After hearing that the NCAA men’s basketball tournament committee was exploring a one-city plan for March Madness, Jenny Carnes sprung into action.
Carnes, the executive director of the San Antonio Local Organizing Committee, was all set for the Final Four coming to San Antonio in March of 2021. Upon hearing that the city could host the whole thing, she put together a new proposal and re-bid on an event that they had already won a few years ago.
“We put together a list of available venues, who might be able to host games, practice sites, hotel inventory, bus inventory in town and put everything we thought together that would present the plan saying that San Antonio could do it. And we absolutely wanted to do it,” Carnes said.
It worked.
In February, the NCAA announced that every game would be held in and around San Antonio — with some early-round games played in Austin and San Marcos. Five arenas will host games: The Alamodome, UTSA Convocation Center, St. Mary’s University’s Bill Greehey Arena, Texas State’s University Events Center and Texas’ Frank Erwin Center.
The logistics of hosting three weeks of games was overwhelming. The city will host 64 teams with traveling parties of 34 people each as well as 60 officials in seven hotels. Add in NCAA staff, and it’s about 2,000 people.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Carnes said. “… But it’s been it’s been a lot of fun along the way. I think for me, seeing that the overwhelming support from our community just coming from everywhere — everybody wants to jump in and assist and do anything and not their typical roles. That’s been one of the greatest things about this entire experience.”
The automatic qualifiers arrived in town Tuesday, while the at-large bid teams — including Arizona — all came Wednesday. Teams are quarantining at their hotels, with one person in each room. The first group of 31 teams began practicing Thursday.
Said Lynn Holzman, the NCAA’s vice president of women’s basketball: “to hear basketballs bouncing and balls going through hoops means that we’re doing this.”
A change of pace
Holzman and her staff visited San Antonio to evaluate all the venues and other places — like hotels — that would be used during the tournament.
This year wasn’t a normal visit.
“Because we’ve been working from home, as many people have, we were not in site-visit shape — to be doing all that walking and moving in ways that we have not been for a while,” Holzman said.
““I think that was also was the case here early on with us being here is that we we’ve moved from these environments of how we are all conducting our daily lives, albeit so much virtually and then coming here to San Antonio with us still being constantly masked, physically distanced. We are working towards such an important cause in what we’re doing. It is very rewarding, but the body doesn’t always know that.”
Two courts, one game
The Alamodome is set up with two basketball courts for the tournament; however, the arena will host just one game at a time.
Both parts of the arena are identical. Fortunately, the courts were partly completed for the recently completed state basketball championships.
The final setup may look familiar to Spurs fans.
“It’s a really neat concept. And it came out of a format that was used back in the early ’90s, when the Spurs used to play in the Alamodome,” Carnes said. “At one time, we had the Spurs playing on the north end and an ice sheet for a semiprofessional hockey team playing on the south end. That’s where this all derived from and it looks beautiful.”
The financials
This year’s tournament comes with extra expenses — starting with the COVID-19 tests, the purchase of SafeTags to track social distancing and hotel buyouts. Holzman called it “historic,” given what they’re aiming to do amid a pandemic.
The trade-off, of course, is significant exposure for San Antonio. Even with just 17% capacity at the Alamodome for the Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four and title game, the local organizing committee estimates a financial impact of $27 million.
Rim shots
- Arizona guard Aari McDonald wrote an essay that appeared Thursday on the Player’s Tribune website. Her message for the rest of the country: “I’m talking Elite Eight, I’m talking Final Four. I’m talking ... who knows?” McDonald’s 1400-word letter titled “This Is For Them” comes four days before Arizona’s first-round game against Stony Brook. McDonald wrote that she is playing not only for last year’s seniors, who didn’t get their shot in the NCAA Tournament, but for all Wildcats in the past 15 years. She also thanked UA fans, writing that the Wildcats “wouldn’t be here without you.” And for those that may think the Wildcats are content with simply making the tournament for the first time in 16 years, McDonald has a message: “Man ... y’all got a problem to worry about,” she said.
- Former president Barack Obama has the UA women advancing to the Elite Eight. Obama posted his picks for both the men’s and women’s tournaments to his website Thursday morning.
- Finalists for the Naismith Player of the Year Award were announced Thursday, and McDonald is not among them. UConn’s Paige Bueckers, South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston, Louisville’s Dana Evans and Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard made the list.
- Nearly 2,700 COVID-19 tests had been performed in San Antonio as of Thursday morning, with only one positive result. UConn assistant Shea Ralph left the bubble Wednesday after she said someone in her family had tested positive. This leaves UConn with only two coaches for the first round: Head coach Geno Auriemma tested positive Sunday.
