Next year's regionals ...... Birmingham and Spokane?

[Ladeeeeda]

So could the NCAA change their plan and return to the 4 region format before next year?
How did the NCAA decide on Birmingham and Spokane?
Hope the NCAA learned their lesson from the Utah team incident and that they pay close attention to accommodations for teams including and especially contingency plans.

 

[Dillon77]

Really?
I'm not even going to comment on this from a socio-political standpoint, but for the majority of people trying to get to these, this is a multi-step travel itinerary. As in, "why bother traveling to the games when I'll spend most of my time waiting on connections due the hub-and-spoke model?"

 

[southie]

Women’s Final Four: Future dates & sites

A complete listing of the future dates and sites for the women's DI college basketball championship.

www.ncaa.com

 

[TheFarmFan]

Really?
I'm not even going to comment on this from a socio-political standpoint, but for the majority of people trying to get to these, this is a multi-step travel itinerary. As in, "why bother traveling to the games when I'll spend most of my time waiting on connections due the hub-and-spoke model?"

Amen. Also kind of hilarious since Spokane has just proven it doesn't have capacity to hold two medium sized 1/16th-of-a-bracket events in one weekend, so what in the world are they thinking hosting fully half the women's tournament? "Spokane and Idaho" is a bit like saying "Paris and Belgium." Sure, they're an hour apart, but no one seriously thinks of them as a single metro area.

 

[southie]

I will say it's odd when folks talk about "growing the sport" yet the NCAA goes out and selects Seattle, Portland, and Spokane in consecutive years as regional host sites; talk about isolating the excitement to a very specific part of the country.

 

[Vowelguy]

The men’s bracket was 8 teams. The women’s regionals are 8 teams. Should be no issue.

 

[Vowelguy]

We don’t know which cities bid. Can’t host if you don’t bid.

But yes for years the committee has gone out of its way to overrepresent the west. I don’t get it.

 

[Vowelguy]

We don’t know which cities bid. Can’t host if you don’t bid.

But yes for years the committee has gone out of its way to overrepresent the west. I don’t get it.

And then the following year with Fort Worth and z Sacramento. Fortunately UCLA USC Stanford should all be good, and with PAC destruction you no longer need to keep the western teams indifferent brackets. Otw, Sacramento would be a disaster.

 

[southie]

We don’t know which cities bid. Can’t host if you don’t bid.

But yes for years the committee has gone out of its way to overrepresent the west. I don’t get it.

That's for sure.

 

[BRS24]

For this year, the 2024 - Albany + Portland --> Cleveland.

Ok, so here's a look at the next two years with only two regionals.
2025 - Birmingham + Spokane --> Tampa
2026 - Fort Worth + Sacramento --> Phoenix

From a marketing POV, I somewhat understand putting regionals in areas that may have a good BB following, or in areas where the NCAA wants to get exposure, but ...

In 2025, regardless of region, everyone's gotta get to Tampa. In 2026, one could argue that the BigEast, ACC, SEC, and Big10 are going to have the most travel to either regional site or FF, and it seems with the FF in Phoenix, everything is slanted to the western half of the country.

 

[GamecockFam]

So could the NCAA change their plan and return to the 4 region format before next year?
How did the NCAA decide on Birmingham and Spokane?
Hope the NCAA learned their lesson from the Utah team incident and that they pay close attention to accommodations for teams including and especially contingency plans.

Just from regional knowledge of being a person that lives in the South, Birmingham has a reputation for being a city on th rise. While it is not considered a large city, I am sure it can more than accommodate the traffic that will be generated from the tournament. It is a very blended community with people of many backgrounds and ethnicities, so I don't see what happened to the Utah team being an issue either.

 

[southie]

Our country has at least 4 main time zones. Yet, in the first 2 years, the regional host sites were limited to the Eastern and Pacific time zones. And 4 straight years in the Pacific time zone; I wonder if part of that reasoning is for some "late night" tipoffs on ESPN that aren't in direct competition with the men's tournament games.

 

[Centerstream]

So could the NCAA change their plan and return to the 4 region format before next year?
How did the NCAA decide on Birmingham and Spokane?
Hope the NCAA learned their lesson from the Utah team incident and that they pay close attention to accommodations for teams including and especially contingency plans.

