Las Vegas lands the NCAA’S 2028 men’s Final Four
Las Vegas, with hordes of visitors congregating annually in mid-march to watch and wager on March Madness basketball games, was already considered a landing spot for the NCAA Tournament.
That visitor traffic will take on a different meaning in 2028. College basketball’s most notable weekend is heading to Las Vegas: The NCAA announced Tuesday that the Final Four would be contested at Allegiant Stadium in 2028.
The NCAA also announced that Ford Field in Detroit will host the Final Four in 2027, while Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis will get the 2029 event and AT&T Stadium in Dallas will get the 2030 event.
“We are excited to bring the NCAA’S premier championship to Las Vegas, a city that for a number of years has hosted numerous championships from several member conferences,” Chris Reynolds, athletic director at Bradley and the chairman of the site selection committee, said in a statement. “The feedback from leagues, the fans of their teams and the media covering the events staged there has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are confident we’ll get the same reviews when the men’s Final Four is played at Allegiant Stadium.”
Having the $2 billion, 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL’S Raiders and UNLV football, has paved the way for Las Vegas to attract many marquee events. That includes the 2024 Super Bowl.
“The Raiders are thrilled to welcome the NCAA and college basketball fans from around the world to Las Vegas and our home at Allegiant Stadium,” Sandra Douglass Morgan, president of the Las Vegas Raiders and Las Vegas NCAA Final Four bid team, said in a statement. “Our facility is a state-of-the-art, ideal venue for world-class sporting events.”
The effort to bring the event here — during a slow time in early April after the rush of visitors for the initial week of March Madness — featured tourism leaders and UNLV and the Raiders officials.
Las Vegas, which annually hosts NCAA conference basketball tournaments at various venues, was previously named a
“Our city has been a hub for basketball on all levels for many years and now to welcome one of the premier events in all of sports is a culmination of how Las Vegas has truly become the sports and entertainment capital of the world.”
Erick Harper, UNLV athletic director and a member of the Las Vegas Final Four Bid team
host site for a 2023 NCAA Tournament regional and the 2023 NIT championship.
“Our city has been a hub for basketball on all levels for many years and now to welcome one of the premier events in all of sports is a culmination of how Las Vegas has truly become the sports and entertainment capital of the world,” Erick Harper, UNLV’S athletic director and a member of the Las Vegas Final Four Bid team, said in a statement.
The announcement is further proof that the NCAA has softened its stance on sports betting, which for decades led it to shy away from considering Las Vegas for championship events.
That’s significant considering that outside of UNLV basketball, the NCAA stayed away from hosting basketball games here until the early to mid-2000s, when Steve Stallworth of the Orleans Arena spent two years working with officials from Kansas and Florida to have the schools play here in 2006. Florida was the defending national champion and Kansas was ranked No. 1, bringing a standing room-only crowd for a back-and-forth game that went into overtime.
“I knew we could do college basketball and do it well,” Stallworth, now with the South Point Arena, told the Sun in 2019.
It was the first college game contested on a property with a sportsbook. But not the last.
By 2009, the West Coast Conference moved its tournament to the Orleans Arena. Now, the Western Athletic Conference (Orleans) and Pac-12 Conference tournaments (previously MGM Grand Garden Arena, now T-mobile Arena) are also in Las Vegas and close to sportsbooks.
The Mountain West Conference annually has its basketball tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus, and Henderson began hosting the Big West Conference basketball tournament this year. The conference will again host the Big West’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments next year at the Dollar Loan Center.
Of today’s announcement, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman offered the following tweet shortly after the news was released: “Yes! So excited to welcome the 2028 men’s Final Four to Las Vegas. There is no better place to host a major sporting event than Las Vegas!”
In a separate statement, Jim Gibson, chairman of the Clark County Commission, said, “The excitement of the Final Four is a perfect match for this vibrant city. Las Vegas — UNLV that is — has been to the Final Four, but the Final Four has never come to Las Vegas. It’s clearly time.”
The UNLV men’s basketball team made it to the Final Four under coach Jerry Tarkanian in 1990 and 1991. The team won the national title in 1990 in Denver.
The 2028 Final Four will undoubtedly have a positive economic impact on the Las Vegas area.
Ahead of the 2021 men’s Final Four, Indianapolis tourism officials predicted the event would have an economic impact of about $225 million, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 1990, Indianapolis has hosted the men’s Final Four seven times and will next have it in 2026.
“That (2021) event obviously looked very different when it happened, but that’s the latest estimate we have as it pertains to the event,” said Brett Kramer, a spokesman for the Indiana Sports Corp, a leading organization in ongoing efforts to bring top tier sporting events to Indianapolis.
“By the 2027-2030 bid cycle, we anticipate that ($225 million) figure to grow.”
The Final Four weekend, set for April 1-3, 2028, is more than the national semifinals and championship games. It also includes fan experiences, autograph sessions, giveaways and a coaching convention. Even the practice sessions annually sell out.
“The Final Four is one of the marquee events in sports and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to be the host in 2028,” said Steve Hill, CEO and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “The excitement of Final Four basketball combined with the energy of Las Vegas will create an unforgettable experience for teams and fans alike.”