Coaches question equitability of Albany hotels
ALBANY — When she wasn’t ducking questions about the Washington Post, LSU coach Kim Mulkey questioned the equitability of Albany hotels in her Friday morning press conference.
This is the second year of the NCAA women’s basketball “super regional,” where eight teams are assigned to a singular site instead of the previous four. LSU, which faces UCLA at 1 p.m. Saturday at MVP Arena in a regional semifinal, is playing for the first time in the Capital Region.
“Eight teams have to be accommodated for in Albany,” Mulkey said. “When you bring in eight teams, do you have eight hotels that are all of equal value, that are all the same? Probably not. I don’t know how many cities do. That’s a concern.”
It isn’t a new logistic for Albany, which had eight teams visiting the city last year for the first- and second-round games of the men’s NCAA Tournament.
“I have no idea what they’re referring to,” said Jill Delaney, executive director of Discover Albany, which assisted the NCAA with hotels and team placement. “They’re in the same hotels other than a couple that had to go outside Albany County the last time, only because we didn’t have enough rooms in Albany County because it happened to fall on St. Patrick’s Day last year.
“Because it’s Easter weekend, we could accommodate all of the teams in Albany County hotels because it tends to be a quieter weekend. It’s the same major properties that it was for the men’s games.”
There are teams sharing hotels; UCLA and Oregon State, for instance. “There are some hotels that do have the capacity to hold more than one team,” Delaney said.
The highest-seeded teams get first choice of hotels. LSU is seeded No. 3 in Albany Regional 2, which means the Tigers likely got the fifth or sixth pick of accommodations.
“Seattle was great for us,” said Lisa Bluder, coach of top-seeded
Iowa, referring to her team’s Sweet 16 site a year ago. “We were in a great hotel. Seattle was good. Albany, obviously the hotels aren’t as plentiful and maybe as nice.”
What’s next for Albany?
Both Mulkey and Bluder said
that regional sites are picked too far in advance.
“We do these bids so far out,” Bluder said, “that I don’t think people knew what to expect three or four years ago when they bid on these sites.”
Actually, that isn’t true. Sites for only the next two regionals are set: Birmingham, Ala., and Spokane, Wash., for next year, Fort Worth, Texas, and Sacramento, Calif., for 2026.
MVP Arena general manager Bob Belber has made it clear that he will be bidding for more.
While there has been a recent clamoring for bigger cities to bolster women’s basketball, Albany has been good for the NCAA. This is the 22nd NCAA championship event to be held downtown.
The NCAA hockey regionals will be here for the 12th time in 2026. The arena was host to hockey’s 1992 and 2001 Frozen Four and the 2002 NCAA wrestling championships.
A sign of the times
Near the door to the media room at MVP hangs a sign, adorned with the city’s logo, “WELCOME TO ALL-BANY … NOT AL-BANY.”
It was in reference to the mispronunciation of the city’s name by anchor Elle Duncan during the NCAA Selection Show on ESPN.