Mike McMahon/The Record

ALBANY - The Times Union Center box office will surely be contacting University at Albany coach Will Brown in the coming days.

Following his team's 74-62 victory over Siena, Brown said that he can guarantee an even larger crowd than the 11,311 that attended on Friday evening.

"If this game would have been played tomorrow (Saturday), there would have been 15,000 people here, sold out," said Brown.

The crowd was the largest since 2009, and was more than the average of 10,940, since the rivalry was renewed in 2001.

Brown does have a point though, as it was a very busy night locally. Both Union and RPI men's hockey teams were home and the Section II Class AA Super Bowl was being played at Bob Ford Field, at UAlbany. That game, between CBA and Shaker was one Brown pointed to.

"I bet ya half of them would have come," he said.

The game was played on Friday evening, due to the UAlbany women's schedule, which has a game on Sunday.

Last year, however the game was played on a Saturday and drew a crowd of 10,229. 

"It's hard to play it on any other day but Saturday," Brown said. "People will travel to come see this game if it's on a Saturday."

Brown even suggested that if the game can't be played as a doubleheader, maybe the women's teams could play on Friday evening and the men's squads could faceoff on Saturday, to make a whole weekend out of it.

"If it can't be a doubleheader, it can't be a doubleheader," he said. 

This was the first time the Albany Cup game was the season-opener, something that likely won't continue if this quote from Brown means anything.

"Next year, each of us will probably have three of four games under our belt, when we play," he said.