Conference realignment has brought some amazing new rivalries to both college football and college basketball, but it’s also killed off a number of longstanding traditions in the sports as well. The Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden is one event that has been greatly affected by the recent changes to the collegiate landscape.
Stubhub.com was kind enough to send over some statistics on ticket sales for the six most prevalent conference tournaments coming up next week. When looking at the percentage of overall ticket sales that each conference claims, you can see a huge disparity between last year and this year.
First, some notes:
- The SEC Tournament is now least popular big-time tournament to purchase tickets for, despite a slight gain in percentage
- 30% of sales for the Pac-12 Tournament come from the state of Arizona
- The Big East Tournament represents 13% of ticket sales this year – last year it was at 37%
- 52% of sales for the Big 12 Tournament, which saw the highest percentage gain (11%), come from the state of Kansas
Here’s the raw data – stats for 2013 are on the left, while stats for 2014 are on the right.
| Event | % Of 2013 Sales | % Of 2014 Sales | % +/- |
| Big Ten Tournament (Indy) | 30% | 26% | -4% |
| Big 12 Tournament (KC) | 9% | 20% | +11% |
| ACC Tournament (G’boro) | 9% | 16% | +7% |
| Big East Tournament (NYC) | 37% | 13% | -24% |
| Pac-12 Tournament (Vegas) | 2% | 9% | +7% |
| SEC Tournament (Atlanta) | 7% | 8% | +1% |
| Other | 6% | 8% | +2% |
The obvious cause for drop in the Big East Tournament comes due to the departure of Syracuse, UConn, Louisville and Pittsburgh, which always had large turnouts at MSG every year. The Big 12’s ascension is a little harder to explain, as the conference boasts the same 10 teams and the same venue as last year. Perhaps KU fans are eager to see Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid one last time before both (probably) take off for the NBA next year.
