Des Moines WNCAA attendance

flynnhicks03 · 03-24-2008, 08:56 AM

I've been out of the state on vacation, and not been paying attention to what's been going on with the women's tourney. How has the attendance been? Better than expected or worse?

CRAZYGREG · 03-24-2008, 09:02 AM

I would have to say I was both pleased and disappointed. I was very pleased by ISU fans and the amount of them there!! We rocked the arena!! I am disappointed in how Wells Fargo had the tickets set up. Everyone bought reserved seats thinking they were going to be the best available seats. Instead Wells put the General Admissing seating down low behind the baskets and the reserved seating up top in the 200 level. Becuase of this the 200 level was completely filled, in fact they had to open up the 300 level on the west side. the lower level behind the baskets was only about half to 3/4 full.

cycloneworld · 03-24-2008, 09:07 AM

Anyone know how attendance/ticket sales in DM were compared to other cities?

mjones34 · 03-24-2008, 09:10 AM

Yeah I learned the GA was better for tonight's game and will be excited to sit down low!

Duff · 03-24-2008, 09:25 AM

Is nobody questioning the announced attendance of 9,200 at the Georgia Tech game. I was at the Wells Fargo that day, and I'd bet my house that attendance was at least 13,000. Capacity is 16,000-plus, and I guarantee that there were not 3,000 empty seats. What's with this?

flynnhicks03 · 03-24-2008, 09:55 AM

Sounds like, overall, attendance has been good (dare I say very good?), despite some problems with tickets. I think that will bode well for Des Moines getting a men's tourney round in the future.

Stumpy · 03-24-2008, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by CRAZYGREG

I am disappointed in how Wells Fargo had the tickets set up. Everyone bought reserved seats thinking they were going to be the best available seats. Instead Wells put the General Admissing seating down low behind the baskets and the reserved seating up top in the 200 level. Becuase of this the 200 level was completely filled, in fact they had to open up the 300 level on the west side. the lower level behind the baskets was only about half to 3/4 full.

On the seating chart off of the ticketing website, it clearly showed where General Admission seating would be placed. That doesn't make the way they set it up any better (they should have done as you said and made GA the balconies), but a little research would have prevented the confusion.

I was surprised that attendance was announced as just over 9,000. It was a great crowd that stretched to the third level and I would have estimated 12,000. Clearly my spatial relationship skills are not the finest.

And on a final, unrelated note, does anyone else loathe the word guesstimate? I feel dirty just typing it.

frontrangeclone · 03-24-2008, 10:09 AM

why does the press release for the NCAA tourney games indicate that capacity at WFA is 14,707, yet the arena info page for the iowa events center says basketball cap. is 16,110... that seems to be quite a difference, esp. considering all of the issues over whether WFA was big enough to host a Men's NCAA 1st/2nd Rounder as well as the NCAA wrestling championship (links below show examples of what I'm talking about). Perhaps the 14,707 are seats available to the general public after seats for the media and bands are used up?

ISU Plays No. 7 Rutgers in NCAA Second Round - Iowa State University Athletics Official Web Site - www.CYCLONES.com - Iowa State Cyclones Sports

Iowa Events Center - Arena Info - Wells Fargo Arena

HGPuck · 03-24-2008, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by Duff

Is nobody questioning the announced attendance of 9,200 at the Georgia Tech game. I was at the Wells Fargo that day, and I'd bet my house that attendance was at least 13,000. Capacity is 16,000-plus, and I guarantee that there were not 3,000 empty seats. What's with this?

I'm pretty sure it is right only because of the electric ticketing gives a pretty accurate number. The attendance number probably did not include some of the people in the arena (bands, teams watching, staff, media, ect.) and also the curtain covering the front of some of the balcony seats makes it look like almost all the seats are full when there are a few thousand empty behind it. After leaving the game I was guessing 10k maybe pushing 11.

ajk4st8 · 03-24-2008, 10:31 AM

Did they have to pull the curtain on the upper deck?

I think ISU WBB fans should be really excited to have around 9k fans at a NCAA game. That is crazy good for WBB.

jdoggivjc · 03-24-2008, 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by flynnhicks03

Sounds like, overall, attendance has been good (dare I say very good?), despite some problems with tickets. I think that will bode well for Des Moines getting a men's tourney round in the future.

