Tourney Attendance Is Up!!

[Hail Red & White]

Once again, the Missouri Valley Conference has done a great job of marketing the league's tournament. Valley fans and non-partisan hoops junkies in the St. Louis area have really bumped up the numbers for this year's tourney.

Thursday night--8013
Friday afternoon--15,186
Friday night--16,681

Within the last 5 years, these numbers would have rivaled the entire tournament's attendance figures, and there are still 2 sessions left to play. Kudos again to the MVC office and the athletic departments at our 10 member schools for making this one of the premier conference tournaments in the nation to attend.

[Nyghtewynd]

As of about midnight last night, there are about 200 tickets left for the semifinal games. It's going to sell out at 21K+.

[bcrawf]

We are going to outdraw the Big XII and maybe even the Big 10...

[Keita44]

This is great, shows the Valley has great fans and that more and more people are recogizing the games as NCAA tourney quality. I would expect it to keep growing.

[bcrawf]

The Semifinal Session is a sellout meaning over 21,000 people...

This might be the best Tournament in all of college basketball...

[shocker3]

Who could watch this tourney and still call the Valley a "mid-major"?:valley:

[bcrawf]

You nailed is shock...

[bcrawf]

22,622 in the house this afternoon. That is INCREDIBLE....

[ISU87]

the SIU announcers said that was how many tickets were sold, they estimated 18,000 actually at the game.

22,622 in the house this afternoon. That is INCREDIBLE....

[Keita44]

Are we going to hit 100k in attendance for this tourney? What is the max that are allowed in for the Semis and the Finals?

Go :valley:

[skinny_uncle]

22,622 in the house this afternoon. That is INCREDIBLE....
Largest crowd in the history of the Scottrade Center. The Valley drew more than the SLU-North Carolina game.

[bcrawf]

the SIU announcers said that was how many tickets were sold, they estimated 18,000 actually at the game.

Thanks for adding some good old ValleyTalk negativity to a great weekend and a great record!!:valley:

[dawg]

Man, I wish my lame butt was there. Sigh. Had two kids with something called roto-virus in back-to-back weeks doing the splash and spray from both ends. Its finally just about over ... maybe I can sleep again after tomorrow.

[Hail Red & White]

Largest crowd in the history of the Scottrade Center. The Valley drew more than the SLU-North Carolina game.

It's also higher than the ballyhooed Illinois-Missouri Braggin' Rights game played each year just before Christmas. :valley:

[AcePurple]

The way this league has grown is remarkable. Maybe Doug Elgin's name needs to be up there w/ the likes of David Stern & Paul Tagliabue as brilliant commissioners of their leauges.

[DB for POY]

If anyone would like to know how hot of a ticket the games were today, scalpers were asking 2-3 times face value. I was dumb and didn't buy ahead of time and had to pay $60 for a $27 ticket, but I have to say it was well worth it.

[Fraydog]

The ticket prices I heard were from $80 to $100 for a single ticket. I ended up watching today's session in the bar. I do have my tickets for tomorrow.

Anyway, I hope we sell out again tomorrow so we can call it the most successful Valley weekend ever.

[DB for POY]

Considering the total attendance is about 1,000 fans short of last years total w/o the championship game, I think we can most definitely say this is most successful Valley weekend ever. Thank you SIU and Creighton for being the class of the valley.