Unforutnate news: Cats drop bid for Sancet regional

[Ben Hansen]

UA drops bid as host of baseball regional

By Charles Durrenberger
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Arizona has withdrawn its bid to host an NCAA baseball regional at the request of Wildcats coach Andy Lopez.

"If we have a regional and no one shows up at a time when our athletic department is laying people off, that doesn't add up," Lopez added.

The sixth-ranked Wildcats are averaging approximately 1,100 fans this season, with a single-game high of 4,500 against Texas at 6,500-seat Sancet Stadium.

UA athletic director Jim Livengood said the school's bid was removed from consideration on Monday.

"It's strictly an attendance thing," Livengood said. "We just have to grow our attendance."

Sixteen regional sites, made up of four teams each, will be unveiled on Sunday. The teams will be announced on Monday.

"We leave it up to our coaches and our teams" regarding regional bids, Livengood added. "If teams want to play at home, we're going to put in a bid."

University officials declined to release the number of pre-sold tickets for a potential regional.

A year after making it to the College World Series, Arizona can tie for its first Pac-10 crown since 1986 with a series sweep at home this weekend over Cal.

Last year, Arizona won the Notre Dame regional in South Bend, Ind., before taking two of three games at Long Beach State to advance to the CWS for the first time in 18 years.

Featuring national player of the year semifinalist Trevor Crowe and catcher Nick Hundley, a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award, this year's Cats have won 36 games for the second consecutive season - the most since 1989.

On Tuesday, Lopez challenged his squad to be road warriors again.

"To the credit of the guys, they understood it," Lopez explained. "I don't think there's anything they've done wrong. People just don't show up at the games."

Lopez and Livengood met following the UA-USC series the first weekend in May when only about 1,000 fans showed up for each of the three games.

"That was sort of the crowning blow," Livengood said.

Oregon State (41-9), currently ranked fourth, turned in a regional bid after averaging more than 3,000 fans a game for its home series last weekend against USC.

Other West schools hoping to land a regional are Long Beach State and Cal State-Fullerton.

If Arizona advances, a super regional could be in the offing for Sancet Stadium.

"There will be times where we'll bid on it every single year," Livengood added. "When you look at how good our team is and how well they've played, they deserve to play at home."

Inside pitch

● After batting .429 in a series win at Stanford last weekend, Arizona junior Brad Boyer was named the Pac-10 Player of the Week.

Boyer went 6 for 14 and had seven RBIs for the Cats (36-17, 16-5), who won two of three games against the Cardinal.

[TxAzCat]

It is very disappointing that fans haven't turned out to support a very exciting team. Here's hoping they advance to a super regional at home and the fans turn out to support them.

[wassupcats]

Wow. This should send a message to those who don't attend games that next year that can't be the case if we want to host a regional. It's kinda pathetic as a fanbase when your team is ranked in the top-15 for most of the year, and you don't even show up to support them when a conference foe is in town. I was at the USC games, and I'm surprised that there were 1,000 people at those games - maybe it's cause by the end of those games, it was more like 300. I know people will make the argument about the Texas series, but honestly people, more than half the stands were orange. They brought more fans than we had there. That's very sad.

[Mustache Man]

I think they are going to try to get a Super Regional if they make it that far...

[wassupcats]

It's interesting that this news broke today, as bids were due May 20th at 5pm, so that means that they made the decision to drop the bid sometime last week.

Source:

http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/champadmin/baseball/Division_I/2005Reg-SRHostingInfo?ObjectID=20984&ViewMode=0&PreviewState=0

[Jason Scheer]

If they cant get the attendance for the regionals they sure as hell wont make a bid for the Supers. It is a shame but UA just cant get a crowd and having 110 degree weather isnt about to help things. The thing that I dont get is that now the UA will be a two seed? Or are they still a one seed but in a different place?

[Jason Scheer]

My question answered: http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/050524proj64.html

[WilmasPimp]

This is really, really disappointing, wow. Much respect to Andy Lopez for the way he handled this, I'd be pretty pissed off if I were him.

[barringer97]

I dont get it. We won't have enough fans that will go to the game?

[Jason Scheer]

You have to prove that you can basically fill your stadium and in no way will UA prove that with the attendance that has been shown. UA could probably host it but Lopez does not really see the point if nobody is coming to the games

[Class of 1990]

Bummer for the Cats.

Is anyone going to any of the games this weekend ?

Pac 10 title on the line.

We must sweep to win tiebreaker.

[Auercat]

It'a absolutely wonderful to see that Livengood is more about the dollars than winning. This is a bullsh*t decision. :angry:

Bearing Down on The Lack of Success in Football (and Corresponding Revenues Generated) Really Beginning To Show In Regards To Money Decisions By The UA's AD

Auercat

PS I thought that the Athletic Dept competed to win. I'm not saying doing this at all costs, but getting the team into back-to-back CWSs would be a major factor in increasing future attendance. Livengood's decision (I don't believe for 2 seconds that Lopez had any say in this whatsoever) just made that possibility a much more difficult proposition. The US should view hosting a regional as an opportunity (both for competition and potential finances if Marketed properly) and not as a liability. This decision is cowardly. :mad:

[WilmasPimp]

It'a absolutely wonderful to see that Livengood is more about the dollars than winning. This is a bullsh*t decision. :angry:


Absolutely agree, this is a disgrace!

"We leave it up to our coaches and our teams" regarding regional bids, Livengood added. "If teams want to play at home, we're going to put in a bid."


