No offense, but I hear this excuse every year.
"There are lots of empty seats at the Orleans, though!!!". That's how ALL conference tournaments are in the early rounds. Basically, the Gonzaga fans hold tickets, but don't bother attending the early round games unless it is Gonzaga playing. Otherwise, they skip out and play in Las Vegas. But the tickets are still sold.
Notice how they don't skip out in the later rounds? They show up then.
This same thing happened in the MWC tournament when BYU was there. Only BYU fans would sit and watch hours of basketball instead of playing around in Las Vegas at Casinos.