WASHINGTON – Bo Chinners has missed only one ACC Tournament since 1962. He remembers his first trip to the tournament was with his dad in the tenth grade in Raleigh, N.C. Now that he lives in Fairhope, Ala., any trip to the tournament is out of his way.

But that didn’t stop him from catching a flight at 5 a.m. Thursday to support his team, the Clemson Tigers. Chinners admits he doesn’t even like Washington all that much, mainly because he can’t go golfing in this type of weather. His favorite place for the tournament, hands down, is Greensboro, N.C.

“I just love Greensboro,” Chinners, 58, said. “It’s a small town, where everyone’s into basketball. Here, it’s just another event in Washington.”

Fans have traveled far and wide to see their favorite teams play in the ACC tournament this weekend, which is in Washington for the first time since 1987. Some, such as Wake Forest freshman Melanie Cost, have spent hundreds of dollars in travel and ticket expenses. Some fans used the better part of their winter to comb eBay or phone friends and relatives, while others left it up to fate and tested their luck with scalpers. Some luckier locals needed only to take off work and hop on the Metro to enjoy this year’s tournament.

Cost, a Philadelphia native, decided early last month to spend her spring break away from home at the ACC tournament. She and four friends from around the country painstakingly arranged their schedules so they could attend the 10-game series together.

The five friends spent their Thursday morning reuniting on the corner of 7th and F streets, with luggage strewn about the crowded sidewalk.

“It’s an adventure,” Cost said. “Wake might not go to the ACCs again.”

Fans shelled out varied amounts of money for travel and game expenses. Cost and her friends spent $325 on game tickets purchased through their school and up to $400 on airfare each to make the four-day trip to the MCI Center. Chinners spent $1,200 on hotels, tickets and travel fare.

But there was an abundance of tickets that allowed most area fans to purchase them for face value from scalpers.

“There’s plenty of tickets around,” said a scalper known as “Little Richmond.” “The crime’s so bad people don’t want to come [to Washington]. It keeps the family people away.”

Alumnae such as Jill Wright of Laurel and Joe Garcia found tickets at face value, much to their surprise, they said.

“I thought it wasn’t going to be this easy,” Wright said.

Garcia, who’d been walking around with an arena seating chart, settled on $65 executive suite seating.

But for Washington resident Jeremy Bird, procuring tickets took months of phone calls and dead-ends before finally obtaining a ticket.

“I made calls for about a month, and all of a sudden it was like Santa on Christmas,” Bird said.

Tar Heels fan Frank Watkins, who traveled from Hendersonville, N.C., has never bought a set of ACC tournament tickets in the 12 years he’s been going. Wherever the tournament is, he hops in his car — or in this case, on an airplane — and goes without a ticket, hoping someone will sell it to him for cheap.

“I never failed to get in and I never paid much more than face value,” the 65-year-old retired educator said, holding up a ticket he just bought for $45.

Fred Hendrick, one of Watkins’ friends, flew all the way from Atlanta for his second ACC tourney.

“I got the fever,” he said. “As long as my wife stays home and takes care of the dogs, I’ll be there.”

But the traveling and the adventure is part of the fun for most. Like Watkins, who will go wherever the ACC tourney takes him, Maryland alum Brian Allen would rather have the ACC tournament in another state. Though he would rather see a sea of red than the familiar North Carolina blue, he prefers having the tournament in Greensboro. Allen, who lives in Columbia and works in Washington, likes making the annual trip out of the town with 10 to 15 of his Sigma Chi brothers. He’s been going to every ACC tournament for the past 10 years with his fraternity brothers.

“With the tournament in D.C., that means you still got to go home after the game and you’re responsible still here,” Allen said.

Staff writer Laurie Au contributed to this report.