Mad weekend

Tulsa plays a prominent role in 2017’s March Madness

March Madness gets underway this week, with four first-round games taking place at the BOK Center Fri., March 17, followed by two second-round matchups (between the respective winners of the first-round contests) on Sun., March 19.

It is a big honor for the city to be included as a host; this is just the latest (but biggest) in a long line of NCAA events that have been showcased here lately, following the 2015 Big 12 Baseball tournament, the 2016 NCAA Tennis Championships, and the Big 12 Wrestling Championships held last week at the BOK Center.

“Obviously, it’s March Madness and you don’t have to be a basketball fan to understand its unique brand as a significant event, so for us to be a part of that, it’s important because we get marketed as a destination that people want to visit,” said Ray Hoyt, President of Tulsa Regional Tourism, which oversees the Tulsa Sports Commission, co-sponsor of the petition to bring the NCAA here. “There are a lot of cities that would love to be a host city and aren’t for whatever reason, and Tulsa has broken out of that.”

Tulsa last hosted NCAA basketball tournament games in 2011 and, while that event earned positive reviews for the then-new BOK Center, it did not accumulate overly impressive attendance figures, with the average of 14,274 spectators ranking seventh among the NCAA’s eight first- and second-round venues that year.

This time, Hoyt expects things to be much different, primarily because of the wide array of new restaurants, hotels and entertainment options downtown near the arena, which could not accommodate nearly as many visitors back then. 

“It’s kind of a tale of two cities, I think,” Hoyt said. “In ‘11, it was really about apologizing for overcoming our lack of amenities for the visitors. If you think about it, the arena was really kind of isolated at that point, and we had to put a tent out there for entertainment, because there wasn’t really anything to do. You had to go into the Brady or Blue Dome (Districts). We were running transportation out to Brookside and Cherry Street because all those people needed to have restaurants and there wasn’t an adequate number downtown.”

While the 2011 tournament generated $2.6 million of overall economic impact for the city, Hoyt estimates the figure will be somewhere between $3.7 million and $8 million or more this time around, partially because there are so many more options.

“Kansas was here in ‘11, and they’ll probably end up here again, and I think their fans will be like, ‘Holy smokes, Tulsa has transformed,’” Hoyt said. “We will have transportation this time, but only to the downtown core, because we have enough restaurants and entertainment areas for the visitors. That’s how much it’s changed and that’s significant. I think it will be a much different experience for the visitor than it was in ‘11—a better
experience.”

Certainly, if some local, or even regional, teams are playing here, it would help, and while the final bracket won’t be set until after this is published, Hoyt is right that No. 1-ranked Kansas is likely to wind up in Tulsa, bringing throngs of rabid Jayhawks fans.

Tulsa will have the No. 1 vs. 16 seed game of the Midwest Region, as well as that region’s 8-9 matchup (with the two winners facing off on Sunday), and Kansas will likely claim that No. 1 spot. Top seeds are usually placed in the region they are closest to, and with defending national champion Villanova, UCLA and Gonzaga occupying the nation’s 2-4 rankings, and therefore most likely to also earn top seeds in the tournament, that leaves Kansas to the Midwest.

The BOK Center also hosts the East Region’s 2 vs. 15 game and the East’s 7-10 contest on Friday, with the winners in round two Sunday.

Obviously, it would help quite a bit if Oklahoma State and Arkansas, the two “local” teams that should make the tournament in the 7-10 seed range, could be placed here, as either one of them would attract a sizeable following. Wichita State, which won the Missouri Valley Conference and was ranked No. 20 in the country, is also in that range. (And it’s important to note that outside of the top seeds, the rest of the brackets don’t usually follow the regional placement rule, so it wouldn’t be unusual for any one of those teams to wind up in the East Regional).

If Kansas does come to Tulsa, you can bet they’ll be leaving with a spot in the Sweet 16. In fact, for those of you filling out your brackets, you can pencil Kansas into the Elite Eight right now, if not the Final Four, as well as they’ve played in claiming their 13th consecutive Big 12 regular season title this year.

Villanova would also seem to be a strong bet to get back to the Final Four, while other potential top-two seeds like UCLA, Gonzaga, Oregon, last year’s finalist North Carolina, Arizona and Kentucky, as well as Baylor and Louisville, should also be considered significant threats to reach Final Four weekend in Phoenix on April 1 and 3.

So check out the games in person if you can (visit BOKCenter.com for tickets), fill out those brackets and stay tuned—it’s going to be a fun three weeks!

For more from John, read his piece on how to host your own March Madness pool.