NCAA, New Orleans gearing up for a more normal Final Four

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Expect the NCAA Men's Final Four to have a more familiar look and feel to it this spring — and not just because it'll be in New Orleans for a record sixth time.

An anticipated capacity crowd of about 70,000 in the Superdome for the games themselves is just the beginning.

Remember the free, open Friday practices and the college All-Star game? They're on again for the first time since the Covid19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 NCAA tournament.

The Fan Fest? It's slated to be back in the city's sprawling convention center along the Mississippi River.

The March Madness Music Festival will be held in a riverside park.

And the National Association of Basketball Coaches convention, which traditionally takes place in conjunction with the NCAA Final Four, remains on track to take place as an inperson event for the first time since 2019.

The whole experience will be "quite dramatically different" from the NCAA Final Four a year ago, when the entire tournament was held in the Indianapolis area amid far more stringent COVID-19 restrictions, said Dan Gavitt, the NCAA's senior vice president of basketball.

Gavitt was in New Orleans on Monday to discuss planning for the 2022 Final Four with local government and organizing committee officials.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell were among those who spoke at the meeting, hailing the needed economic boost a more normalized Final Four will provide to tourist-dependent New Orleans on the heels of both the Covid-19 pandemic and Hurricane Ida, which struck last Aug. 29.

"Obviously, this is a huge deal for our economy," Edwards said, noting that the Final Four not only will come shortly after the resumption of traditional Mardi Gras celebrations, which were largely canceled in 2021, but shortly before the return of two major music festivals that also were called off during the pandemic — the French Quarter Festival and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

"It's coming at exactly the right time," Edwards said.