ACC TOURNAMENT...

Tickets go up for sale to the general public(again) at 10:00a.m. today.. How things have changed when all games were packed and it was a scalper's market to get tickets. You can buy reserved seats for opening night(Tuesday) for just $45.00 which gets you into all three games or general admission seats for $35.00($11.67 per game). Of course, buy the gen. admission seats and sit where you want. I'm sure the Ticketmaster phone(1-800-7454-30000) will be ringing off the hook. ONE NOTE: This will be the first time since 1981 that the Championship will conclude on Saturday night, March 14 at the Gnbo Coliseum.

Board's been clamoring for single-session sales and, to a lesser extent, a Saturday night final for a good while now. Good response to crappy attendance caused by the huge ACC footprint and letting in several schools that don't GAS about basketball.

VaDeac said:

Board's been clamoring for single-session sales and, to a lesser extent, a Saturday night final for a good while now. Good response to crappy attendance caused by the huge ACC footprint and letting in several schools that don't GAS about basketball.

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This oversimplifies the problem. If there was a market for the ACCT among original ACC teams, people would buy tickets. It's plain and simple. TV is a bigger barrier than expansion.

The single session I think may be driven by attendance, but the Saturday final is deffo all ESPN

Deacfreak07 said:

This oversimplifies the problem. If there was a market for the ACCT among original ACC teams, people would buy tickets. It's plain and simple. TV is a bigger barrier than expansion.

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Of course TV plays a role. Sorry the post I banged out at lunch wasn't thorough enough.

When the tournament was 8 teams, it had no peer among tournaments. A fuckallfest among 16 or 18 or however many teams this bastard conference has now isn't even worth watching on TV.

94Deac said:

When the tournament was 8 teams, it had no peer among tournaments. A fuckallfest among 16 or 18 or however many teams this bastard conference has now isn't even worth watching on TV.

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Meh. I grew up with the ACCT and I love it as an event, but this just a lazy argument.

Nothing lazy at all. I don't give a shit about it now. In the late 80s and early 90s, I went to (and was lucky enough) to get tickets. Paid a fair price but it was worth it. You had 8 teams who did full schedule including two during the season. There was a geography and competitive history (Clemson notwithstanding). The anticipation grew from the regular season. Who gives a fuck about Louisville vs Syracuse? Or NCState vs Notre Dame? Lazy is just looking forward to a tournament because of its name. It's been diluted. We're all stinking rich now but the tourney sucks.

94Deac said:

Nothing lazy at all. I don't give a shit about it now. In the late 80s and early 90s, I went to (and was lucky enough) to get tickets. Paid a fair price but it was worth it. You had 8 teams who did full schedule including two during the season. There was a geography and competitive history (Clemson notwithstanding). The anticipation grew from the regular season. Who gives a fuck about Louisville vs Syracuse? Or NCState vs Notre Dame? Lazy is just looking forward to a tournament because of its name. It's been diluted. We're all stinking rich now but the tourney sucks.

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There were a lot better players in the 1980s and 1990s.

Not making the finals since '96 and losing the first game we played almost every year since then regardless of how good we were makes a big difference as well. Duke's decade long dominance didn't help either.

I fondly remember the days when Big Four boosters would join the athletics support clubs of the lowly ACC schools just to have rights to buy tournament tickets.

WakeForestRanger said:

Not making the finals since '96 and losing the first game we played almost every year since then regardless of how good we were makes a big difference as well. Duke's decade long dominance didn't help either.

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Wake went from 1978 to 1994 without making the finals. I still planned the second weekend of March around the ACC Tourney. For me the reasons why I don't care about it as much (if at all) is a combination of expansion and Bz. If Wake doesn't care about the basketball program, then neither do I. And I just can't call a league with Syracuse, Louisville, Pitt, BC, Miami, VT, Notre Dame, etc. the ACC. The FSU addition was tolerable but no thanks to the rest.

For the first 26 years of the ACC, there were two team changes. SC dropped out (and that was only after 18 years) and Tech became a member. For 38 years of the ACC, that was it. Then in 91 the shit started with FSU. In the 23 years since, there have been 8 changes: 7 new faces and Maryland sulks their asses out. When you have stability, you generate rivalries and interest. When you start adding teams and breaking up series to accomodate new and geographically mismatched teams, you've watered it down and made it meaningless. It's cool in March when you have teams with no history and nothing in common playing each other. But within a conference schedule that sucks.

Lots of what 94 says is right, but the biggest change related to the appeal of the ACC Tournament over that time period are the NCAA changes such that all teams hoping to play for the NCAA c-ship no longer have to win the ACC Tournament to get into the NCAA Tournament, and the extensive coverage by television.

The ACC Tournament ain't the Big Four Tournament, but it is still a pretty damn good tournament.

The ACCT is money grab and a dinosaur. It only really matters to teams on the bubble. If it went away, it wouldn't make much difference.

The ACCT did change the NCAAT forever, but those days are gone.

A radical idea to save the ACC Tournament: hold it at the middle of the ACC season, not at the end. We need to add another team so we have 16 teams. During the regular season everybody plays everybody else once, either home or away. Home and away would be reversed the following year for each team. So, that's 15 league games. At the middle of the ACC season - late January of early February, roughly at the time of semester break - we could hold the ACC Tournament over 8 days with games every other day. Teams would be seeded based on their standing in the league at the time of the tourney. Opening game on Saturday, then next round on Tuesday, then Thursday, with the championship on Saturday. Losers would not go home but continue the next round in a losers' bracket, while the winners continued in the winners' bracket. Each round would generate its own winner and loser brackets. So, in the end each team would have played four games, and these games would count in the standings. League would have a champion and a tourney champion.

Advantages:

1. The ACC tourney games would be meaningful because they would count in the overall standings.

2. Potentially once again a considerable money generator for the league and the programs.

3. Would create fan excitement and increased interest.

4. Good revenue for the location, which could be rotated like the ACCT is rotated now.


Disadvantages:

1. Too many league games, a total of 19.

2. Too radical to gain acceptance easily.

3. Need a new ACC member.

That's a pretty radical idea but I think there is some merit to it.

The biggest disadvantage you didn't mention was that it doesn't guarantee two games between UNC and Duke. So no way it happens.

Also location. Who would host an event that happens four times over eight days?

You're right about the additional disadvantages, but maybe a location could be found. It could bring in a lot of money for whoever took it.