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ATLANTA -- The consumer has spoken, and the ACC tournament won't be setting any attendance records when it returns to the Georgia Dome this season.

That's not to say the event will be a dud. It just won't exceed the limits of reasonable in-house viewing.

That limit, commissioner John Swofford said, is 36,000 fans -- about 5,000 less than the throng in the Dome's configuration for the event in 2001. In that, the tourney's first voyage to a football stadium, the league wanted to accommodate as many fans as possible, but that sacrificed quality sightlines in some cases. The new number is in response to fan feedback.

"We feel like for a conference tournament, when you get to 36,000, that's a pretty hefty number," Swofford said. "In reality, we don't need to go beyond that. We'd rather have seats people are going to be happy with than have a marginal, additional number of seats that (make) people wish they had stayed at home."

After 2009, the ACC tournament settles in for an extended run in Greensboro, which is currently scheduled as host in 2010, 2011 and 2013-15. The league can move the championship once in the 2013-15 window but must compensate Greensboro with a subsequent opportunity. Discussions on that issue are ongoing, Swofford said.

EXPOSED: ACC teams will make a league-record 300 total appearances on television in 2008-09. (A game between two conference members counts as two exposures.) In all, 173 of the 300 will be on national outlets, and 120 of the national exposures will be under the aegis of ESPN. The overall total surpasses the mark of 287, set last year.

All but four of the 96 conference contests will be aired somewhere. The curious factoid there is that Wake Forest, picked to finish third in media balloting announced Sunday, is in two of the no-shows: the tilt at N.C. State on Feb. 11 and a home gig with Georgia Tech on Feb. 18. Florida State-Miami (Jan. 21) and Miami-Georgia Tech (March 4) are the others.

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@news-record.com