March Madness Careful Planning for Cities, Fans Alike

You might have wondered in past years what factors go into choosing where NCAA Tournament games take place, and why you may never have seen them near your hometown. Many cities endeavor to host a game, no doubt, but historically better-resourced cities have won out.

60+ teams end up playing each March in a tournament meant to eventually recognize the best college basketball team at the highest level of college basketball in the United States. As you might expect, tournament games are a boon for cities and both hospitality and marketing folks alike.

Cities submit bids to the National Collegiate Athletic Association to make higher-ups at the Indianapolis-based nonprofit think that their locale can appropriately deal with the onslaught of visitors, traffic, and more. Each traveler represents an opportunity to fill hotel rooms and a possible customer at restaurants in the area. Every city isn’t eligible for hosting NCAA Tournament games for a litany of reasons, but the ones that do fulfill some of the following characteristics.

Geographical location

For the first round or two of the tournament, NCAA personnel try to place higher-seeded teams in cities that fans won’t mind making the trip. In 2019, Duke played its first round game in Washington, D.C., which makes for around a four-hour drive. Purdue played in Louisville (just over three hours away). Hospitality comes into play since travelers need a place to stay, food to eat, and they may even choose to take advantage of other local amenities.

Facility availability

The best ability is availability, the old saying goes. My native Jacksonville has hosted first-round games twice in recent years, and those games took place at what is now called VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. When the city hosted tournament games in 2006, 2010, and 2015, Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena was the name of that same facility. Though men’s and women’s basketball played there at the time, the arena was open because their season ended with a loss in the conference tournament — the Dolphins have not participated in the NCAA Tournament since 1986.

Safety and security

The looming threat of violence presides over even harmless gatherings, and each city that puts in a bid to host games has to provide a safety and security plan. Thousands of people milling around one building makes for a very present opportunity for bad actors to inflict a great deal of bloodshed if staff don’t thwart their plans first. More lightly, television games are also a chance for streakers and other people to do things they generally would not to garner some camera.

Ability to accommodate travelers, laborers, and media

Fans and local citizens aren’t the only ones trying to view these games — professional reporters are as well, and they need both lodging and a solid Internet connection to do their job. Cities that make these bids have to think about whether their lodging capacity can accept the media and fans that flock to a given place to see a team or a star player.

Not having those rooms available if need be would be a bad look, and might leave a bad taste in leaders’ mouths when the basketball is over.

Parking lot access and wi-fi are both concerns because media members use their resources to publicize the games and happenings within them, and reporters from outlets big and small seek to report on teams they might cover as a beat. If a facility cannot accommodate a cadre of media members, it may not be a good fit for the occasion. The same could be said about the glut of workers needed to do security and court maintenance and a host of other duties.