By Jim Alexander OC Register SCNG.
Bottom line, literally: With Fullerton, Long Beach, UC Irvine, UCR and CSUN and the conference office in Irvine within easy driving distance of Anaheim (which, remember, is something of a tourist attraction as well) and Cal Poly, UCSB, Cal State Bakersfield and UC San Diego within a reasonable distance, someone needs to explain to me why the
outskirts of Vegas are a better fit than the conference’s own back-yard.
Thursday night’s Big West at tendance, for CSUN against Hawaii and UC Riverside against Long Beach State: 1,227. ... And here’s a reminder: For
the previous 19 years, from 2001 through 2019, the Big West held its tournament in Anaheim, a decade at the Anaheim Convention Center and nine years at Honda Center. Yes, the crowds might
have gotten swallowed up when the tournament moved to the larger venue, but they certainly drew more than this. The Convention Center’s basketball configuration seated 7,500, which seemed perfect: Big enough to handle Big West crowds, small enough to feel intimate.
At Honda Center, championship game attendance for most of those years was in the 5,000 to 6,000 range, with a high of 7,564 in 2012 when Long Beach defeated UCSB. No, the Big West didn’t come close to filling the building, and at one point they used curtains to reduce capacity, but their numbers then were close to five times what they’re drawing now. ...
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