I loved, loved, loved Arch Madness. The Big East tournament is bigger and grander but STL was like a family reunion. Wichita St fans have picked up some of the impact but like someone said earlier, Creighton (and WSU) fans came and stayed and spent money. Fans of many other schools do not. There was an article by Sean Keeler describing the impact on downtown STL after CU left that is worth reviewing.
He used to see blue; now, he's feeling it. It's Arch Madness Weekend, and Jon Sandretti is staring at row after row of empty tables, a palette of lonely chairs and unloved coasters. He's talking about closing early, instead of trying to figure out a polite way to move the Big Blue Party Bus somewhere else.
"Oh, it's been a huge difference," said Sandretti, assistant outlets manager at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis, Creighton's old headquarters at Arch Madness. "We're taking quite a hit this year on this tournament because they're not here."
The Bluejays used to own this town, this event, for a weekend. For the last 15 years -- longer, really -- you couldn't throw one of those cute little miniature Missouri Valley Conference basketballs without hitting a Creighton fan square in the noggin.
The Jays owned the turnstiles too; of the five best single-game attendance totals for the MVC tourney championship game since '91, Creighton was involved in four of them, including the top 3. Of the five best-attended semifinal sessions over that same span, the Jays were a part of four.
"We're going to draw -- assuming our good teams continue to win," Elgin told FOXSportsKansasCity.com before the start of Arch Madness. "I think we're going to have, if not record ticket sales, we're going to have ticket sales that exceed last year's."
Which they very well might. The eye test didn't show that Friday, mind you. While contenders such as Wichita and Indiana State -- fans of the Sycamores, the tourney's No. 2 seed, snapped up about 1,200 tickets, roughly twice their usual allotment -- were well-represented throughout the day, there were swaths of empty seats where Jays fans used to reside.
"(Jays fans) filled a lot of hotel rooms, for sure," Elgin said. "But I think the numbers are going to be somewhat comparable (at the end)."
http://www.foxsports.com/kansas-city/st ... -it-030714