Buffalo gets skunked by the NCAA

The NCAA has released the schedule for its Men’s Basketball subregionals and regionals for the years 2011, 2012, and 2013. Incredibly, Buffalo did not make the cut, and come March, 2010, that may be the last time for a long time before fans in this area will get a chance to partake in such an event.

Buffalo has hosted a subregional in 2000, 2004 and 2007, and also hosted the ice hockey Frozen Four in 2003. All these events were hugely successful at the box office, and gave Buffalo positive national exposure, as well as providing significant economic impact.

Looking at the list of host venues in the newly announced three year cycle, gives a good glimpse as to the new realities – Buffalo is now competing against a whole bevy of gleaming new arenas throughout the country, all vying to lure the NCAA’s to their cities and the attraction of tourist dollars that follow. Tulsa’s new BOK Center, a 19,000 seat arena in their downtown core, will host the event in 2011.

Pittsburgh’s new Consol Energy Center and Louisville’s new Louisville Arena get March Madness in 2012. Kansas City’s Sprint Center will host a subregional come 2013.

A trusted source inside the Sabres organization told us a while back that Buffalo was attempting to land not a subregional, but a regional in this coming cycle. The trend for regionals in recent years has been to place them in larger stadiums, sometimes as a prelude to a Final Four. Perhaps Buffalo overreached in aiming for a regional, and should have stayed with their tried and true formula.

Surely there will be an effort to put Buffalo in the rotation for the next cycle (2014-2016). Perhaps another bid for a Frozen Four will also be in the works.

Of course, we already did a bit of USRT advance scouting for possible road trips. Here are some ideas:

2011 – Cleveland is the easy choice, but Tulsa’s gleaming new BOK Center makes for an intriguing trip to uncharted USRT territory.

2012 – The Pit in Albuquerque, New Mexico jumps right off of the page. How else would we ever get to Albuquerque!

2013 – Now here’s a fertile mind attack! This trip would start on Tuesday March 19 at the opening round game in Dayton, Ohio. Thursday and Saturday we head to Rupp Arena in Lexington, and Friday and Sunday it’s back to Dayton for the first two rounds. Hotel venue in between – Cincinnati, Ohio. So we’re talking 13 basketball games in the course of 6 days!

Final thought? How the hell does Tampa land another subregional (2011)? We attended the 2008 event at the St. Pete Times Forum, and were treated to the sight of oceans of empty seats, and it was hard catching any buzz on the streets of Tampa. Bah!

Here is the complete schedule on the NCAA web site.