Thursday, January 18, 2007

CAPITAL HOOPS CLASSIC TICKETS SALES TOP 8,000

I spoke to Ottawa Gee-Gees hoops coach Dave DeAveiro yesterday (for an article that will hopefully go up tomorrow) and he was saying how no one could exactly pin down the existing CIS regular-season basketball attendance record. There's now been more than 8,000 tickets sold for Tuesday's MBNA Capitals Hoops Classic between the U of O and the No. 1-ranked Carleton Ravens and it's hard to imagine more people ever attending a Canadian university basketball game, outside of the CIS Final 8 in Halifax. So while no one can say for certain, Ottawa's poised to set a record.

Hopefully this continues to grow. Next season is Carleton's first in CIS men's hockey, so maybe someone should propose playing an annual hockey game between the Ravens and Gee-Gees varsity squads.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you just did make such a proposal.
-and hopefully these rivalry games cam boost general interest in university sports in Ottawa amd spill over to better attendance at all games.

sager said...

Not to break my own arm, but I suggested it back in November when the Univ. of British Columbia Thunderbirds announced plans to play at GM Place on Hockey Day in Canada and try to set a CIS single game attendance record.

Silly me, I forgot to check whether they did and of course both Van papers are Can West Global, so stuff isn't on the web long enough. The existing mark of 13,354 was set in '85 (Alberta vs. NAIT).