Venue Bending

With the NCAA crowning champions in three major sports this week, it's clear which among them reigns superior with the ticket-buying public, as evidenced by the adaptation of the host venue to each sport. In previewing the men's basketball Final Four in Indianapolis, one commentator described Lucas Oil Stadium as "a football stadium built for basketball." With the court positioned dead center on the surface typically occupied by the NFL's Colts, and surrounded by temporary and permanent seating in such a way that the seating chart looked like a study in near-symmetrical arena design, Duke defeated Butler on Monday night before 70,930 fans. That's roughly three and a half times the combined capacities of the combatants' home venues - Cameron Indoor Stadium and Hinkle Fieldhouse, respectively.

food service history, I suspect, will welcome back the men's basketball Final Four in 2015 and the women's Final Four the following year. And this June, the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks will host the Seattle Storm at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. However, in doing so, the Sparks, who drew an average 10,397 fans to Staples Center last season, are actually downsizing, as the multisport complex's tennis stadium seats only 8,000. Perhaps the thought of placing a basketball court on the center's soccer pitch surrounded by 27,000 seats was too big a stretch.

UPDATE: The NCAA men's ice hockey semifinals at Ford Field produced similar storylines - with Wisconsin ripping Rochester Institute of Technology, 8-1, and Boston College overpowering Miami of Ohio, 7-1. According to box scores posted at insidecollegehockey.com, the attendance at each game was identical - 34,954 (sellout) - and a record for indoor hockey. However, having flipped on ESPN to watch my alma mater skate in the first semifinal, which had the unfortunate local start time of 5 p.m., it was clear that the game drew a lot of empty seats. And it was equally clear that the NCAA made the right decision to configure the rink at one end of Ford Field and not smack dab in the middle, a la the men's basketball Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium.