The Patriot League uses a six-team tournament approach with the #1 seed playing hosting the final four. The Patriot League Universities line up nicely on a map. Anchored in Annapolis, the conference stretches up an eastern spine to Boston allowing all buses and no planes.
Navy hosted Loyola drew 651 fans on Tuesday, May 2 in one quarterfinal. This was 446 less fans than when Navy played at Loyola on Friday, April 7.
Lehigh hosted Lafayette in the other quarterfinal also on Tuesday, May 2 and had 963 fans besting their earlier match up also in Bethlehem on Saturday April 1 by over 300 fans.
Bottom line
The good
First, a 6 team playoff with a hosting # 1 seed is a good format for the Patriot League.
The Lehigh Lafayette game had over 300 more fans than Navy and Loyola and almost got to 1000. It was Lehigh’s second largest crowd of the season.
The quarterfinals required really short bus trips. Loyola is 34 miles from Navy. Lafayette College is 17 miles from Lehigh. Is there a bike path between Lafayette and Lehigh? The ASUN and Big East could only dream of these kinds of logistics.
The medium
The Patriot League total attendance was 4th among 8 Division 1 Conferences and was 5th in average attendance.
Host Boston University had 859 attendees at the BU vs Loyola and Army vs Lehigh double header.
The not so good
The attendance at Navy’s quarterfinal was disappointing. It matched the top two teams attendance wise in the Patriot League and Loyola is a mere 34 miles from Navy Marine Corps Stadium. Fans must have sensed that all the juice had been squeezed out of Loyola and Navy’s season.
The unlucky
For attendance reasons, having host BU get bounced in the semifinal meant especially poor attendance in the Sunday final. Army vs Loyola drew 474.
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