The arena … a converted ballroom… was an awful venue. And EVERYTHING at Atlantis is obscenely expensive.
I've never been to the Atlantis resort, but I went to Bahamas on my honeymoon, decades ago. Hated the place. It's a sh*t version of Florida.
It's all relative. When I say that Orlando games have been well attended, it doesn't mean a sellout. Maybe 6 or 7 thousand for non-NCAAT games. The Gator crowds that have come to NCAAT subregionals in Orlando are loud but smaller because each team gets an equal allotment. When we advance past the first round, the 2nd round Gators are larger and louder because we've snatched up losers tickets. I got to see the #1 Wilbekin et al Gators, plus the Chiozza et al Gators, roll through the first 2 rounds at the Amway Center.
I was at the SEC tournament in Orlando during the "DeVoe/UK on probation" year. It was not well attended, but that was a double anomoly. I got some Bull Gator tickets really cheap. I was sitting across the aisle from Vince Dooley.
Too many games each day and too much of a geographic positive for the SEC. Half the games in Austin and half the games in Nashville would have been fun for basketball and music fans. But with Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC I am thinking this Challenge is going to die.
The Big 12 is dying. It's down to 10 teams, soon to be 8. And none of them are truly football powers.
Texas Tech did well in basketball recently and Houston has a tradition in basketball. Maybe a new conference can bring in New Mexico and New Mexico State as they do have a basketball tradition and become a legit basketball conference. Masybe add in UTEP?
As I recall, that was UF, FSU, Miami, and Jacksonville. Is that correct? They canceled it because no one cared. But that was before UF got good.
Yeah, but I think that was just UF vs. SOW, played in Orlando. Got to see Jason Williams in that one, very close to the action. He put a move on on a breakaway runout in traffic that had everyone wondering what happened. The ref got confused too, so he called Jason for traveling. Replays showed he didn't. One of the most jaw-dropping plays I've ever seen.