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The NCAA intends to host the entire Division I men’s basketball tournament in Indianapolis this year, according to a source familiar with the plans.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Indianapolis-based NCAA is expected to announce details of its deal with the city on Monday afternoon. The individual confirmed the 67-game tournament will be held at venues across central Indiana in March and April.
The deal between the NCAA and Indianapolis comes more than one month after the organization said it would not move forward with staging the preliminary rounds of the annual tournament at more than a dozen different locations around the country, due to health and safety concerns created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The source declined to provide information about what the tournament would look like and whether fans will be present.
This story has been updated here.
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What an amazing coup this would be! Kudos to Visit Indy and other organizations for making something like this happen in a pandemic.
This will be the first time the entire NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament was held in one city. This announcement is a BIG deal. Hopefully, Indy will have the opportunity to possibly secure the tournament for consecutive years as we have the NFL Combine. We have the capacity to do so. Looking forward to making this happen with fellow Hoosiers!
I’m ready! How can I help?!!! So excited for the City to have this BIG honor!
Should be that way every year. This is basketball country. We have the facilities and hotel space with a walkable downtown.
This is an outstanding opportunity for the city! However, under the current COVID restrictions in place for bars and restaurants, I can see this as a fail. We need to implore Major Hogsett to ease off and let those of us in the hospitality business to get back doing what we do best. Let us get our staffing and open hours back up to speed BEFORE we are deluged with out of town fans!!
It seems unlikely there will be anything more than family allowed to actually attend the games. It’s not going to be deluge of fans. Unless, of course, COVID disappears.
“deluged with out of town fans”, that’s not how a bubble works…
And CLEAN the city up. It is a public eye sore
Even with families of most every player, staff, etc. there is still an opportunity for more business. Plus there will be quite a few people head into town just for the excitement factor, even if there is limited fan attendance. Sorry guys, I’m a “cup half full” person, always hoping for the best, but I appreciate your subtle sarcasm.
This isn’t nearly as big of a win as many of you seek to think of it as.
It is great for the hotels and Lord know they need a boost.
It’s not a win in terms of the volume of people who will be coming [physically] to Indy for the tournament, but it’s more than a win when it comes to showing off the city as *the* host location. Kudos to those who put the package together and tying it up with a bow.
Steve R. – It will be great for one of the hotel chains – “Marriott-brand hotels will host most of the teams participating in the tournament.” – According to the updated article.
Hosting this tournament, particularly absent any significant improvements or additions is not showing anyone anything that they didn’t already know about Indy.
Besides, we all know cities aren’t awarded these events based on merit or beautification.
It is my hope, that the event tourism will be significantly reduced in scale and “importance” as a result of the long term impacts of this pandemic. It’s phony ED.
It is more business for Indy having the event with or without fans. Lets stay positive 2021 just started…
Go Visit Indy!
Sounds more like a lot of costs with even less likelihood to break even than a normal year. Surely you don’t believe the flip of a calendar page is reason to believe in some magical pendulum reset.
I will not root for the make work fraudsters at Visit Indy.
Did nobody catch that there are NO FANS? This isn’t a win for Indy, it’s just a bubble.
I have a crazy idea. Why don’t we get all the D1 college ball players vaccinated. That and send Hogsett on a one way trip to Antarctica.
Wow. I am excited. Since Indiana is totally unable to control the pandemic now, it will definitely be unable to deal with it by the time the tournament starts. It will give the City time to build a bunch of new hospitals just like the Chinese did. We need the construction jobs, you know. Money and the economy first. Oh and by that time, we will still not have enough people vaccinated so we can be the ultimate Midwest epicenter of the pandemic. New York had first honors, and now California is taking center stage. The Midwest should not be forgotten. Indiana will lead the way, but we have a lot of work to do. Everyone who comes in from out of state to support the players will provide the additional cases of native Hoosiers do not have enough Covid to keep our streak going. If necessary, we should import the UK strain or the one from South Africa. Who knows from the holiday trips, maybe some Hoosiers may be bring back some better strains. We can only hope.