OT: Albany shooting for NCAA bid for 2014 or 2015

[cliftonparksufan]

Not sure if Orangeyes already posted this. Albany has hosted twice before: 1995 and 2003 (obviously). Sounds like they might have a good chance.

http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/blog/2012/10/albany-times-union-center-ncaa-bid.html

 

[OttoMets]

I assume this is a bid for a subregional?

And am I nuts, or did the Knickerbocker/Pepsi/Whatever Arena have a lot fewer than 17,500 seats in 2003?

Either way, that'd be great. Albany was a terrific host city ten (yikes!) years ago.

 

[jordoo]

It worked out well for us last time.

 

[Rocco]

I assume this is a bid for a subregional?

And am I nuts, or did the Knickerbocker/Pepsi/Whatever Arena have a lot fewer than 17,500 seats in 2003?

Either way, that'd be great. Albany was a terrific host city ten (yikes!) years ago.

No it had 17,000. I went to school around there.

 

[sutomcat]

I assume this is a bid for a subregional?

And am I nuts, or did the Knickerbocker/Pepsi/Whatever Arena have a lot fewer than 17,500 seats in 2003?

Either way, that'd be great. Albany was a terrific host city ten (yikes!) years ago.

They list the capacity as 17,000 and it might be for concerts but for basketball is it 15,229.

Link

I would rather Albany and Buffalo get these bids than any place else. You can't beat a 2 hour ride for an NCAA game.

 

[OttoMets]

They list the capacity as 17,000 and it might be for concerts but for basketball is it 15,229.

Link

I would rather Albany and Buffalo get these bids than any place else. You can't beat a 2 hour ride for an NCAA game.

Yeah, ~15,500 is about what I remember; it seemed likely that that smaller capacity wasn't helping them get more bids.

I'm really partial to Albany over anyplace else (Buffalo included). Part of that is the great memory of 2003, but it also gives easy access to more of our fans. Syracuse folks can get there quickly and New York fans can get there in 2.5 hours on Amtrak. It's a terrific location.

 

[sutomcat]

Yeah, ~15,500 is about what I remember; it seemed likely that that smaller capacity wasn't helping them get more bids.

I'm really partial to Albany over anyplace else (Buffalo included). Part of that is the great memory of 2003, but it also gives easy access to more of our fans. Syracuse folks can get there quickly and New York fans can get there in 2.5 hours on Amtrak. It's a terrific location.

Buffalo has a better setup, more restaurants and bars near the arena (last I knew Albany didn't even have a sports bar) but I agree, it is ideally located for SU fans.

The relative small size of the arena is a problem. Let's hope it is overlooked and they win their bid.

 

[KaiserUEO]

Yeah, ~15,500 is about what I remember; it seemed likely that that smaller capacity wasn't helping them get more bids.

I'm really partial to Albany over anyplace else (Buffalo included). Part of that is the great memory of 2003, but it also gives easy access to more of our fans. Syracuse folks can get there quickly and New York fans can get there in 2.5 hours on Amtrak. It's a terrific location.

the other thing is, Albany will sell all 15500 and all 15500 will show. attendence at the 1st and 2nd round has been horrible lately. or what is it, the 2nd and 3rd, i have no fn clue. but whatever, arenas look empty on tv.

 

[OttoMets]

the other thing is, Albany will sell all 15500 and all 15500 will show. attendence at the 1st and 2nd round has been horrible lately. or what is it, the 2nd and 3rd, i have no fn clue. but whatever, arenas look empty on tv.

Higher rounds, too. Salt Lake looked pretty empty on television three years ago. And Boston wasn't full, either. Much better than recent crowds in places like Miami, though.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Yeah, ~15,500 is about what I remember; it seemed likely that that smaller capacity wasn't helping them get more bids.

I'm really partial to Albany over anyplace else (Buffalo included). Part of that is the great memory of 2003, but it also gives easy access to more of our fans. Syracuse folks can get there quickly and New York fans can get there in 2.5 hours on Amtrak. It's a terrific location.

Albany is a great college basketball town. Siena averages more than a lot of schools in the bigger conferences.

 

[orange79]

Higher rounds, too. Salt Lake looked pretty empty on television three years ago. And Boston wasn't full, either. Much better than recent crowds in places like Miami, though.

I was at Boston last year ( ) , and I didn't see many empty seats. A few, particularly for the OSU game, but not many.

 

[sutomcat]

I was at Boston last year ( ) , and I didn't see many empty seats. A few, particularly for the OSU game, but not many.

Boston was fine...it was a sellout and tickets were really scarce. Pittsburgh on the other hand was an awful site as Pitt fans bought a ton of tickets thinking they would be seeded there.

They ate a lot of them or waited until the last minute to dump them, making it a hard ticket to get for a lot of Syracuse fans.

Great city though.

 

[OttoMets]

Boston was sold out, but a number of those seats went unused. I was there; I don't think the building was more than 85% full for either of our games. Probably closer to 70 or 75% for much of the Wisconsin game.

The secondary market makes it difficult to get a full house; all the tickets for March get bought up the day the NCAA releases them, and not all of them end up getting resold.

 

[Alsacs]

The more Albany, Buffalo regionals the better. Ideally they would be 1st and 2nd round sites. As we will be a protected top 4 seed more often than we will be in a position to pick our ideal regional final site. Regional finals for the East are pretty rotated among Boston, Philadelphia, East Rutherford(which will become Brooklyn), Washington D.C., and Syracuse.

 

[LPOrange]

I hope they win the bid. Let's make Albany into Fort Oranje again.