Do lacrosse conference championships matter to players, coaches, and fans?
For coaches, conference tournaments matter because they are the route to the NCAA playoffs without an at large bid. For athletes, it can be a lot of travel and the value of a conference tournament vs another game or even a rivalry game may mean more to one individual to another . Whether the game atmosphere resembles a championship also matters. For administrators, conference championships are about budgets, logistics, coach promotions, and marketing opportunities. Fans save their travelling for the NCAA tournament. The lacrosse attendance curve doesn’t start its steep spike until the NCAA Quarterfinals.
Not all lacrosse conference tournaments are set up the same. Some formats work better, and some did not work well. This list is highest to lowest attendance. (Semifinals and Finals only)
1.B1G had little competition for the highest attendance because the ACC did not have a tournament in 2023 (but it will in 2024) and B1G had its tournament in its most desirable host location (Hopkins/Baltimore). Baltimore is friendly to any tournament with Hopkins and Maryland and has a lot of lacrosse fans and has alumni from all B1G schools. B1G has a six-team tournament.
Concerns/Opportunities: B1G played its semifinals at 1pm and 3:30pm on a Thursday making people decide whether to take off work and school to come see the tournament. I live in Baltimore, and I worked. I would have come if the games were at 5pm and 7:30pm.
B1G plays its tournament at Rutgers in 2024. If Rutgers, can’t make its own tournament, B1G should call an audible and play the tournament in Baltimore again. If B1G promoted it, would a Chicago B1G tournament draw fans and be memorable for players?
2.The Ivy Tournament was played at Columbia in New York City. Its not a home game for any Ivy League school, but with all its Alumni in the Big Apple, it might not be an away game for any.
Concerns/Opportunities: I like the tournament in the Big Apple. NYC doesn’t have many big-time games. Is there a dormant market for big time college lacrosse in New York? Can the Ivy League tournament capture a crowd with extra marketing? What about free tickets for all middle and high school players in the boroughs? This tournament might be a way to grow the game?
3.The A10 Tournament was played at Richmond and Richmond won. The A10 was a winner. It had the highest attendance of all the conferences that had one NCAA one bid by a wide margin.
Concerns/Opportunities: Nicely done.
4.The CAA Tournament was played at Delaware and Delaware won. In that sense, it was the same as the A10. Fourth isn’t bad, but the A10 drew about 1200 more fans.
Concerns/Opportunities: Look at the A10.
5.The MAAC Tournament was played at Manhattan College. The MAAC schools are generally small, and this tournament had greater attendance than conference with bigger enrollment and alumni bases. Manhattan College made the semifinals, but the crowd was relatively good without Manhattan in the final. New York City might be a good location for this tournament.
Concerns/Opportunities: Is Manhattan College a good permanent site for the Conference Tournament? Relatively speaking, the MAAC overperformed.
6.The Patriot League Tournament was played at Boston University and Boston University made the semifinals. If BU made the finals, clearly the Patriot League would have jumped higher on this list. This is a 6-team tournament.
Concerns/Opportunities: The only other option than having the #1 seed host and hope they make the final would be to play the tournament at the big city geographic midpoint. New York is taken, but Patriotic Philadelphia is not.
7. In the America East Conference Tournament, #1 Seed Vermont hosted but did not make the final. If Vermont made the final, the tournament attendance would have been fine, but there were a lot of empty seats for a Bryant Albany game played in Burlington.
Concerns/Opportunities: Having the #1 seed as host and hoping they make the final is probably the best option for the America East. Promote the tourism angle of the host for the visiting team. Burlington is a nice town on Lake Champlain.
8. The Big East Tournament pre-selected Valley Fields at Marquette in Wisconsin. Marquette did not participate in this tournament. The Big East is lacrosse’s second most geographically spread-out conference.
Concerns: There are so many I have broken up concerns and opportunities. Marquette was preselected. What was the probability that this tournament was going to be an attendance success? Not much. All the chips were placed on Marquette, which did not average 500 fans for its own home games. Marquette is about 800 miles from the next closest Big East member. This tournament cost programs a lot of money to fly for games in an empty stadium. On the field, the Big East is in competition with the Ivy League as lacrosse’s 3rd best. This tournament structure did not match the level of talent.
Opportunities: Have a merit-based host. Georgetown was the #1 seed and had the Hoyas hosted, this tournament would have competed for the #2 spot for conference tournament attendance. Georgetown might have reached top five nationally for total home attendance. The other option is to preselect Philadelphia or Washington as host. There are lots of alumni in both cities and they are drivable to 2/3rds of the members of the conference. Denver and Marquette might not even hate it as it is a chance to put their brand in front of hotbeds of eastern recruits.
9. The Atlantic Sun Tournament was held at Robert Morris near Pittsburgh. Robert Morris was preselected; however, it made the conference semifinal before bowing out. The final was Utah against Air Force. The Atlantic Sun is the most geographically spread-out conference.
Concerns: This tournament cost programs a lot of travel money to put on. At the Syracuse UNC game played at a high school in Maryland, one of the reasons cited was to reduce travel costs. Those were ACC teams that have a lot of bussable games that have that concern. These ASUN teams have games that require flying left and right.
Opportunities: Have a 4-team tournament spread over two weekends. Have the higher seed host at each round or just have the top two seeds (hosted by the #1) play for the Championship. An Air Force at Utah Salt Lake City Championship would have been more fun, had more fans, and saved money. Give the higher seed seniors a chance to play in front of a home crowd. Sending everybody to Pittsburgh is not a recipe for success.
Big Picture
Conference tournament game are not attendance magnets that outperform regular season games. Some are better than others. For tournaments where the host site is not anywhere near either of the competitors or their alumni, games are anti-climactic and glaringly poorly attended. Some of these problems are self-inflicted. Administrators can work on making the conference tournaments better.
Extra Big Picture
Conference tournaments are sandwiched in and overshadowed by the NCAA Tournament. If the NCAA tournament extended into June; conference tournaments might gain more prestige and benefit from more flexible scheduling. Being open to conference against conference challenges as basketball has done and fan friendly out of conference rivalry games all might fit into the month of May. (ACCs Virginia best attended home game by far was against the B1G Terps. America East’s UMBC’s best attended home game by far was against CAA’s Towson……) Purposefully selected out of conference games can be more marketable than repeat conference games.
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