Of the five ACC men's basketball programs that were available for the College Basketball Invitational, only Virginia decided to take a plunge that ultimately could cost the Cavaliers more than $150,000.

"We knew that going in," executive associate athletic director Jon Oliver said. "We spent a lot of time talking about that aspect of it, but, at the end of the day, it was not a financial decision.

"We wanted our kids to keep playing. That's what it came down to. It's pretty hard to say 'no' to that."

The CBI is sponsored by the Gazelle Group, a marketing firm known in these parts for its sponsorship of the ill-fated 2000 Black Coaches Association preseason game between Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. That game was suspended by lightning before the opening kickoff and never played.

The Gazelle Group formed the CBI this year as a postseason alternative for men's basketball teams that did not receive bids to the NCAA tournament. At least this year, the CBI was unable to compete with another established postseason event, the National Invitation Tournament.

In fact, when Virginia announced March 15 that it had reached agreement with the CBI, it was with the understanding that UVa would accept an NIT bid if offered one day later.

Virginia also agreed tentatively to serve as a first-round CBI host, knowing that it would have to guarantee $60,000 in gate receipts.

"When you play in a tournament like that, you never know what's going to happen because nobody knows what the tournament is about," Oliver said.

After consultations between UVa and Gazelle Group, tickets were priced at $10 for the general public and $5 for UVa students. Attendance for the first game was announced at 4,022, which included 150 students, Oliver said.

The crowd was much larger for a second-round UVa home game with Old Dominion, but, again, the attendance of 6,460 wasn't half the capacity of 14,593-seat John Paul Jones Arena.

A third UVa home game attracted a crowd of 5,852, who saw the Cavaliers' CBI run end Wednesday night in a 96-85 loss to Bradley.

Virginia's crowds were comparable to what the CBI was drawing in other venues. Tulsa, which faces Bradley in a best-of-three championship series, had 5,339 for its game Wednesday night with Houston.

"Our numbers are not inflated at all," Gazelle Group president Rick Giles said. "During the regular season, you get a tickets-distributed number that's generally higher than what's in the arena. You don't have the corporate, season-ticket, older donors who don't necessarily show up."

Tickets for the CBI were not part of season-ticket packages.

Virginia was able to hold onto revenues made from parking, concessions and sponsorship agreements, "but it takes between $45,000 and $50,000 to put on a game," Oliver said. "Then you're going to tack your guarantee on top of that."

It's no wonder that teams like Georgia Tech politely declined. Wake Forest's coaching staff wanted to play, Giles said, but the administration said no.

"I firmly believe, if the guarantee stays at the same level, it will seriously limit the number of teams that can participate," Oliver said. "With the NCAA tournament and the NIT, the teams that are left are not the big-time schools who can eat guarantees for home games.

"There were some big-name teams that said 'no' to participating in this tournament."

The only way for a school to cut its losses was to go on the road. The Gazelle Group handles travel expenses and even chartered planes when commercial flights were not available, Giles said.

"We're not getting rich on a $60,000 gate," Giles said. "Setting the guarantee was another way of saying, 'Make sure you're committed to this.' We're not doing that for our own profit at somebody else's expense."

Other schools might not have the same kind of set-up costs as John Paul Jones Arena, an all-purpose venue where crews were disassembling the floor and bleachers within minutes of the final horn.

For the CBI to have a future and for teams like Virginia to consider it a viable alternative, crowds will have to pick up. Nobody disputes that.

"The initial response from fans was, 'Oh, my gosh, we didn't make the NCAA,' " Giles said. "What we're about is rekindling a spark.

"It will be interesting to compare the NIT crowds in New York with our crowds at Tulsa and Bradley because I think our atmosphere's going to be a lot better."