Football venues attempt to switch sports

Trend is scheduled to continue

By: AP

Posted: 4/3/08

Ford Field's dress rehearsal for next season's Final Four is drawing mixed reviews from fans.

The debate is about the seating and crowd atmosphere at the monstrous venue, the Detroit Lions football stadium transformed into a basketball site for last week's NCAA Midwest Regional.

The same configuration is expected for the 2009 Final Four.

The NCAA has said the new setup will help more students get close to the action and keep prices reasonable for students and other fans attending Final Fours.

Most everything was fine for Mike Goode, a Davidson College employee who made the trip with hundreds of students from the North Carolina college.

But he had snared one of the temporary, riser seats not too far from the court.

The Ford Field crowd was announced at a regional record of more than 57,000 on Friday. About 57,500 tickets were sold for Sunday's Davidson-Kansas matchup.

"Getting all the people here is pretty impressive," Goode said. "I understand how that speaks volumes."

The court was centered near the middle of what are the football fields at both Ford Field and Reliant Stadium in Houston, site of the South Regional, rather than tucked into one end zone as in previous regionals and Final Fours.

Kansas student Brandon Childres would have preferred the old style. He didn't like his seat, which would have been in a Ford Field end zone for a Lions game.

"It's an awful setup," Childres said. "We thought we were getting awesome seats. But we're 50 yards from the court, and we didn't know that would be the case."

The court was raised, perhaps giving some fans better sightlines but raising concerns about players who had to jump off the court or go down a few steps to reach their benches.

Shooters at Ford Field, including Davidson's Stephen Curry, were concerned about depth perception.

Atmosphere was another issue. Some fans complained they were too far from the court and that it's difficult to create intimacy at a basketball game played in a football arena.

The NCAA was fired up about the record-breaking attendance, however.

More fans were expected to attend the regional sites - Detroit, Charlotte, Houston and Phoenix - than at any time in the event's 70-year history.

The previous record was set in 1999, when 207,456 fans watched games in East Rutherford, N.J.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Phoenix and St. Louis.