Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 1, 1993                   TAG: 9307010012
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ONLY A FEW HAPPY WINNERS

\ If you ordered tickets for the 1994 NCAA Final Four in Charlotte, N.C., your chances of getting them were better than winning, say, the Indiana lottery. The Hoosier state gave away $50 million during the weekend, with the odds of winning 1.54 million-to-1.

The Final Four odds were only 132-to-1, but high enough to leave a lot of people disappointed.

According to the NCAA, the Charlotte Coliseum will seat 22,876 for the Final Four on April 2 and April 4. Only 2,014 of those seats were available to the general public. For those seats, the NCAA received a record 267,498 applications, requesting a record 533,193 tickets. The previous high for applications - 143,829 - came in 1991, when the Final Four was played at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis.

The NCAA mailed letters last week refunding money to the unlucky and congratulating those chosen at random by computer.

"There surely is a demand," said Daniel A. Calandro, director of Division I Men's Basketball Operations for the NCAA. "Most people don't realize the NCAA has committed tickets to a certain number of groups. Thus, the smaller the facility, the fewer tickets available to the general public."

The NCAA allots 3,000 tickets to each participating school and 3,000 to the National Association of Basketball Coaches, which holds its annual convention during the Final Four. Then come NCAA officials, the local organizing committee, athletic directors and the media.

In Charlotte, approximately 3,797 tickets (16.6 percent) will go to NCAA presidents, committee members and other officials. The local organizing committee will get 1,144 (5 percent), athletic directors will get 618 (2.7 percent) and 320 (1.4 percent) will go to the media.

"When the building is smaller," Calandro said, "the two groups impacted most are the public and the local organizing committee. But some would argue that the tickets alloted to the schools and the organizing committee also [should] go to the public."

At the 1993 Final Four in New Orleans, 35,774 of the 63,114 seats were available to the public.

Keywords:
BASKETBALL