Column: Don't call Crosstown Classic a 'neutral' site game

CINCINNATI - We’ve sworn off the Crosstown Shootout brawl from 2011, we’ve moved on as a community and what’s done was done to learn from the violent acts that took place between the Xavier and Cincinnati basketball teams to ensure that it never happens again.

But as we move in to this new, more sportsmanlike era of the Crosstown Classic, the venue change remains the most contentious of the differences in the contest.

To start, U.S. Bank Arena is hardly a “neutral-site” location this year.

It’s no secret that the University of Cincinnati’s student enrollment (and as a result fan base) is leaps and bounds beyond that of Xavier University’s (5:1 in fact). Giving these two groups of fans the same amount of opportunity in the same arena and calling it “neutral” is far from the right label.

At last check, the entire lower bowl and many of the upper bowl sections under the UC seating sections were sold out on Ticketmaster. In the XU fan section, several of the lower bowl sections at center court were sold out, but seats in the corner sections were still available, not to mention most of the upper bowl seats. This arena will be much louder for the Bearcats come Wednesday night as a result.

And it actually works out this year in that regard; UC was supposed to host this year’s matchup at Fifth Third Arena, so if anything it makes sense that there will be more UC fans in attendance, but should this series become a commitment longer than the two years it is scheduled for (through the 2014 season), some serious thinking needs to be done about the divvying up of fan-based tickets.

But each team's supporters were given an even split of 8,000 tickets (as designated on Ticketmaster as XU seating and UC seating), which is less than the Cintas Center holds and XU routinely packs that place full of fans, specifically selling out most Crosstown Shootout games in recent memory.

So what is it? Do the Bearcats just have a more dedicated fan base than Xavier?

Consider the following before jumping to that conclusion: Xavier has an extremely strong season-ticket holder base, and the fact that a ticket to the Classic is not included is an annoyance. Yes, those season-ticket holders were given first chance to buy the tickets, but throwing down an extra $80 on top of an already $300+ bill for the season is certainly not conducive to thanking your fan base for supporting you each and every game. This is more relevant this year because XU season-ticket holders wouldn't normally have bought a ticket on a UC year to host the shootout anyway.

More specifically, an even split of 8,000 tickets for each fan base does seem fair on paper, but consider the plans of fans around the holiday season and the ability to attend a weeknight game. If there are 40,000 Xavier supporters and 200,000 UC supporters, the likelihood that more of the UC supporters will be available to attend this year's neutral match up on a Wednesday night is higher based on numbers alone.

Plus, you can't blame UC for snatching up more tickets, they were supposed to have most of the tickets this year anyway since the game was to be on their campus before the brawl. That extra motivation probably drove sales for the red and black.

And some of it likely has to do with the hype surrounding each team. Cincinnati is off to a 10-0 start, ranked in the Top 25 and full of talented, fun-to-watch players. Xavier came into this season with low expectations having lost all of their starters from 2011, and even after putting up a 7-2 record to start with a few glimmers of hope, the team still hasn't shown they're more than a "decent" squad.

"Neutral" or not, U.S. Bank Arena just isn't a basketball-friendly place. It's an arena that routinely hosts hockey games (Cyclones), large-stage concerts (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) and even monster truck rallies. All of those events are very large and spread out, as to where basketball is a much smaller, more intricate sport. Having seen the last college basketball games at US Bank in the form of the 2006 A-10 Championships, it doesn't make for a pleasant viewing experience from many places around the arena (not to mention the acoustics aren't so good). 

It's difficult to say exactly why this game didn't sell out, but if you read this far, you might have an idea.

Has #cantwaitfor2015 been created on Twitter yet? 

What do you think? Is U.S. Bank Arena a "neutral" site? Or is the change just fine and fair for both teams? Leave your comments in the section below.