NCAA Tourney- anybody attending/attended?

ibahawkeye

ibahawkeye

Well-Known Member
I've done a handful of bowl trips but I have never been to an NCAA tournament and I'm starting to believe we may just have something special and worth following and since I didn't go to the bowl trip this year, I'm itching for a Hawkeye trip. I'd be looking to attend the first weekend.

Jon- Would/Do you put together a charter trip for the NCAA tournament?

Anybody have any good experiences/bad experiences as far as getting tickets and where to purchase? Do you purchase just the first session tickets and wait to see if they win to buy the 2nd?

I guess it's just a little different than the bowl game and 1 game so I was curious for advice.

Any feedback is appreciated.
 
I hate to say this but we might need some insight from fans of rival teams on this question. I am sure a lot has changed in the past 8 years since Iowa last has been to a NCAA tournament.
 
ibahawkeye said:
I've done a handful of bowl trips but I have never been to an NCAA tournament and I'm starting to believe we may just have something special and worth following and since I didn't go to the bowl trip this year, I'm itching for a Hawkeye trip. I'd be looking to attend the first weekend.

Jon- Would/Do you put together a charter trip for the NCAA tournament?

Anybody have any good experiences/bad experiences as far as getting tickets and where to purchase? Do you purchase just the first session tickets and wait to see if they win to buy the 2nd?

I guess it's just a little different than the bowl game and 1 game so I was curious for advice.

Any feedback is appreciated.
Click to expand...

I went to St. Louis a few years back with my (at the time) 11 year old son when UNI made it to the Sweet 16. That bracket was awesome. First game was Tennessee vs. OSU and 2nd game was UNI vs. MSU. Both of those games were awesome and then the Elite 8 game with MSU vs. Tenn was a classic.

I bought my tickets off of Ebay for a pretty decent price and then we stayed at the Hyatt in downtown St. Louis. I bought the all session tickets as I'm a huge college basketball fan in general and getting to see the Elite 8 game was pretty sweet. I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't been to an NCAA tourney.
 
I have been to four NCAA Basketball tournaments. 1986 I went with 2 friends to the Metrodome when Iowa and ISU played in a double header. I had tickets before hand but do not remember how I got them. 1991 my son and I went and watched Iowa play at the dome again. I got tickets before hand from a Minnesota season ticket holder. 2000, I went with my dad, brother and son to the metrodome to watch ISU. My brother got the tickets ahead of time. 2010 I went to St. Louis to watch UNI. I did not have tickets. My son and I bought tickets in the nose bleed section. Our friend bought scalped a single. We moved down to mid-court for the UNI game after the Tennessee fans had left.
I have been to 7 of the past 8 bowl games. Football you have a month to make plans. Basketball you have a couple days. Buying tickets is a crapshoot. Depends on who gets sent where. Some arenas are half to three-fourths full.
I have only been to Bball tourneys that have been within driving distance. I have taken the week of the NCAA tourney off this year. I plan on going no matter where Iowa plays at except for maybe Buffalo. My wife has no desire to go there. I am pulling for San Antonio. Nothing like Riverwalk with bunch of Hawk fans. Normally I would want Milwaukee or St. Louis but because I am off the whole week I want somewhere warm.
 
I haven't been yet...hope to go someday. I have talked to others and know one way to get it done...what I'm going to do when I do go.

When the brackets come out find some at large team that doesn't travel well for basketball and is playing the same session as Iowa...preferably the other game and our next opponent. A team from a football school that's playing a ways from home is the 1st place to look. I'll use Alabama just as an example. Contact the Alabama ticket office and get tickets from their allotment as soon as they go on sale. You are now good to go for the 1st Iowa game.

It used to be that anyone buying tickets to a 1st round game got 1st chance at tickets for the 2nd round...assume this is still the case but don't know. So if Alabama wins you get 1st crack at your same seats for the 2nd round game...against Iowa. If this doesn't pan out then you scalp from some optimistic fan that just watched their team lose and wants to unload their 2nd round ticket.
 