I've always been a huge Livengood fan but this statement is complete ****ing bull**** and Jim L. knows it. To suggest that the reason Arizona isn't hosting a regional is because the Arizona baseball team doesn't "want to play at home" is a huge slap in the face to Lopez and all of his players.

[Jason Scheer]

Hmm play in a place that is a perfect fit for our team or play in a place like Rice where fans flock and support their team like mad..hmmm...

[Jason Scheer]

http://sebaseball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=419616

More projections and not a fan of these as playing in Long Beach as a 1 is not an advantage in the slightest

[WilmasPimp]

Baseball America is projecting us as the #1 seed playing at Rice.

Rice is not that good this year, they barely won the WAC. Hawaii nearly swept them on the road last weekend.

[WilmasPimp]

Link (http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/050524proj64.html)

Projecting The Field Of 64
By Will Kimmey
May 24, 2005

The hosts look pretty standard here in our projected 64-team field, with 14 No. 1 seeds earning host duties.

The No. 2 seed hosts both are interesting. College of Charleston has gone 44-11 overall, 27-3 in dominating the Southern Conference for a second straight year. Internet RPI models rank the Cougars in the top 10, and the program submitted a large financial bid to serve as a host at 6,000-seat Joe Riley Ballpark in Charleston, which doubles as the home of the Class A RiverDogs.

Arizona seemed like a logical enough host choice as it should finish first or second in the Pacific-10 Conference and has been ranked in the Top 10 most of the season. However, fans haven't flocked to Jerry Kindall Field at Frank Sancet Stadium to watch the Wildcats, so coach Andy Lopez decided Monday to withdraw the regional bid so that the school would not lose money.

That opens another host site on the competitive West Coast, where Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, Oregon State, Southern California and Stanford all are competing to bring a regional to campus. It also brings Rice into play. The Owls have proven a fine host at Reckling Park the last few seasons.

St. John's also could emerge as a host. It faces similar attendance troubles as Arizona, but the administration is willing to lose money to bring the NCAA to Queens for the first time. The selection committee might also find intrigue with putting the event in New York City. The Division I baseball committee, which selects the 16 hosts as well as the 64-team field, has sent mixed messages in the past about its desire to put a regional in the Northeast. The only regional played in the Northeast under the current tournament format was in 2000 in Montclair, N.J., about 30 miles from Rutgers’ campus. The event drew poorly as it was held off-campus, and its net receipts of $22,307 rank among the lowest of the 64-team era.

Arizona plans to bid to serve as a super-regional host, reasoning the club is veteran enough to get that far while playing a road regional. Arizona made it to the College World Series in 2004 without benefit of a single postseason home game.

National seeds indicated in parentheses
Projected host sites in bold
* Projected automatic bids


New Orleans
1. Tulane* (1)
2. South Carolina
3. UNC Wilmington*
4. Southern*

Fullerton, Calif.
1. Cal State Fullerton* (2)
2. Stanford
3. Oklahoma
4. Harvard*

Corvallis, Ore.
1. Oregon State* (3)
2. Missouri
3. Cal Poly
4. Army*

Lincoln, Neb.
1. Nebraska* (4)
2. Arkansas
3. Creighton*
4. Illinois-Chicago*

Atlanta, Ga.
1. Georgia Tech* (5)
2. Winthrop
3. Auburn
4. Georgia Southern

Gainesville, Fla.
1. Florida* (6)
2. North Carolina State
3. Florida Atlantic
4. Quinnipiac*

Austin, Texas
1. Texas (7)
2. Texas Christian
3. St. John's*
4. Rhode Island*

Baton Rouge, La.
1. Louisiana State (8)
2. Louisiana-Lafayette*
3. Northwestern State*
4. Maine*

Charleston, S.C.
1. Tennessee
2. College of Charleston*
3. Virginia
4. California

Houston, Texas
1. Arizona
2. Rice*
3. Vanderbilt
4. Illinois*

Long Beach, Calif.
1. Long Beach State
2. Southern California
3. Pepperdine*
4. Nevada-Las Vegas*

Tallahassee, Fla.
1. Florida State
2. Alabama
3. Wichita State
4. Troy*

Oxford, Miss.
1. Mississippi
2. North Carolina
3. Michigan
4. Jacksonville State*

Miami
1. Miami
2. Southern Mississippi
3. Miami (Ohio)*
4. Marist*

Clemson, S.C.
1. Clemson
2. Coastal Carolina*
3. East Carolina
4. North Carolina A&T*

Waco, Texas
1. Baylor
2. Arizona State
3. Mississippi State
4. Oral Roberts*

[beardownbaby]

It is a sh*tty realization that the No. 7-ranked team in the nation cannot draw enough fans to host a very important postseason series. But it makes perfect sense that the UA would drop its bid.

Livengood makes a good point by saying that you can't host a regional and be willing to lose money when you're telling one UA athletic secretary after another that there isn't enough money to keep them employed. I'd be more inclined to blame John Mackovic before I blamed Livengood.

I'm no saint, but I'd rather see money saved so that someone's mom keeps her job than spend money to have the UA baseball team play postseason games at Sancet.

[GarH]

I'll be at the game Saturday night and maybe Sunday.

I hadn't been to a UA baseball game in years. I was one of those who couldn't stand that ping sound. I couldn't get past that, back when I would occassionally go to games during the Kindall years. I went to two of the games against OSU and to my suprise, I didn't hardly even notice the ping sound. My wife and I had a great time. I guess I got past my purist snob stage. LOL. Anyway we've attended one or two games every series since. Five dollars and you can get front row seats. Best entertainment value in Tucson. It's frustrating looking at all those empty seats. The players and Lopez deserve a lot more support than they getting.