Houston was one of four cities that won a bid to hold the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four in an upcoming year:
Houston will host the 2011 NCAA Final Four at Reliant Stadium, the NCAA announced this afternoon.
College basketball’s signature event will return to the city 40 years after its last visit, the 1971 Final Four at the Astrodome.
Well, okay, so you don’t have to rush out now and get tickets (though I wouldn’t wait too long). At least by then maybe most of the road construction will be done.
That event launched the trend toward staging the NCAA championships in stadium settings, and the NCAA will bring the trend full circle by returning to Houston for the first time in four decades.
Houston was one of six bidders for four men’s Final Four slots awarded today. The Alamodome in San Antonio will host the Final Four in 2008, followed by Ford Field in Detroit in 2009, the RCA Dome in Indianapolis in 2010 and Houston’s Reliant Stadium in 2011.
Am I the only person who thinks that playing basketball in a football stadium is less than ideal for spectators? Frankly, I wasn’t all that impressed with Reliant when I attended the Rice-Louisiana Tech game last year. I had to watch most of the game on the Jumbotrons, which kind of defeats the purpose of attending the event. Call me a grump, I guess.
Anyway, good for Houston. A few million tourist dollars never hurts.
UPDATE: Here’s the full Chron story.
Ever since Houston played UCLA in the Astrodome in 1968 (which is best known as the game that ended UCLA’s 88 game winning streak), there has been a push to put big sporting events in football stadiums. The Superdome in New Orleans has hosted several Final Fours, and the Carrier Dome is host to Syracuse’s football and basketball teams. Even Michigan State has put one of their hockey games in their football stadium (a feat that will also be tried by the Edmonton Oilers in the preseason). One variation that comes to mind is Dover Downs racetrack, which features two NASCAR races a year and harness racing the rest of the time on an inside track.
What motivates this? It certainly can’t be $$$money$$$, can it?