Will this be the lowest attendance & least revenue for a Final Four?

San Diego State is making their case to join either the PAC or Big XII. They will likely travel well and spend money trying to impress.

When FAU came to Austin a few years ago, they were well represented and very complimentary of how well they were treated in Austin. Still, there isn't a huge following.

UConn? You're talkkng about a school that finally made a major bowl game and lost over $3 million because they could not only not sell the required ticket allotment, they couldn't sell 15% of it. UConn lost more than it's football budget on the Fiesta Bowl. Add in the fact that Ohio State fans could take "shithead" lessons from UConn.

Third Ward - only person crying about them not getting in is Academy. They just lost 20,000,000 tshirt sales. Mac Ingvale lost some TV time.

Convicts will bring fewer than 100 fans unless there is some kind of rap festival in Houston.

The "inner loopers" have saddled Harris County with nearly $1.5 billion in bond debt on crap downtown Houston. Super Bowl lost money, just as has every other major sporting event brought to Houston. The Final Four will be no different

Nobody at the Sports Authority will surface for a week - it will take them that long to sober up from their bonfire burning all their Burnt Orange stuff.

 

My .02 cents worth. "Yes"

 

I work in Houston (Greenway Plaza) and am curious to see if there's much of an influx of fans here for the Final 4. Of course the local media was really wanting UH to be there (or failing that, UT).

 

If you’re a “Attending a Final Four is on my bucket list” type, with no school affiliation,this would be the one to check that box.

 

If it were UH, Bama, Purdue, and Kansas in the Final Four, then yes.

 

Shows you the overwhelming stupidity of the local media. Third Ward has a limited fan base in Harris County; beyond that the fan base will fit in a VW Bug.

Only winners in Third Ward being there are Jim Mac Ingvale & KKR through their t-shirt fanbase at Academy.

ZERO hotel rooms
ZERO nice restaurants
ZERO $25 parking
ZERO ticket sales

Sylester Turner & Rodney Ellis will proclaim it a huge success with 20,000 showing up for the free concert at Discovery Green (that's Tim McGraw in the black straw hat with the "who the f**k booked me into this crap" look on his face).

 

Yep. Arlington lucked out with its final four participants, Houston really drew short straw.

 

I predict they’ll be more Latin King than the U fans.

 

Plus you can add in its the Astros home opener weekend vs Pale Hose.

 

Some comments from the Houston Press.

Four Thoughts on Houston's Final Four at NRG Stadium

 

I just meant if you didn’t care who was playing and just wanted to attend a Final Four, tickets will be readily available and affordable.

 

Let's play the ticket game. First, the vast majority of the 65-70,000 possible seats are assigned to corporate sponsors, local dignitaries, various schools for their coaches, et al, et, etc. A few thousand for the host schools and participating schools. A small percentage are actually available for the public, and most of those are bought up by scalpers.

So let's say we are really big college basketball fans and want good seats. We go after four about the 25-25 yardline side court up around rows L-S to be high enough to see.

Prior to Texas/Xavier game, these were about $3200-3500 each seat.

Texas beats Xavier and these same seats jump over $5,000 to almost $6,000 per seat

Texas loses to Miami, seats must have COVID and drop below $1500 each. I expect those to drop below $1,000 per seat. Gamblers might be able to get them in the parking lot before the game for a few hundred each. One ticket is good for both games.

 

Definitely "yes." Too many small schools winning their way in plus Houston isn't a destination city.

 

from today's Houston Chronicle:

"The Final Four is a sellout and NRG Stadium will be full, but prices on the resell market dipped when Houston was eliminated Friday night and took a nosedive when Texas got the axe Sunday.

About four hours after the Final Four field was set, Tickets for Saturday's semifinal games were available on Ticketmaster for as low as $139 and on StubHub for $151. By Monday afternoon, those prices had dropped to $117 on Ticketmaster and $120 on StubHub.

-snip-

Tickets for the championship game have taken a similar dip. As of Monday afternoon, you can get into the building for as cheap as $73. Those tickets were listed at $175 before the Texas teams were eliminated."

