The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Big-time college basketball arrives
Economic impact will be upwards of $10 million for two weeks of hoops.
Downtown Cleveland will be abuzz with big-time college basketball over the next two weeks.
The Mid-American Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will unfold from March 11 to 14 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
This is the 21st consecutive year the MAC tournaments will be staged at the 20,000-seat arena that is home to the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and AHL’s Cleveland Monsters.
Following on the heels of the MAC tournaments, also at Rocket Mortgage Field House, will be first-round and second-round games in the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament.
Eight teams will be coming to Cleveland to participate in the showcase event for Division I men’s college basketball widely known as “March Madness.”
There will be four firstround games on March 20 and two second-round games on March 22.
The teams assigned to the Cleveland pod and tipoff times won’t be known until after the 68-team field is revealed on March 15 in the nationally-televised selection show airing locally on WOIOTV 19.
Over the next two weeks, tens of thousands of fans will be in the seats at the arena, in hotel rooms and on the streets of downtown Cleveland patronizing bars, restaurants, ride-share services and other businesses.
The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and MidAmerican Conference collaborated on the bid that secured the 2020 NCAA men’s tournament first-and-secondround games.
Mike Mulhall, vice president of business development for GCSC, said the projected economic impact of the NCAA tournament games in Cleveland is $8 million. The combination of the MAC and NCAA tournaments will inject an estimated $10 million on the local economy.
“The MAC tournaments will be an ideal lead-in to the NCAA and March Madness,” Mulhall said. “There will be a lot of great college basketball in downtown Cleveland this March, for sure.”
Jeff Bacon, the MAC’s senior associate commissioner for championships & sport development, said the move of the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to the downtown arena in 2000 has paid impressive dividends.
“We are fortunate to have been in one place and in a great venue for such a long time,” Bacon said. “Our institutions know where they are going and how to get around. Being in Cleveland has given our tournaments a national identity.”
The $145 million refurbishing of the downtown arena, completed last fall, will have an immediate impact on the MAC and NCAA tournaments.
“We can do so much more with an updated, state-of-theart building,” Mulhall said.
There are similarities in the footprints of the MAC and NCAA tournaments.
In the MAC, eight men’s teams and eight women’s teams play over four days. There are four women’s quarterfinal games on March 11 and four men’s quarterfinals on March 12. Each of the quarterfinals has an afternoon and evening session.
Men’s and women’s semifinals are set for March 13 with championship games on March 14.
For the NCAA tournament, teams will begin to arrive on March 17. Practices and press conferences are scheduled for March 19. That will be followed by two sessions of first-round games on March 20, practices and press conferences for firstround winners on March 21 and two second-round games on March 22.
“There won’t be any breathing room between the two, but we’re prepared,” Bacon said of this year’s confluence of the MAC and NCAA tournaments.
This will be the fifth staging of the NCAA Division I men’s tournament in Cleveland.
In 2000 and 2005, Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center hosted firstround and second-round games. First-round and second-round games were staged at what then was called Quicken Loans Arena, as were two regional games in 2015.
The NCAA also is building a history with Cleveland as a site for its Division I women’s basketball tournament. After staging the regionals at Quicken Loans Arena in 2006 and the Women’s Final Four in 2007, the NCAA has awarded the 2024 Women’s Final Four to Cleveland with GCSC and the MAC as official co-hosts.
“We use our experience to make sure these events run smoothly,” Mulhall said. “At this point, we are a well-oiled machine.”
Bacon said the collaboration between the MAC, GCSC and management of the Cavaliers and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is the key to bringing major college basketball events to Cleveland.
“This is a great team with a track record that gives Cleveland an advantage over other cities in the bidding process,” Bacon said. “The NCAA knows it will get our best effort.”