(04-02-2015 11:12 AM)JMUDunk Wrote: Yea, that's pretty awful, especially the total attendance. But no where in there does Yeagar say anything about "Huge Success". C'mon.
Maybe moving it back to Richmond would have better attendance again, probably depends on the teams in the hunt. But the Mausoleum is a lot bigger, so probably costs considerably more and it's not as if people didn't b!tch and moan about that place enough.
What's he supposed to do? Cancel the damn thing?
Based on the comments here, It's hard to believe anyone posting on this thread has actually even attended the tournament in Baltimore.
Embarrassing? Compared to what, the ACC? Certainly not compared to CUSA, the Sunbelt - even the A10 in Brooklyn is just a sea of empty seats unless VCU is playing.
And these tourneys with home seeds early are not an improvement. Look at some of the attendance numbers from the AEast, Big South, Patriot, etc. at their home tourney games. They are less than what the CAA brings into Baltimore for the early rounds. The AEast final at UAlbany was a sellout of about 3,000 - about half the 5,700 W&M and Northeastern had in neutral Baltimore. Not sure the Sunbelt even had 5,700 for their entire tournament.
This "JMU mob" mentality, also a myth. In two years in Baltimore, JMU hasn't even filled a section. The tourney is going to continue to depend on Delaware, W&M, Towson and Drexel to sell most of the tickets, and they will. Yeager isn't blind, he certainly knows that.
I understand the massive anti CAA feeling on this board here but seriously, the comments here just aren't even objective. Baltimore has actually worked out far better so far than most predicted. No mid major will ever have a tourney like the CAA we had several years ago with the benefit of VCU, ODU and Mason - but those days are forever gone. For the current CAA, Baltimore is the perfect location and Yeager is smart to extend.