NCAA is looking to move men's hoops tourney locations
by thecontrarian (click here to email the poster) (2020-11-16 11:35:30)

Pat Forde from SI is reporting that the NCAA may move the entire tournament to Indy.




I wonder if this would have legs in future years
by Bob Loblaw  (2020-11-17 21:41:35)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Pick a city for the opening weekend and do all games there. I would guess it would be a monster draw, but difficult for most cities could do.


Plenty of venues
by Kayo  (2020-11-16 13:03:13)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse (Butler, 9100 seats), and Indiana Farmers Coliseum (IUPUI, 6500 seats). Bloomington (IU) isn't much more than an hour away. Add another 15-20 minutes to the ride for Terre Haute and Indiana State.

Seating capacity won't matter if attendance is limited to families and AD staff, and it doesn't matter much for many of the early round games because they don't draw much in the best of times.

If the NCAA wants to pick a single city, Indianapolis is a good choice.


Student rec centers at IUPUI, Butler, and Marian
by fontoknow  (2020-11-16 17:11:33)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Typical 2nd/3rd round has 8 sites (four games thursday/friday, 2 games saturday/sunday)

Really only need four courts under this frame work, but courts at the student rec centers of IUPUI, Butler, and Marian could be used.

As you say, Indy is a good choice.


UIndy and Marian are definitely in the consideration mix *
by CrazyMary  (2020-11-16 18:41:41)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


Those can be practice venues
by Kayo  (2020-11-16 18:16:14)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

As can high school gyms.


High schools gyms are iffy
by SB Jimbo  (2020-11-16 19:53:54)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

High school courts are 84' long whereas colleges are 94'.


Southport could host games...
by iudomer  (2020-11-16 19:13:44)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

But will likely be a practice venue.


Lifetime Fitness on 86th Street needs some games...
by iudomer  (2020-11-16 16:32:17)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

local joke.


Right down the street ----
by NDBob  (2020-11-17 08:43:24)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

my daughter actually wroked in the child-care center there for past couple years until she headed off to college.


Also
by SB Jimbo  (2020-11-16 15:40:22)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

The NCAA is headquartered there.

In past years staffers would have to travel to all the venues. With them all being local that would negate travel and hotels.


Lucas Oil could easily host 2, maybe 3, games simultaneously *
by Tex Francisco  (2020-11-16 15:16:38)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


I don't think people would be happy if their bracket got
by Carlos Huerta  (2020-11-16 16:09:57)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

busted because a player(s) reacts to a whistle or horn from another game in the building.


Interesting fact - there are 33,000 hotel rooms in the Indy
by akaRonMexico  (2020-11-16 14:51:38)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Metro area. I didn't think there would be nearly enough for an event this size but it could actually work.


i may be mistaken...
by joeyg  (2020-11-17 01:20:18)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

but i seem to recall the NFL more or less making upgraded hotels (i.e., JW Marriott) and additional rooms a requirement of rewarding Indianapolis the 2012 Super Bowl. I am not sure how explicit the deal was publicly but that's what was indicated to me.


Indianapolis has the 500 every year
by jclay  (2020-11-16 21:07:12)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

I suspect the 500 draws more fans than the NCAA Tournament on a given weekend.


And importantly, a large % of the rooms are downtown
by ribs  (2020-11-16 14:55:07)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Most of the largest hotels are connected via a network of tunnels and enclosed walkways. You can get all over downtown Indy without even setting foot outside. One big, (sterile?) connected bubble.

I would guess the convention center would be set up with multiple floors, along with Banker's Life and Lucas Oil Stadium, at least for the early rounds. It wouldn't be hard to have 4-6 games going on simultaneously.


Why would they want to have more than the traditional four
by Carlos Huerta  (2020-11-16 16:07:25)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

games max going on at the same time?


Who knows, they might not.
by ribs  (2020-11-16 16:10:41)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

But an expanded field or compressed schedule could require it.


I wonder if they will shorten the delay between the games
by ND1986  (2020-11-16 12:18:00)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Presumably they want to minimize travel. In order to not have teams travel between the round of 32 and sweet 16 games (after the traditional first weekend) and also after the traditional second weekend, I wonder if they’d just play through with maybe an extra day of rest thrown in somewhere. 6 games in 2 weeks is a possibility.


They could make it 128 teams easily *
by El Kabong  (2020-11-16 13:37:17)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


With 128 you could have every conference
by Ajax  (2020-11-17 16:58:18)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

champion and post season tourney champion make the field. If a mid major wins both they receive a better seed. After that you could just fill in based on Ken pom ramkings.