NCAA Tourneys return to TU Center
When it comes to attracting men’s NCAA Tournament games, it pays to heed a memorable line from the baseball movie “Field of Dreams.”
To paraphrase: If you build it, it will come.
Our local arena, the Times Union Center, hasn’t hosted any portion of the men’s event since 2003. That was so long ago that the New York Knicks’ aging star Carmelo Anthony was still a freshman at Syracuse.
But, the drought is about to end. Good news came earlier this week with the announcement that the men’s event, firstand second-round games, will be in Albany in 2020.
Finally.
Arena officials had made multiple bids to host since 2003, but had come up empty because
there were better and more modern facilities with more amenities out there.
Let’s face it. Downtown Albany had a lack of auxiliary space outside the TUC’s confines for things like practices and team meetings, and the just wasn’t enough downtown hotel space to accommodate everyone.
Some teams and their fans had to be bivouacked on Wolf Road, a good 15-minute ride away from the downtown Albany arena.
But all that has changed of late. Our primary entertainment venue, which had been showing its age, has gotten a facelift. And, now, we’ve got the necessary auxiliary areas, too.
The last time the arena sought to host the NCAA men’s event a couple of years ago the amenities were on the drawing board. But, the NCAA wanted to see the actual
structures in place.
Now, they are. There’s now a $78 million convention center close to the arena (with space for three practice courts), the opening of a 200-plus room Renaissance Hotel in downtown and $19.6 million worth of renovations at the arena’s atrium and rear entrance that are close to completion.
“The reason we got it this time is Albany County’s investment in this facility is being seen,” said TUC general manager Bob Belber. “It’s actually taking place. The convention center actually is open, and the last bid we put in, it was a concept — it was a plan, but nothing had been started yet.”
Belber also said that current NCAA bid speculations require an indoor facility to host a fan festival, which wasn’t part of the criteria the last time the arena hosted the men’s tournament in 2003. That became available with the recent completion of the convention center.
So, we built it and, now, it will come.
History shows that to be the case since the construction of our downtown arena, first known as the Knickerbocker Arena when it opened its doors in January, 1990.
Until then, a facility that could seat up to 17,500 spectators was something we had to travel a considerable distance, to New York City or Boston, for A-list acts and sporting events.
Our biggest was the Glens Falls Civic Center (5,500 seats), or Siena’s oncampus Alumni Recreation Center (4,000). The bulk of our entertainment was attracted by the old Starlite Theatre in Latham (3,000).
Needless to say we weren’t getting Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond or Billy Joel.
But, after our large downtown Albany facility was built, they came.
Sinatra was the opening act on January 30, 1990 and drew 16,436 to watch him croon.
Diamond also came (and drew a crowd of 16,861) as
did Joel (16,691). Springsteen, the Grateful Dead, Elton John, U2 and dozens of others big-name entertainers also have graced our area with their talents.
But, the largest crowd ever at the TUC? That would be for evangelist Billy Graham, who held a series of crusades there and drew an arena record of 17,500 to one of them.
We’ve also seen a tennis match between Andre Agassi and John McEnroe in 1994, three days after Agassi won that year’s U.S. Open.
We’ve seen nine of the NBA’s all-time Top 50 players grace our court for exhibition games, and the ovation for the introduction of Larry Bird when the Celtics played here in 1991 (16,049 on hand) was one of the loudest ever heard at the arena.
We’ve also had the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s post-season basketball tournament here 18 times since 1990, an event that would never have been hosted locally were it not for the building
of our downtown arena.
And, of course, we’ve had NCAA men’s tournaments in the past and they have been memorable.
In 1995 the arena sold out faster than any other facility hosting NCAA games that year, and fans were hardly disappointed.
We saw a major upset that year, 14th-seed Old Dominion knocking off No. 3 seed Villanova in a triple overtime classic.
ODU’s Petey Sessoms, who never played an NBA game, fueled the improbable victory with 35 points. Villanova featured a roster that included future NBA Kerry Kittles. Also on Villanova’s bench that night, as an assistant coach, was future Siena head coach Paul Hewitt.
That year’s event also brought the Marcus Camby-led UMass team to Albany on its way to the Elite Eight level of that season’s tournament.
Eight years later a sellout crowd was on hand once again as Albany hosted regional-round play that sent a team directly to
the Final Four.
That was Syracuse, which included a local product in 7-foot-1 starting center Craig Forth, a Columbia High School grad.
The Orange, though, were led by a precocious freshman forward who has gone on to play in 10 NBA all-star games. That would be current Knicks’ standout Carmelo Anthony.
Syracuse went on to win that season’s national championship.
And, now, the men’s event is returning in the not-so-distant future.
Who knows if the we’ll see the talent, the close games and the thrills that we witnessed in the NCAA Tournament’s previous stops within our confines.
But, we’d never have any of it if we didn’t build what is now the Times Union Center 27 years ago. And, now, we’ll have more.