The Carleton Ravens once again captured the men’s basketball national championship in a 79-67 win over the University of Ottawa (U of O) Gee-Gees with the weekend tournament also capturing the attention of the community.
Carleton University served as the hosts of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Final 8 for the second straight year. When comparing the numbers from this year’s event, there was a significant rise in attendance.
The previous edition drew a combined attendance of 22,314 people, according to Carleton’s athletics director Jennifer Brenning, in March 2013.
There was an announcement during the championship game that this year’s event drew 54,070 for the whole tournament and 7,050 people for the CIS final at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Pierre Lafontaine, the CIS chief executive officer, was in attendance for the final. He said it was a great atmosphere for a championship game, which he said is directly related to having the two best teams in Canada playing for the national title at home.
“The fact that these two teams were together, U of O and Carleton, certainly helped bring the buzz about it,” he said.
The crowd was loud throughout the tense championship game. Ravens forward Jean-Emmanuel Pierre-Charles said he could feel the energy from even before the game to when Ravens fans stormed the court after their team won.
“Carleton fans were really loud today and it’s great that through thick and thin they’ll be there,” he said.
Despite the rise in attendance, Brenning said she was disappointed by this year’s total.
Tim Micallef was the play-by-play commentator for Sportsnet’s broadcasts of the semifinal and championship games. He said the championship game crowd was not as good as he expected.
“I thought maybe in the first two days people were holding off for a championship game,” he said.
Micallef said he was hoping for a larger crowd, especially given the hype surrounding the game.
“I would’ve loved to see 10 or 12,000 people here, but I guess we’ll have to wait for another opportunity where the top two in the nation are from the same city and play at home,” he said with a laugh.
Micallef said the event failed to capture the feel of a national championship—something he said has existed in years past—but was impossible given the size of the Canadian Tire Centre.
“The basketball culture is building here in Ottawa, but when you put it in a venue as big as this, it’s tough to fill up the building,” he said. “But let’s focus on the positive that 7,000 people were here for a national championship game, and a good one at that.”
The 2015 CIS men’s basketball championship will be held at Ryerson University in Toronto, according to the CIS website.
Brenning said she is pleased to see the event move around the country, especially since it has often been held in Halifax.
“I think this event needs to be exposed to other markets, and I think Toronto will do a spectacular job,” she said.
Regardless of the turnout, Brenning said she was thrilled to see the growth of the tournament. She said the university is hoping to bid for significant national events in the future.
“We love to host things, so we’ll look at different events coming up for bid and we’ll be certainly putting our names in for different events,” she said.
