NCAA favors student tickets

Last year, 472 UNC students got a chance to travel to Detroit to watch North Carolina in the men’s basketball Final Four.

More could get the chance if the Tar Heels return to the NCAA Tournament semifinals this year.

The NCAA liked giving students from the participating schools courtside seats, and decided to increase the number of tickets allotted to each participating school to 660, spokesman Dave Worlock said in the NCAA’s 2009-10 basketball teleconference Tuesday.

The tickets will remain at a $25 total cost.

One reason that the NCAA was able to provide those tickets was that the 2009 Final Four took place at Ford Field, the home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions.

The 65,000-seat arena was modified to sit almost 80,000 as a basketball arena, and as such could easily accommodate 400 or 600 student seats.

Dan Guerrero, UCLA’s director of athletics and the chairman of the Division I men’s basketball committee, said that the NCAA liked the larger venues and that the games in dome arenas are getting a close look from the NCAA.

“Dome stadiums for the most part have become what we call dress rehearsals for Final Fours,” Guerrero said. “It gives us the opportunity to dress up, if you will, those stadiums so we can anticipate what issues may come down the line in the future as we host Final Fours.

“We’re pretty excited about the fact that what we’ve seen so far has been a success.”

That interest from Guerrero puts the focus squarely on North Carolina’s Dec. 19 matchup against Texas at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

It’s a game with all the features of a Final Four game — No. 4 UNC vs. No. 2 Texas in a lucrative football stadium.

And don’t be surprised if a Final Four comes to Arlington in the near future. The 2010 Final Four is in Indianapolis, and the 2011 Final Four is slated for Houston — both NFL domed stadiums.

But despite the NCAA’s emphasis on the NCAA Tournament and making it “one of the best sporting events in the world,” as Guerrero said, UNC coach Roy Williams voiced some other plans.

In the teleconference, Williams advocated for the NCAA Tournament’s first- and second-round games to be held only on Friday and Saturday and eliminate Thursday games so that players don’t miss almost a full week of class.

“I wish everybody would play a Friday-Sunday approach, which means you can’t have every game on TV, and you can’t have those Thursday games,” Williams said. “We just ask the kids to miss so many days of school.”



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.