Are you not ready to wish college basketball goodbye for the year? Do you wish you could see just one more unexciting blowout? Are you a fan of subpar hoops, like you saw last night? Well, you’re in luck, because tickets for tonight’s UConn-Louisville women’s national championship game are still available.
(Don’t expect many wide angle shots of tonight’s game.)
As of press time, I’m able to get seats as low as the plaza level, which are the best in the house besides the folding chairs on the floor. But to be fair, it’s tough to sell 72,000 seats to any event, like the men’s title game was able to do last night. What’s that? This game isn’t in a giant arena, but the 20,000-seat Scottrade Center in St. Louis? And what else, you say? It’s clear no one gives a damn about women’s basketball? Well, you said it, not me.
They’re charging $81 for a session ticket, which is cute phrasing, since the session is one game. And that game will be over before the first TV timeout. But if you can get there near game time, you can probably talk a scalper down into selling you a ticket in exchange for cab fare and a hearty handshake.
Louisville fans, St. Louis is only a 4-hour drive! And if you leave early, say, when UConn takes a 20-point lead eight minutes in, you can be back on campus in time for Jimmy Fallon!
Come on, you get a chance to visit St. Louis, which is a heck of a town. There’s the Arch, and … um … the Bowling Hall of Fame, and … uh … did I mention the Arch?
We’ve already taken the NCAA to task for this mess of a tournament, where games are scheduled wherever they’re likely to sell out. So how did they drop the ball here by not playing this game at a YMCA gym? What a frigging joke. At least the players will be able to high five their parents during timeouts.
1:50 pm on April 7th, 2009
I'm wondering if all college sports have to be fan-driven to be a success? Oh, I must have forgot that it's not a money-making, large crowd draw venture which means it can't help validate your worthless, no-count career (hobby).
2:34 pm on April 7th, 2009
No, they don't, but the NBA, ESPN, and the NCAA trying to force women's bball down the throat of the sports viewing public is getting out of hand. I don't know how many years we are into this "girl power" relic of the 90's, "we got game" etc., but this has gotta stop. NO ONE IS WATCHING/CARING.
3:22 pm on April 7th, 2009
""where games are scheduled wherever they’re likely to sell out."" Um … I don't think they did that, otherwise the UT women would have played their 1st round in Chattanooga or Western Kentucky, closer to home (they do draw the fans near Knoxville) and THEN been eliminated.
And we all agree with Festus, NO ONE IS WATCHING or CARING.
3:58 pm on April 7th, 2009
Festus, how are they forcing you to watch collegiate women's sports? You can change the channel or maybe, just maybe, turn the d*mn thing off. Parker, if you don't care about chick b-ball, why did you care enough to reply? Once, long, long ago, being a college athlete was an extra-curricular, personal growth activity that could also be an entertainment for your fellow students. Now, a college sport's worthiness is judged by those who only care if it can fill some of their time watching TV or give them somewhere to go if they can afford to purchase a ticket. Luckily, most college athletes don't care that you care not to watch. Maybe their school AD does, but that's not the reason most real scholar athletes compete.
9:33 am on April 8th, 2009
No one imp., you make some good points, but my post was mostly about how the tournament did not schedule a team to make more money in the 1st round of the tournament.
True, scholastic athletics was originally supposed to be "extra-curricular, personal growth activity that could also be an entertainment for your fellow students". But unfortunately now, there is money involved.
I replied because it is a free country. Also, when I get hired to be a camera op on any game, men's or women's, I get paid, even if no one is watching. Because of this, I'm happy the networks are trying to be 'equitable' .