PMAC mostly empty for tourney
Venues across country report low numbers
Casey Gisclair
Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: Sports
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Some of the region's lowest-attended games were the opening games in the New Orleans and Oklahoma City Regionals played at the PMAC.
In seven Southeastern Conference home games, LSU had an average attendance of 6,178 fans. But in the Lady Tigers' two games in the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament, LSU drew less than 5,000 fans both games.
Tiffany Creel, LSU assistant director of ticket operations, was involved with ticket sales for the Lady Tigers in the NCAA Tournament.
Creel said 3,000-4,000 tickets were sold to LSU fans for the regional, surpassing season ticket sales throughout the year.
Tim Messa is also an assistant director of ticket operations for LSU. Messa said no single factor can explain the drop, but holiday events are traditionally less attended than normal events.
"In the past, we have had baseball games on Easter weekend that have not been as well attended as similar series' in other weekends," Messa said. "It is hard to target, but being [around] Easter certainly did not help."
LSU was required to provide each of the seven visiting teams 100 mandatory tickets, but once those were taken, anyone was able to buy a seat.
The NCAA is the main benefactor from the ticket sales, receiving the majority of the ticket sales. The main benefit to LSU for the weekend was concession and merchandise sales.
Poughkeepsie, N.Y., native Thelma Davis traveled more than 1,400 miles to cheer for her alma-mater, Marist.
Davis said when she arrived in Baton Rouge, she was disappointed by the lack of interest in the NCAA Tournament by opposing fans.
"When I think of LSU, I think of Tiger Stadium and rowdy fans going crazy," she said. "The ones here did that. But we arrived to a half-empty gym. It wasn't a whole lot different that our own conference games, because none of our own fans came."
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