 

Don't know where the Chronicle gets it's info, but as usual THEY ARE WRONG! Where were those tickets under $200? Top row in the 600s? Arnold family trying to prop up another City of Houston debacle, and the fishwrap will print anything they are told to print.

Please avoid Memorial Drive between Shepherd & Houston, as well as Washington in the same area. Jesse Jones spinning in his grave over what has happened to his newspaper.

 

Compared to what other cities? NY? LA? Miami?

 

All of that is true. 3rd ward doesnt support those sports. Houston college teams are just like the old oilers, no local support or at least not enough to generate true revenue.

 

Lived there for almost 30 yrs. Its just not a tourist destination.

 

Friends from around the country call and say, "We're thinking about a long weekend in Houston. What should we plan on doing?"

My response is always, "visit NASA, and head West on I-10 to San Antonio or Austin"

 

Compared to a lot of cities! Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of other non-destination cities like Cincinnati and Milwaukee.

Yup.

 

Lets see. Houston has world class museums, performing arts and and an internationally acclaimed food scene. Its one of the most diverse cities in America. Yes theres NASA and Space Center Houston. There is also Galveston with Moody Gardens, Shlitterbahn, Royal Caribbean cruises, numerous nearby parks and lakes etc. Of course pro sports as well. The weather, despite the humidity is warm most of the year.

There is way more to do in and around Houston than Austin. Austin has hills. Houston wins in virtually every other aspect. Come on man. Houston is an international, cosmopolitan city. There are very few cities in the US that are comparable.

 

2003,

Having lived here for almost 50 years, we do NOT have lakes; we have shallow mud pits. The museums are great. The arts do well. It is indeed the most diverse city in America, with an incredible array of foods, but most of those are in neighborhoods you don't want to be driving in after dark. Hell, Westheimer beyond Chimney Rock is worse than any street in San Antonio or Austin. Washington has gone from being "the spot" to being an uzi ain't big enough. The impact of Katrina & NOLA on West Harris County will not be gone in another twenty years. I don't like what Austin has become and spend very little time there other than Football games and they are now drive in and drive out.

 

Houston ain't got nuthin' on Cleveland.

 

how close is NRG to Minute Maid, traffic could be bad even for Houston.

 

Not close at all. Minute Maid is on the east side of downtown and NRG is miles away on Kirby and the south Loop 610. About 9 miles apart, according to Google Maps.

 

Its a big city yes. Houston has plenty of warts, but no worse than NYC, LA or Chicago. And this isn't even a Houston v DFW thing. DFW reminds me a lot of Houston, having lived in both areas.

Concerning lakes, I mean Clear Lake, Lake Conroe, Livingston etc.

 

Technically speaking, Clear Lake is an inlet of Galveston Bay, not a (freshwater) lake.

 

I love Houston. I grew up there, and I have an Astros shirt on right now. You'll never convince me it's a city in which people at a large rate plan to visit as a destination. People visit, of course, because it has events like the rodeo, the Final Four this year, and the Super Bowl three times. If someone is planning a long trip to Shlitterbahn, they are almost certainly going to New Braunfels. Someone planning Galvestion Shlitterbahn is doing so because it's closer. Visiting Houston to get on a cruise does not make Houston a destination city.

People go to Hawaii as a destination. We can argue over the cities there. People go to Orlando as a destination to see theme parks. People go to Boston to see Revolutionary historical markers or the oldest baseball stadium, Fenway Park. People go to New Orleans for the food and French Quarter or 10 Super Bowls. People go to Miami and greater metropolitan area for the beaches and Everglades or 11 Super Bowls. People go to LA for ...

 

NRG is supposedly five miles straight down South Main or Fannin or you can jump up on 59/288 to South Loop. City Hall will be quick to tell you to jump on MetroRail and it will drop you at the NRG gate. This is true, but are they dropping you or your cold, lifeless body. I refer to that as the "Expert Line" because the only people riding it are the lawyers & expert witnesses to depositions from the Medical Center. From Walker to Herman Park is not the most scenic nor safest route in the US.

As for Lakes Conroe, Houston, Livingston, Dam B are all shallow water mud pits. Hell, Sabine Lake is huge but average depth of less than 3 feet.