The National Collegiate Athletic Association has made its largest host site announcements for championship events, announcing 523 sites for 82 championship events between 2014 and 2018.
Over 1,900 bids were made to host men’s and women’s finals for college basketball, cross-country, water polo, volleyball and track & field. Previously, selection announcements were announced one sport at a time, but Mark Lewis, NCAA executive VP of Championships and Alliances said the new format gives the NCAA and host sites more time to plan each championship experience.
“The process was extremely thorough and allowed the sport committees to have some tremendous options, which will ultimately provide our student athletes, coaches and fans the best experience possible,” he said.
Highlights include the 2016 Division I Wrestling championships which head to Madison Square Garden in New York, marking the NCAA’s first return to the building in 66 years. United Center in Chicago will host the 2017 Men’s Frozen Four, the building’s first ever NCAA championship event,
Other events are being conjoined to create a unified event experience, like the Divisions I and III Women’s Lacrosse Finals, which join the Men’s Lacrosse Championships in Philadelphia at PPL Park and Lincoln Financial Field respectively in 2015 and 2016, with five of the six championships in the same city on the same weekend.
Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City will host the Women's Basketball Regional in 2015 and Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, R.I., Verizon Wireless Center in Manchester, N.H. and DCU Center in Worcester, Mass., will take on hockey tournaments over the next two years.
Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y., is one of the few buildings to land multisport championship contracts.
The 24-year-old arena, which has a capacity of about 15,000 for basketball and 14,000 for hockey, was selected to hold the 2015 Division I Women's Basketball Regional and 2016 Men's Hockey East Regional.
“This region in Upstate New York has an ever-growing girls' basketball and collegiate women's basketball programs,” said GM Bob Belber. “University of Albany's team is doing well this year and Siena College has a Women's program that's growing rapidly.”
Times Union Center, which is home to Siena College basketball and the American Hockey League's Albany Devils, has a track record of hosting NCAA basketball. The arena hosted the Men's Basketball Tournament in 1995 and 2003.
The 2015 Women's Regional will mark the first time the Times Union Center hosts a Women's basketball tournament. Belber has high expectations.
“When you look at the teams that have gotten into the East Regional Championship, it seems like University of Connecticut is in it a lot,” Belber said. “Teams like UConn and Syracuse and Tennessee and so forth, have fan bases that travel. If we get one of those, we'll bring in around 10,000 people to the building.”
Last year's East Regional, held in Bridgeport, Conn., drew 8,594 in a single game between the Connecticut Huskies and Kentucky Wildcats.
In terms of hockey, Times Union Center is much more experienced in tournament action than Women's ball. Its first tournament came in 1992 when the arena held the Frozen Four Division I Men's Hockey championship. The venue has also played host to the Men's Hockey East Regional eight times. The last time, in 2010, Times Union Center drew 3,737 in the final.
By the time hockey returns, the arena will be attached to a newly-built convention center and hotel and will have a round of renovations completed. Belber hopes the improvements combined with hosting Women’s Basketball and Men's Hockey will put them in position to grab another Men's Basketball round.
“The two issues the NCAA had after 2003 were media space and a downtown hotel,” he said. “We think those things will be covered by July 2016 and we're hoping to submit bids for Men's for 2016, 2017 and 2018.”
Many of the SMG venues that scored NCAA tournament events are like Times Union Center: minor league and college arenas. But some of the United States' biggest professional sports venues also jump into the mix for regional NCAA events.
Chesapeake Energy Arena, home to one of the National Basketball Association's top teams, the Oklahoma City Thunder, was awarded the 2015 Women's Basketball Regional.
The NBA arena, retrofitted five years ago to bring in the Thunder, has hosted the Women's Regional three times since opening in 2002. Both times, it was the highest attended regional tournament. In 2009, more than 21,000 fans attended.
Last year, Chesapeake Energy Arena drew over 9,000 for one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Women's Basketball history, when Louisville upset favorites Baylor.
“Women's basketball is popular in the state of Oklahoma,” said Chesapeake Energy Arena General Manager Gary Desjardins, “in large part because of University of Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale and what she's done to promote the sport – not just her program, but Women's basketball in general.”
Desjardins said presenting an NCAA event isn't much different in terms of gameday or staffing from an average NBA game. There are some changes the arena is required by the NCAA to make such as covering signage inside the bowl and using an NCAA-provided playing surface.
“We've become accustomed to the changes,” said Desjardins. “I don't want to say it's routine for us, but our staff has become experienced and understands what has to be done to meet the standards of the host institution.”
Interviewed for this story: Bob Belber, (518) 487-2008; Gary Desjardins, (405) 602-851