What does this have to do with a 2 region format? Did't the incident happen during the first two rounds????? Meaning on school campuses.....

 

[southie]

Just from regional knowledge of being a person that lives in the South, Birmingham has a reputation for being a city on th rise. While it is not considered a large city, I am sure it can more than accommodate the traffic that will be generated from the tournament. It is a very blended community with people of many backgrounds and ethnicities, so I don't see what happened to the Utah team being an issue either.

How old is the arena in Birmingham, AL ? Has it been renovated recently?

 

[Henry]

What kind of representation is it to have no sites east of the Mississippi in 2026?

 

[Lorcan]

The Spokane Regional will absolutely have secured local hotels in Spokane for teams, and I'm sure organizers will be keen to prevent a repeat of this year's debacle in Couer D'Alene. Let's be clear, the only reason Gonzaga was not able to secure hotels in Spokane this year was due to 800+ youth volleyball teams being in town combined with the men hosting a regional of their own in Spokane. It was a perfect storm that forced Gonzaga to look to surrounding areas for a hotel -- and Couer D'Alene was at the time probably the closest and least bad option - but officials are probably wishing they came up with a different solution at this point.

With that said, it's highly unlikely that the NCAA will change the regional site until the current contracts run out with arenas Birmingham, Sacramento, Dallas, and Spokane in 2026. The earliest I would expect us to revert back to four team sites would be in 2027. The NCAA has likely spent a small fortune to secure the arenas needed for the regionals and I doubt any changes will occur until the next regionals need to be secured in 2027.

 

[GamecockFam]

How old is the arena in Birmingham, AL ? Has it been renovated recently?

I wish I could tell you but I have never been to the arena. It is a common place where I stop for the night when traveling to visit family in Louisiana and Texas. I've driven around the area and have eaten downtown on occasion but that is the limit of my knowledge.

 

[southie]

What kind of representation is it to have no sites east of the Mississippi in 2026?

Well, probably trying to balance the prior 3 straight years of regionals east of the Mississippi.

 

[Ladeeeeda]

What does this have to do with a 2 region format? Did't the incident happen during the first two rounds????? Meaning on school campuses.....

Nope it happened in a nearby town. If they go back to a 4 region model there is less demand for hotel space in a city, which in turn means they are less likely to have to reach to find hotel space and accidently place people in a less than desirable location.

 

[southie]

I wish I could tell you but I have never been to the arena. It is a common place where I stop for the night when traveling to visit family in Louisiana and Texas. I've driven around the area and have eaten downtown on occasion but that is the limit of my knowledge.

Looks like the arena was renovated in 2021.

I believe the NCAA had the men's & women's indoor track & field championships there in 2022.

Birmingham to host March Madness games in 2023 at revamped Legacy Arena

The first and second rounds of the 2023 Division I men’s tournament and the 2025 Division I women’s basketball southern regional will play out inside a newly revamped Legacy Area.

www.alreporter.com

 

[Gate81]

four region model back to risk of low/no attendance (trying to remember the year they had zilch in Lexington KY bcs KY lost earlier)...

 

[WBBTakeover]

Ooooo...may have to pull up next year!

 

[Henry]

Well, probably trying to balance the prior 3 straight years of regionals east of the Mississippi.

But there have been regionals in the West, as well as in the East, the prior 3 yrs to 2026. In 2026, neither of the regionals nor the FF are anywhere near the east. So all teams from the East will all be disadvantaged by travel and jet lag throughout the last 4 rounds of the tournament.

 

[Vowelguy]

How old is the arena in Birmingham, AL ? Has it been renovated recently?

$123M renovation around 2020

Legacy Arena - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Lorcan]

But there have been regionals in the West, as well as in the East, the prior 3 yrs to 2026. In 2026, neither of the regionals nor the FF are anywhere near the east. So all teams from the East will all be disadvantaged by travel and jet lag throughout the last 4 rounds of the tournament.

This likely came down to who was willing to host and who put together the best bid in order to host a regional. There's politics that occur behind the scenes as well that we're not privy to. How dare the NCAA make east coast teams travel for once -- a reality that west coast teams have had to deal with since the dawn of time.

It is indeed considerate and prescient of the NCAA to institute more limited travel for west coast teams in the tournament during a difficult time when most programs out west will be adapting to a rigorous travel schedule that requires multiple trips across the country. /s