Greensboring.com | Greensboro, NC

Re: Initial impressions: ACC Women's tournament

2008-03-07T14:36:46+00:00

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:
Sanjuro wrote:Buy a real camera so we can make out what the photos are supposed to be of.

I think they may kind of frown on people taking real cameras in without a press pass... I'll have to take a look tomorrow.

Nope - you can have a camera, just not one of the hoopty professional deals.
"No video" is pretty much the only constant.

Statistics: Posted by roknroller — Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:36 pm

Re: Initial impressions: ACC Women's tournament

2008-03-07T13:04:54+00:00

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:
Sanjuro wrote:Buy a real camera so we can make out what the photos are supposed to be of.

I think they may kind of frown on people taking real cameras in without a press pass... I'll have to take a look tomorrow.

Quiet, you!

Strange, I thought you could take in a digital.

Statistics: Posted by Sanjuro — Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:04 pm

Re: Initial impressions: ACC Women's tournament

2008-03-07T03:32:02+00:00

Sanjuro wrote:
Buy a real camera so we can make out what the photos are supposed to be of.

I think they may kind of frown on people taking real cameras in without a press pass... I'll have to take a look tomorrow.

Statistics: Posted by SouthernFriedInfidel — Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:32 am

Re: Initial impressions: ACC Women's tournament

2008-03-07T02:48:20+00:00

Buy a real camera so we can make out what the photos are supposed to be of.

Statistics: Posted by Sanjuro — Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:48 am

Initial impressions: ACC Women's tournament

2008-03-07T00:57:25+00:00

As some folks know, I've been following women's basketball for several years now, and attending the ACC tournament here in Greensboro ever since 2003. Over the past few years, the presentation here has been slipping in quality. I was seriously concerned about this trend, because it was getting close to the point where I would prefer to stay home for future years.

Apparently, this year's tournament committee agreed that some changes were needed. There are still some improvements needed, but things are a lot better here this year.

The "Fanfest" party zone outside the Coliseum is far better this year than last year's "borefest." More booths for various sponsors, some organized games on the ball court, and a climbing wall inside made the place far more entertaining to visit before the game.

Inside the arena, things are better so far as choices for food purchasing. Last year, it was just hot dogs and pizza. This year, we have added a Chinese stir fry place and a booth that sells pretty nice deli sandwiches. Last year, the only sodas you could buy were cups with two-thirds flat cola. This year, they've brought back the superior 20 oz bottles.

So the surroundings for the tournament are much improved. That's a big plus.

On the first day, we see the 8 lower-tier teams trying to get into the quarter finals. The play has been spotty, for the most part, but there have been some very exciting moments as well.

The half-time shows have been ... different. One game, we had a guy with his dogs chasing Frisbees. Another, we got some pretty remarkable kids doing gymnastics to music from "Shrek 3" -- so it's been a pretty good event so far. I'll try to post some photos as soon as I get them offloaded from my phone.

Later!

Statistics: Posted by SouthernFriedInfidel — Fri Mar 07, 2008 12:57 am

Attended the ACC Women's tournament

2007-03-05T13:12:00+00:00

This was my 4th full tournament experience. One thing that occurs to me is that it's a shame that they no longer ask attendees for feedback. Because beyond the fact that my favorite team lost -- yet again! -- I think it safe to say that the whole experience has deteriorated over the years.

Now, I suppose that it's overall a good idea to get school kids shipped in by the truckload for a morning session in the first two rounds. I'm not suggesting that they do away with this idea, but they really ought to cut back at least a little, and make general admission tickets and seating more readily available for last-minute attendees. I had a friend come along Thursday who wanted a ticket from the box office, only to be told the game was sold out. Funny thing was, there were about 10,000 empty seats behind the upper deck curtains. And there were no scalpers standing outside to help out at all. When we came out, they were swarming around trying to sell me tickets for the next session. I asked them where they had been when I needed them, they all said, "Oh, I decided to sleep in." I almost had to be pulled off these jolers. Honestly, this was a pretty big waste and ticked me off pretty badly, particularly when many sections that were reserved for school groups were left empty. Take the frickin' curtain down, jackasses!

On the outside, in Fanfest, I was a bit disappointed that they dedicated a whole wall of the Pavililon to boxes of Pepsi and Mountain Dew. In prior years, they've had a part of the building set up with a section to give folks information abou the schools of the conference. This year, all we got was posters with photos of past players hanging from the rafters. Not quite a big whoop there. Almost, all you had there was lots of spots where you could shoot hoops while you waited for the boredom to pounce.

Next, I was very disappointed by the refreshment situation. I went around during the first game and asked to buy a bottle of Diet Pepsi. I was told that they were only selling bottles of water. Oh I later broke down and bought a souvenir cup of Diet Pepsi, but it was flat, and the cup was only borderline interesting. I left it behind. And there was no alcohol for the whole tournament. I could see this for the school kid sessions, but the whole weekend? Come on!

While there were some good activities at the halftimes of the various games, most of them were pretty lame. I was frankly shocked that in the finals, they trotted out a repeat appearance by the guy with his frisbee-catching dogs. I have a hard tome believing that they couldn't find a good, fresh act to put on for the most heavily-attended game of the whole weekend.

Finally, and this has been a sore point for me for many years, the souvenirs they have for sale truly sucked this year. Really, do they think we want to buy nothing but t-shirts and beads? And they ran out of beads after the first day. Very poor planning.

Hopefully someone from the ACC will hear about these things. They didn't appear to be interested in getting feedback from anyone in the crowd. Just hand over your money and no one will be hurt. Pfeh!

Statistics: Posted by SouthernFriedInfidel — Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:12 pm