The dance that never was
NCAA South Region would have brought $10.7 million to Houston; city must wait for 2023 Final Four
In a perfect world, free of the novel coronavirus, the city of Houston would be gearing up this week for an invasion of college basketball fans from across the country.
Rock … Chalk … Jayhawk? Houston, specifically Toyota Center, had a front-row seat as host of the South Region of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament that was scheduled to begin Friday.
Those plans were scrapped less than a week before March Madness was set to begin when the NCAA canceled its marquee event because of concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“Although we are extremely disappointed not to have the opportunity to host the NCAA men’s basketball regionals at Toyota Center for the very first time,” said Janis Burke, CEO of the Harris County Houston Sports Authority, “we know this was the right call to ensure the safety of all involved and to help flatten the curve — a term that I had not used before but is now part of every American’s vocabulary.”
The arrival of four teams — among the final 16 teams vying for college basketball’s national championship — for the three-day South Region was projected to deliver an economic boon of $10.7 million, according to HCHSA estimates.
Packed crowds just a few blocks away at Discovery Green. Out-of-town visitors converging on hotels, restaurants and bars, retail stores and activities at some of the city’s attractions. All would have pumped money into the local economy.
Instead, this week those same businesses are losing money as Harris County has placed restrictions on public activity in order to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Houston is not alone. Dayton, Ohio; Albany, N.Y.; Omaha, Neb.; Spokane, Wash.; St. Louis; Tampa, Fla.; Greensboro, N.C.; Sacramento, Calif.; and Cleveland were to host “First Four” and first- and second-round games. Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and New York City were the four regional sites, while Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium was the host of the Final Four.
With the cancellation, Houston will have to wait until 2023 when it hosts the Final Four at NRG Stadium. An NCAA official said there are no plans to push back the previously announced future site rotation to accommodate 2020 sites that had regionals canceled.
“It’s very complicated because of several reasons, not the least of which is venue availability,” said Dave Worlock, the NCAA’s director of media coordination and statistics. “Therefore, we have no plans to move any of the scheduled sites we have already determined, which include the 2021 and 2022 preliminary round sites and the 2021-26 Final Four sites.”
Future preliminary sites for the 2023-26 cycle are scheduled to be announced in October, Worlock said.
Burke said Houston has submitted a new bid for the 18,300seat Toyota Center for 2024, 2025 and 2026.
“So, hopefully, we will get another chance to showcase our great venue sometime soon,” she said.
In addition to the extensive bidding process, the HCHSA and the University of Houston, the regional host institution, had put in years of preparation, including site visits by NCAA officials.
For now, local organizers only can imagine the what-ifs had the tournament not been forced to cancel. What if Baylor and its legion of green-and-gold fans had been placed in the South Region. Or, say, other college basketball heavyweights like Louisville or Michigan State?
Although most bracket projections had Baylor in the South, Kansas coach Bill Self told the Kansas City Star that if the Jayhawks had been the No. 1 overall seed, his team would have picked Houston over Indianapolis and the Midwest Region.
“We chose Houston. It was Friday-Sunday,” Self told the Star. “When you have a team that has dealt with as many nagging injuries as we have, playing Friday-Sunday (first- and secondround in Omaha) and turning around and playing Thursday-Saturday (dates of Midwest Region) didn’t seem nearly as attractive as playing Friday/ Sunday and turning around and playing Friday/Sunday.”
As major events began to shut down, Burke described a chain of events as “surreal and kept unfolding minute by minute.”
The first sign came March 11, as Burke sent a text message to the NCAA during Mayor Sylvester Turner’s press conference to announce that the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo was shutting down. Questions began to surface about the future of the South Region.
“Next, we were informed that the men’s regionals would take place without spectators, which set off a whole new set of challenges for Houston because the Astros were slated to have their home opener on the same day,” Burke said. “We were having a hard time imagining how one stadium would be full of spectators while another had none within a few blocks of each other and, being the landlord of both venues, felt it important to be consistent.”
At the same time, Burke said, the MLS had not made a decision, and BBVA Stadium was scheduled to host an event.
Burke also held conversations with XFL commissioner Oliver Luck and Roughnecks president Brian Michael Cooper. The Roughnecks played home games at the University of Houston’s TDECU Stadium and was to host the league’s inaugural championship game April 26.
Not long after, all major U.S. sports leagues and the NCAA had made the decisions to cancel, suspended or postpone games and seasons.
“I think we all felt a bit numb at first, as we had never seen anything like this before,” Burke said.