ACC still up in down times
Mar 13, 2009
Tags: ACC
What, worry about ticket sales? While the ACC Tournament will not touch the numbers of the last time at the Georgia Dome of almost 40,000 fans, it is clear the the ACC is the tournament that will always be the biggest draw this time of year no matter where it is placed. 26,352 fans have come to Atlanta to in tough economic times to cheer their schools on to the ACC title, and around the nation there are still plenty of good tickets available for conference tournaments at the SEC in Tampa and the Pac-10 in Los Angeles.
While the ACC was prepared for thirty-six thousand plus fans, they are still ahead of the SEC playing at the St Pete Times forum. Attendance for the first round yesterday for the SEC was between 11,000 and 12,100 fans in a 21,000 seat arena. At the mammoth Staples Center in LA the Pac-10 brought in under 11,000 fans, well under the capacity for the West Coast's elite conference. Even the heartland has felt the crunch with the Big 10 and Big 12 not seeing the turnstiles move with the fever of the past. While the ACC is down, it is still on top in Basketball.
To put this into set terms, if the ACC was in Greensboro, the decided best place to hold the "Tournament" by schools, fans and media,there would be roughly 3,000 people left outside (the Coliseum holds 23,500 for hoops). While the cavernous Georgia dome looks empty in sections in the upper deck, the seats that need to be sold have been, proving again the appeal of the ACC where it is still a basketball conference, and that's a good thing.
