewer than expected.  How many could one really expect to see from Boston or Oakland, Michigan?

One of my friends was going to go with another friend who bought the weekend package until he figured out he could get better seats by calling Boston U's athletic department and buying some single session tix.

Looking at the MSA sizes of the other tournament sites, I really don't see how anyone can point to this as a FAIL.  They have to know Tulsa won't sell as many tickets as Dallas, Houston, or KC in this area.

[Breadburner]

I wonder if having it during spring-break had a positive or negative impact......

[Conan71]

I wonder if having it during spring-break had a positive or negative impact......

I was wondering about the St. Paddy's weekend possibly being a deterrent to people going downtown.  It's never a help when the media starts telling people they probably should not to drive to lunch if they don't want to lose their parking space.  Some people will avoid parking and traffic mayhem so that easily could have cost them sales if the media was playing that angle up a bit much.  I didn't go anywhere near downtown late last week, even passed on St. Paddy's events.

[we vs us]

I wonder if having it during spring-break had a positive or negative impact......

This was always going to negatively impact local attendance.  Folks at TU and TSC have always known this was going to be a scheduling challenge.  Kinda hard to change either the TPS schedule or the NCAA schedule, though.