Attendance in Columbus is nation’s highest

Columbus was at the center of the men's college basketball world through the first two rounds of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

Hosting two of the more notable upsets, No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson's upset against No. 1 Purdue and No. 7 Michigan State's win against No. 2 Marquette, Nationwide Arena welcomed 58,694 fans across a combined six NCAA Tournament games Friday and Sunday.

And according to ESPN.COM, Columbus

sold the most tickets in the country for those first- and second-round men's games.

“Columbus shows up,” Jesse Ghiorzi, director of marketing for the Greater Columbus Sports Commission, said. “One of the things that we talk about a lot when we're bidding on events like these is that we have terrific, terrific crowds and fans that show up in big numbers no matter the sport. So that's a huge credit to Columbus and the fans and the partnership between Ohio State and Nationwide Arena, working together to fill it up.”

Both first-round sessions Friday had 19,564 fans in attendance, while the second-round games between Florida Atlantic and Fairleigh Dickinson, and Marquette and Michigan State saw 19,566 fans.

Columbus was the only city to host both men's and women's NCAA Tournament action last weekend. The Greater Columbus Sports Commission predicted visitors for those contests would spend $9.4 million.

It was the third time Columbus has hosted March Madness since 2015, and the number of fans Columbus has attracted in doing so, Ghiorzi said, only leads to more excitement for what other events could be brought to the area in the future.

“The best predictor of the future is the past,” Ghiorzi said. “So when we are able to bid on other events and say, ‘Hey, look: we've been doing this for years across sports. Volleyball, we broke records. March Madness, we have the biggest crowds this time.'

“No matter what we've got, the Columbus crowds are going to show up.” cgay@dispatch.com @_Colingay