No Uconn in the Albany regional, no problem
All four women’s basketball sessions this weekend at MVP Arena essentially sold out
ALBANY — Gone are the days that the Capital Region is dependent upon the University of Connecticut’s presence to draw a respectable crowd for a women’s NCAA Tournament basketball regional.
Albany’s downtown arena is host to the women for a fourth time, and this week it’s a “super regional.” Eight teams are here for games through Monday, and none of them is Uconn, which won the three previous Albany regionals but was shipped out west to Portland, Ore., this year.
All four sessions — doubleheaders Friday and Saturday, regional title games Sunday and Monday — at MVP Arena essentially are sold out. (High-priced tickets may be available on the secondary market.) Interest in women’s basketball on a national scale has never been higher.
“This arguably could be one of the biggest NCAA events that we’ve
had in the building — 14,000 people per day for four days,” said MVP Arena general manager Bob Belber, whose building has been host to national championship events in hockey (1992, 2001) and wrestling (2002) as well as NCAA men’s basketball tournament games in 1995, 2003 and 2023.
“The attention. albeit
largely because of (Iowa star) Caitlin Clark and the records that she’s broken and the media buzz that’s happening as a result of her play, you’ve got to give a lot of credit to the other teams, too — South Carolina and UCLA and LSU and Colorado and Indiana,” Belber said. “They’re all good teams, and the public now are realizing that it’s actually a
lot of fun to go and watch them play.”
When the women’s regionals were held here in 2015, 2018 and 2019, they averaged 8,935 per session. The largest turnout was 10,658 for a regional semifinal doubleheader on a Saturday afternoon in 2018: South Carolinabuffalo and Uconnduke.
Media attention for this year’s regional is unprecedented. Most major outlets — New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, The Athletic, ESPN.COM, Cbsspots.com — are represented.
“We have over 260 media representatives that are here that are registered,” Belber said. “That’s more than we had for the men last year. It shows you how much more popular women’s basketball is than ever.”
All six games will be televised nationally, either by ABC or ESPN.
“Now, everybody is seeing it,” Oregon State coach Scott Rueck said. “How many guys can do what Caitlin does? Of course, that’s the obvious example right now.”
“There’s so many generational talents, there’s so many rising stars and just stars in this game,” said fourth-year Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey, who as a player helped the Fighting Irish to their first national championship in 2001. “We’re playing at an elite level, all these players, programs, coaches.
Having the opportunity to showcase our talent on these major networks is important.”
“It’s pretty cool to see,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “I hope that every team that’s here sends their local media, because they do the heavy lifting of following the teams and getting it out to the national media.”
Once it was determined that Iowa and Clark would be playing here, the attention spiked.
What’s satisfying to those who follow women’s basketball is that while Clark has brought more eyeballs to the sport, other teams and players are beginning to get noticed.
“How much fun is it going to be for all those teams that are going to be playing in a building that has 14,000 people and every seat is filled?” Belber said. “To know that the television viewers are going to be 4, 5, 6 million people watching the games. That never would have been the case in prior years.”