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What was the difference between the two victorious rivalry games over the weekend?
The UNC men hosted N.C. State and the women closed their regular season with a rematch of the classic overtime thriller played at Duke earlier.
Both were billed as sellouts at the 22,000-seat Smith Center Saturday and Sunday at Carmichael Arena, which has one-third the capacity of the Dean Dome. But that is not what it appeared to be.
The men’s games are not always packed to capacity, which is a product of an arena built too big back in the 1980s and the supply and demand being turned upside down since then due to raising tickets prices, late starting times and every game being televised. The advent of big-screen, high-definition TV is a reasonable alternative to watching the game at home if you don’t want to pay or can’t afford the hefty ticket prices.
It looked like every seat in the Smith Center was filled for a game against a non-rival, N.C. State, which has been dominated in basketball by the Tar Heels over the last 50 years. You can tell it is a sellout when every seat in every row at the back of the upper deck has a fanny in it on a weekend afternoon. And it looked that way for UNC’s season sweep of the Wolfpack.
The women’s game was designated as a hard sell-out, which means that every ticket was sold and sent electronically to the purchasers. If you watched Carolina defeat Duke on the tube, you could see hundreds of empty blue seats in the upgraded version of the old Blue Heaven for women.
With zero tickets available for sale after they were all sold out two weeks ago, what was up with the crowd on a beautiful March Sunday? I don’t know for certain, but here is what it sounds like to me.
Tar Heel fans who want to support women’s basketball do so by buying season tickets and don’t necessarily attend every game, which can hurt fans who want to buy big-game tickets.
It is not good enough to just support the Tar Heel women with your money. You have to go to the games or transfer your tickets to people who would love to be there, especially an exciting rivalry game against Duke that’s the gender equivalent of the men.
It looks bad for a game bandied as a sellout and mentioned over and over by the TV crew when you can see with your own eyes that there were plenty of open seats. There has to be a better way than just selling tickets.
UNC’s marketing staff has to come up with that better way to get fannies in seats for games that are in heavy demand. The tickets are cheap enough to buy, but unfortunately also a reason to stay home if you don’t feel like going.
Featured image via UNC Women’s Basketball on Twitter
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
How an app that lets ticketholders make their seats available on days they know they won’t be there? The seats could then be resold on a day of game basis, and the proceeds could serve some charitable cause.
I think the same thing. Should be easy to have season ticket holders registered with the app and simply make them available.