Why OKC was shut out of bid process

Tim Brassfield marveled at the majesty of the scene inside Bricktown Ballpark.

From the immaculate emerald grass to the cloudless sapphire sky, it was hard for the Oklahoma City All-Sports executive director to find any faults Thursday afternoon. Even the weather for the Big 12 Baseball Tournament was flawless.

There was almost a chill in the shade — an Oklahoma rarity in late May.

“We’ve got no complaints,” Brassfield said, still wearing a longsleeve pullover.

Gripes are always hard to come by during this glorious stretch of sports in our city. After Big 12 baseball wraps at The Brick, we’ll have a few days to catch our breath before the Women’s College World Series begins at Hall of Fame Stadium. It’s a two-week, bat-and-ball bonanza we’ve come to love — and expect.

But a little over a month ago, we learned that some of the other NCAA events we’ve come to love — and expect — won’t be coming back to Oklahoma City for a while. When the NCAA announced host sites for Division-I postseason events from 2019-22, we were shut out.

No basketball. No wrestling. No volleyball. No nothing.

Take the Women’s College World Series out of the equation, and it’s been a long time since we’ve had a year void of any NCAA events, either

a regional or a championship.

The WCWS, of course, is no small thing to take out of the equation. It has become a staple in OKC with the latest deal keeping the event at Hall of Fame Stadium through 2035, provided the city makes good on renovations promised. But improvements and upgrades continue at the complex, so there’s no reason to think they will stop or the WCWS will go anywhere else anytime soon. That is no small thing. Same goes for the Big 12 tournaments that are regulars here, baseball, softball and women’s basketball among them.

But for many moons, Oklahoma City has hosted other NCAA events, too. Basketball regionals by the bushel. Wrestling championships. Volleyball championships. And that doesn’t even count the Division II and Division III championships that come to Oklahoma City and fly largely under the radar.

Yet, for the four years awarded by the NCAA in this most recent bid cycle, Oklahoma City will have no NCAA events except for softball.

Total sites awarded: 216. Total for OKC: zero. “Were we disappointed?” said Brassfield, whose group heads up Oklahoma City’s bids, then oversees the events. “Absolutely.”

Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau president Mike Carrier said, “We were all shocked.”

Lots of other folks around the country felt the same way. Carrier and his people received calls from counterparts near and far.

“What happened to you guys?” they asked.

Those in Oklahoma City close to the bid process aren’t quite sure what went wrong. Truth is, they might never know why they weren’t awarded any of the more than 20 bids that they submitted; the NCAA doesn’t divulge what happens behind closed doors in the process of awarding regional and championship sites.

But it’s believed a few factors were at play.

•More competition: Used to be, only cities of a certain size had facilities suitable for NCAA competition. But when you look at the cities that received men’s basketball regionals in this latest round of NCAA site awards, for example, you see that the options have expanded.

Included on that list are Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha, Neb.; Boise, Idaho; Wichita, Kan.; Louisville, Ky.; and Tulsa.

All have a population under 450,000, but all have an arena suitable for a basketball regional.

What’s more, those cities and many more went after NCAA events. That’s because sporting events continue to be big draws with significant economic impact even amid the country’s economic downtown of recent years.

“Cities around the country have seen sports becoming more and more lucrative for them,” Carrier said.

•Dedicated funds: Many of the cities now bidding on NCAA events have funds, both public and private, to bolster the bid fees that they offer.

Every NCAA event is assigned a minimum amount that must be guaranteed by the city, and that money is often paid through ticket sales. But if a city wants to enhance what it is offering by way of facilities, hotels and support personnel, it can bid above the minimum. Bid $750,000 on an event that has a $500,000 minimum, perhaps.

That extra revenue is difficult for the NCAA to turn down.

Oklahoma City has some funds to boost its bid fees, but some cities it is competing against draw from much deeper wells.

Missouri, for example, has a tax credit of $5 for every ticket sold to amateur sports events. That means when Kansas City sold out both sessions of the men’s basketball regional at the 19,000seat Sprint Center in March, it could’ve handed the NCAA a check for $190,000 before the first semifinal tipped off.

Another revenue source is independent foundations. Some cities have one that is an arm of their organizing committee. Others are fortunate beneficiaries; Indianapolis, for one, receives funds from the foundation at Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical giant based there.

All of that adds up to more legitimate competition for a limited number of events.

•NCAA changes: One of the events that Oklahoma City leaders felt was nearly a sure thing in this most recent round of NCAA site awards was the wrestling championships. The event came to the city in 2006, then again in 2014, and Tom Anderson, executive manager of special projects for the city who oversees venues such as a The Peake, remembers people approaching him during the last session two years ago, telling him thatwrestling would be back soon.

“We can’t wait to come back,” they said. “The next opening is 2019. Pencil it in.”

But in awarding wrestling championships for 2019-22, the NCAA looks to be altering course. It chose U.S. Bank Stadium as one of the sites. The new venue in Minneapolis is home to the Minnesota Vikings.

Yes, it’s a football stadium.

The NCAA looks to be dabbling with wrestling using theFinal Four model — put an arena event in a football stadium to increase seating capacity, ticket sales and revenues generated. Obviously, Oklahoma City doesn’t have an indoor football stadium, so if the NCAA goes a hundred percent to such venues for wrestling, the city will be out of luck.

And yet, that doesn’t explain the city being completely shut out of wrestling. Three of the four championships were awarded to arenas similar toChesapeake Energy Arena.

Anderson considers wrestling one of the elephants that Oklahoma City lost out on.

“Wrestling or volleyball,” he said, “those hurt.”

It goes without saying that the partnership between all the entities involved with NCAA events in Oklahoma City has worked so well for so long. It’s hard to argue with the entire body of work and the track record of success. Frankly, part of the consternation over the city not getting any events is because the expectations are so high.

But clearly, some things within the process have changed.

Perhaps some things need tochange here, too.

I’m not suggesting people be fired or organizations be shuttered.No way. No how. But everyone involved needs to take a serious lookat the process. What could be tweaked? What might be enhanced? It’s important because the NCAA events carry such heft locally and such cache nationally.

“These are very valuable events for us,” Carrier said. “They bring a lot of money to the hotels, to the restaurants. They bring a lot of attention to the city.”

Anderson said, “It’s huge.”

“I think it’s a matter of what can we all do better?” Carrier added. “I don’t think it’s ‘You screwed up.’ It’s what can we do better to make sure the next round, we’re still in the game.”

From where Brassfield is sitting, he doesn’t believe Oklahoma City was ever out of it.

In addition to being a hub for Big 12 events, the Women’s College World Series is anchored here. It is one of the NCAA’s signature events, and it is because of our city.

It’s a championship event that OKC will have every year for the next 18 years.

“It’s easy to look at what we don’t have,” Brassfield said. “But we’ve got more than Tulsa, Dallas, Wichita, any of those other cities in our region.”

We want more, even as we marvel at the majesty and revel about the run of sports over these next few weeks in our fair city.