Anyone care to venture a guess as to the attendance for Wednesday night games?  I can't see NIU, WMU, and CMU bringing a lot of fans.  Hope UT has a good showing.

I know of two people there.  But we may leave early if it gets too boring.  At least we will get a crack at the fresh hot dogs instead of the nasty ones on Saturday. 

People can also buy through the schools.  They will be positively dying to dump tickets.  

And this is why I kind of have a problem with the Quicken Loans Arena people using this site to advertise tickets. I understand they put together a special deal for people who want to attend all the sessions, but it seems to me that buying tickets from them hurts our school.

I'm only able to go to the Championship game (knocking on wood), but I've got my tickets ordered through OUr ticket office.

Capitalism. They gotta make some money too.

The color guy on KNR said he was impressed by the turnout.

Good guess. 2,523 says the box score of the second game.

Also, just out of curiousity, I checked out the women's attendance in the afternoon: 612. Everyone who buys a tournament package gets complimentary women's tickets, so however many of those were sold I'm guessing is included in that number.

3084 for the afternoon session in 2010.

3311 for the afternoon session in 2011

There should not be more than three rounds in Cleveland no matter how you slice it. The quarters at least have some people in the stands, the semis and finals are usually very well attended. It can't help the MAC to be showing an empty nba arena for 1/8 finals and it probably costs them a crapload of money to have the arena the extra day.

Regardless of what the format is, Cleveland should be reserved for the quarters and beyond.

I agree (though I think they had the women's quarters on Wednesday last year). The problem is a little logistical if you want to have the second round on campus sites, as teams need a travel day to get to the second round and to Cleveland. So you'd probably have to end the regular season midweek instead of on the weekend.

How embarrasing would it be to be on page 6 of the Columbus sports page as a marquee event IN TOWN while the Bucknuts and the Big Ten tourney dominates the headlines from CHicago or Indianapolis.

I agree with the idea of moving it to Columbus but at least the hotels, arena, restaurants are all walkable  in Cleveland.  Detroit, Toledo and yes Rockford were ugly....but Columbus press just really is a wildf card. At least the PD devotes it's sports page to the MAC. I am not familiar, hOw is the area around Nationwide with regard to hotels, restaurants and walkable attractions? Columbus is pretty centrally located aalthough Mix intmated tonite that Toledo might not have as many fans as Ohio because Athens is so much closer to Cleveland. I make that drive from Toledo on 80 pretty quickly Steverino.

If it ain't broke, why fix it?  The Cleveland tournament has been a HUGE success.  It may not be perfect, but it has been the best thing the MAC does.  

Attendance would double or triple?  Semis and finals in Cleveland have averaged at least 9,000 and close to 10,000.  You think these sessions would draw 18,000 or 27,000 in the Nationwide Arena?

Do people honestly think the venue is the problem, or do they just want the tournament in a more convenient location for themselves? Double or triple the attendance in Bucknut land? That's got to be a joke. Cleveland is basically an hour from two of the best programs in the MAC. Eliminating a bunch of Kent and Akron fans isn't a really good recipe for success. Any problems with attendance have a lot more to do with the teams playing and their respective fan bases than the location of the tournament. You really think the drive from DeKalb, Mount Pleasant, or Kalamazoo would be more appealing if it was in Columbus? Those teams were awful, and if you're honest with yourself, you know you  wouldn't drive up from Athens to watch a sub-500 Bobcat team whether it was in Columbus or not. No matter where it is, weekday nights and short notice will always conspire to put a crimp on attendance. Cleveland has been a good host and it's far more neutral and central for the league. I wish attendance was better, but we're talking about league where the #1 and #2 attendance programs averaged around 6,000 and 4,000, and every other team was well below that. Changing where we're playing won't change the persistent apathy of the average MAC fan, nor will it change the poor perception of the league from the casual hoops fan.