StatelineHawk said:
Normally I would want Milwaukee or St. Louis but because I am off the whole week I want somewhere warm.
Click to expand...

March can't be that bad in St Louis. But if Iowa got placed somewhere that close I bet it would be like a home game for Iowa as a number of fans would drive there, possibly even myself as St Louis is only a 5 hour drive.
 
ssckelley said:
March can't be that bad in St Louis. But if Iowa got placed somewhere that close I bet it would be like a home game for Iowa as a number of fans would drive there, possibly even myself as St Louis is only a 5 hour drive.
Click to expand...

Milwaukee and St. Louis would probably be like home games for Iowa. Both would be a lot of fun. The Metrodome was a blast. How do you only reply with part of a quote? I would like to do that sometimes.
 
I went to the tourney in Indianapolis when Iowa was a #9 seed I think and got beat by Cincinnati. That was really fun. I think we bought the tix from the NCAA website before the teams were announced. We kinda got lucky that Iowa went there. As we just wanted to see some tournament action live. Made it better as we were all Iowa fans.

The tickets were good for 3 sessions. First two sessions were the 1st round games on Day 1 and the last session was the 2 second round games on Day 3. On Day 2 we sat around the hotel lobby drinking beer and watching all the games going on in other parts of the country. It was a fun little trip.
 
ssckelley said:
March can't be that bad in St Louis. But if Iowa got placed somewhere that close I bet it would be like a home game for Iowa as a number of fans would drive there, possibly even myself as St Louis is only a 5 hour drive.
Click to expand...

Late March in St. Louis was awesome when we went. Was low to mid 60s.
 
I put in for the Milwaukee tickets through the NCAA site just in case last spring. Got 2 hoping Iowa would end up there the first few rounds. If not, Ill unload them to another fanbase. If Wisconsin ends up in Milwaukee Ill have no problem selling
 
ibahawkeye said:
Will it be an issue getting decent tickets if I wait to see where they are heading?
Click to expand...

It could be if Iowa goes to either Milwaukee or St Louis. Both of those sites have to be chomping at the bit to land Iowa knowing how well our fans travel along with the fact it has been so long since Iowa has been a tournament team. I would think there is a chance the first day could get sold out
 
ssckelley said:
It could be if Iowa goes to either Milwaukee or St Louis. Both of those sites have to be chomping at the bit to land Iowa knowing how well our fans travel along with the fact it has been so long since Iowa has been a tournament team. I would think there is a chance the first day could get sold out
Click to expand...

If only we knew somebody with experience putting chartered trips together....

Make my life much easier!!
 
ibahawkeye said:
If only we knew somebody with experience putting chartered trips together....

Make my life much easier!!
Click to expand...

The problem is the selections are made on Sunday and then you are playing by either Thursday or Friday assuming you don't have to play in the first round. That is a ton of pressure to round up charter bus, tickets, rooms, and then sell enough seats to break even all in about 3 days.
 
It's alway hard to tell where teams will end up playing but let's hope the Hawks keep winning and the NCAA keeps them in the Midwest so HawkNation can show up in large numbers. Here are the 1st/2nd round locations ...

Milwaukee, St. Louis, Buffalo, Orlando, Spokane, Raleigh, San Antonio, San Diego.

Regional Finals are in Aneheim, Memphis, Indy, New York and the Final Four is at Texas Stadium in Dallas.
 
We have tix to Milwaukee. My bro got them for us for Xmas this year for a guys trip with the old man. We are holding out hope that the Hawks end up there. But if not we will still go and have a blast. Even better if the Haeks are there.
Never been to any tourney games so looking forward to it.
 
The problem, now, is that there 's no rhyme or reason how/where teams/regionals get assigned. It even seems like a city can host games for two different regions, almost.

That said, NCAA first/second-round games are fun because you could end up having some diverse teams and fanbases depending on seeding.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top