From what I remember from threads months ago, it's likely not going to happen due to the fact that WFA is several hundred seats short of making the capacity minimum, and there aren't enough hotels in the vicinity to meet minimum either. Also, considering ISU would likely be the "host" institution, you'd never get to see the men play there (as this is a rule that varies greatly from the womens' tourney - in the mens' tourney, the host institution is NOT allowed to play at home if they make the tourney, while in the womens' tourney the host school is REQUIRED to play at home if they make the tourney)

The only way you'd ever see ISU men play at WFA is if it somehow is expanded by several hundred seats, several more hotels are built in Des Moines, Drake hosts, and ISU earns a #1 seed (or is at least a very good #2 seed).

CTAClone · 03-24-2008, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by jdoggivjc

From what I remember from threads months ago, it's likely not going to happen due to the fact that WFA is several hundred seats short of making the capacity minimum, and there aren't enough hotels in the vicinity to meet minimum either. Also, considering ISU would likely be the "host" institution, you'd never get to see the men play there (as this is a rule that varies greatly from the womens' tourney - in the mens' tourney, the host institution is NOT allowed to play at home if they make the tourney, while in the womens' tourney the host school is REQUIRED to play at home if they make the tourney)

The only way you'd ever see ISU men play at WFA is if it somehow is expanded by several hundred seats, several more hotels are built in Des Moines, Drake hosts, and ISU earns a #1 seed (or is at least a very good #2 seed).

But would Des Moines be considered a HOME game for the Men? Didn't Michigan State just play 20-30 minutes away from their home stadium when we played them in the tourney?

CRAZYGREG · 03-24-2008, 01:08 PM

Originally Posted by cycloneworld

Anyone know how attendance/ticket sales in DM were compared to other cities?

On the NCAA website i found the statistics for attendence for last year (06-07). The average attendence for the NCAA tourny was 5,880. I can not find anything for this year yet.

http://www.ncaa.org/stats/w_basketba...attendance.pdf

ajsp · 03-24-2008, 01:20 PM

Originally Posted by CRAZYGREG

I would have to say I was both pleased and disappointed. I was very pleased by ISU fans and the amount of them there!! We rocked the arena!! I am disappointed in how Wells Fargo had the tickets set up. Everyone bought reserved seats thinking they were going to be the best available seats. Instead Wells put the General Admissing seating down low behind the baskets and the reserved seating up top in the 200 level. Becuase of this the 200 level was completely filled, in fact they had to open up the 300 level on the west side. the lower level behind the baskets was only about half to 3/4 full.

Not trying to be a nay sayer, but the area directly behind the baskets was reserved for each of the 8 teams at the tournament. We saw at least two of the teams come the ISU game to watch.

frontrangeclone · 03-24-2008, 01:22 PM

[quote=jdoggivjc;418475]From what I remember from threads months ago, it's likely not going to happen due to the fact that WFA is several hundred seats short of making the capacity minimum, and there aren't enough hotels in the vicinity to meet minimum either. Also, considering ISU would likely be the "host" institution, you'd never get to see the men play there (as this is a rule that varies greatly from the womens' tourney - in the mens' tourney, the host institution is NOT allowed to play at home if they make the tourney, while in the womens' tourney the host school is REQUIRED to play at home if they make the tourney)

I'm glad Des Moines has made strides for entertainment, attractions and to make the city more vibrant, but what the bleep were the planners doing when they built WFA? perhaps it went like this....phone rings in Indianapolis..."Uh, hello, NCAA? yes, we're from the Polk County, Iowa, planning comission, we were wondering what the minimum capacities need to be for facilitites regarding NCAA Men's basketball and wrestling tournament sites? 17,500? yes. Great! thanks!" ...click. Phone rings in Angela Connelly's office "yes, ma'am? we researched that the NCAA needs an arena that holds at least 17,500 for mens' b-ball and wrestling tournament events. Connelly: too bad! we don't care what the NCAA thinks, we're not putting 1,300 more seats in no matter what anyone says!, we really haven't financed this thing right, but that stays in this phone call, got it!"
Seriously, for Iowa, the state of IOWA to not host the NCAA wrestling championships at some point is like having the NHL all-star game or hall of fame taking place in New Mexico.