Although Binghamton school spirit is sometimes considered lackluster, the University recorded the highest attendance numbers at women’s basketball games of all America East (AE) teams between 2012 and 2014. It was this fact, as well as the quality of Binghamton’s athletic facilities, that led to its selection as the host site of the 2015 and 2016 AE Women’s Basketball Tournament, the second of which will take place at the Events Center this Saturday and Sunday.
Prior to the 2014-15 season, both the men’s and women’s tournaments were hosted at a single site, most recently Albany in 2013-14. Following that season, the men’s coaches voted to switch to a higher-seed format, in which each playoff game is played on the campus of the team with the higher conference record. The women, however, opted to stick with the original format.
“Our women’s basketball coaches remain drawn to a format that brings all the teams together for the early rounds,” AE Commissioner Amy Huchthausen wrote in email. “It creates a traditional tournament atmosphere with a banquet, host hotel and back-to-back games that our women’s teams really appreciate as part of their overall experience.”
The attendance level that the Binghamton location was expected to generate, however, fell short in 2015, as Binghamton’s 78-71 quarterfinal loss to top-ranked Maine failed to draw many more fans than an average regular-season matchup.
“Honestly, I was a little disappointed with the attendance last year as I thought more local fans would come out to see the games, but I’m really excited by the likely attendance increases this year,” Huchthausen wrote.
The expected attendance boost is thanks to an expansion of the Binghamton Athletic Department’s marketing strategies, as well as an increase in community knowledge of the event.
“We’ve increased some of our marketing strategies, especially with the local community to enhance attendance numbers and fans attending the games,” Binghamton Athletic Director Patrick Elliott said.
Attendance at postseason games can be crucial in determining the outcome of certain matchups, especially for the hosting Bearcats, who entered the season as underdogs and will look to upset fourth-ranked UMBC in the first round.
“[Our fans] just make us feel better,” sophomore forward Alyssa James said. “We don’t get that at other places. No one else looks at us to do as well as our fans do, so we always play up to their expectations when we’re at home.”
The Bearcats — and every other team — will also be competing on Saturday with Binghamton’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, an event that large numbers of students and residents attend annually. This coincidence should not be as much of an issue this year, though, as fifth-seeded Binghamton will play its quarterfinal game in the 8:15 p.m. time slot — hours after the parade has concluded.
The single-site format of the women’s tournament also serves to increase the focus that women’s basketball receives. Rather than competing alongside the men, the women have their own venue, sponsors and awards banquet, each of which allow women’s basketball to avoid being overshadowed by the men’s games.
“I think that our conference has done an unbelievable job promoting the women,” BU head coach Linda Cimino said. “I feel honored and blessed that our conference is in the forefront in women’s basketball in kind of promoting our sport.”
A prime example of this promotion is the AE’s introduction of a new campaign known as “#SheRules,” which is designed to highlight the various arenas in which female athletes in the conference are excelling.
“We intentionally engaged fans at several conference games this year to ask fans of all ages to tell us why they ‘ruled’ or why their favorite players ‘ruled,’” Huchthausen wrote. “It’s been pretty successful and yet would have been difficult had the two postseason events been combined.”
While increasing attendance and shining the spotlight on women’s basketball are two important objectives of this weekend’s tournament, the main goal of Binghamton and the conference is to provide an exceptional experience for both the players and fans.
“I just hope we have a terrific environment for all of our teams,” Huchthausen wrote. “We have some of the best players in the country — yes, the country — in our league and people are missing out if they don’t come out this weekend.”
Admission to all sessions in which the Bearcats are playing will be free for all BU students, courtesy of the Binghamton Athletic Department. Students with their IDs can obtain tickets in the main lobby of the Events Center prior to the games. Tickets for all other games will be $3 for students.