Final Four Headed Back to Houston in 2016
11/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS--- A process that Division I Men's Basketball Committee Chair and Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive indicated was as grueling and competitive as selecting teams for the men's basketball championship concluded Wednesday with the announcement of the host cities for the 2012-16 Men's Final Fours, including Houston in 2016.
The announcement brings the year-long selection process to a conclusion, returning the Final Four to two sites (New Orleans, Atlanta) after several years, one new site (North Texas) and two cities (Indianapolis, Houston) already slated to host in the next three years. Rice University and the University of Houston hosted the 2008 Men's Midwest Regional at Reliant Stadium and are slated to host the regional again in 2010 before hosting the Final Four in 2011. The two schools will again serve as hosts for the 2016 event.
"We are thrilled to be one of the hosting institutions that are bringing the Final Four back to Houston," Rice Director of Athletics Chris Del Conte said. "This is truly one of the nation's premier sporting events that captures the attention of sports fans each March. It is a tribute to the great facilities that our city has to offer as well as to the efforts put forth by committee to create a successful proposal to the NCAA Rice University is truly honored to be a host for this tremendous event," he added.
The committee received bid proposals from 10 cities - Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, North Texas, Phoenix/Glendale, San Antonio and St. Louis, all of which were named finalists. Reflective of the high quality of the presentations received, the committee also decided that the five cities not awarded a bid are guaranteed an opportunity to host preliminary rounds of the championship during this cycle.
The 2016 Final Four will be the third to be held in Houston. The city was previously selected to host the 2011 Final Four, and also hosted the 1971 event at the Astrodome.
"Reliant Stadium is an outstanding complex with a management group which, when combined with its transportation plan and the overall vision of the Final Four, distinguished itself in the minds of the committee. We saw an example of what Houston has to offer during the 2008 South Regional and have every reason to think that their future events will be special," said Slive.
NCAA President Dr. Myles Brand commended the committee for its selection of sites that will host the Association's premier event.
"These individuals are leading administrators in the profession and in addition to handling their day-to-day responsibilities, they were charged with making important decisions about the future of the Final Four," Brand said. "When President-elect Barack Obama was asked which sporting event he would attend if he could choose just one, he said the Final Four. That speaks volumes about the growing popularity of this championship. That's further illustrated in the quality of bids received and the number of new facilities that will host fans who will visit these cities. One million fans will attend the Final Four sessions in this bid cycle, including thousands of students from campuses who will be courtside for only a few dollars per game. Now and for the foreseeable future, we'll have at least 70,000 fans in the venue and tens of thousands more visitors in the host cities to experience the atmosphere and events that accompany the three basketball games. It is a wonderful spectacle that continues to grow into one of the world's premier sporting events."
NCAA Executive Vice President Tom Jernstedt, who has presided over every men's basketball tournament since 1973, compared choosing the Final Four sites to the other selection process for which the committee is more commonly known. "In many ways, the site selection process is very similar to selecting at-large teams for the championship," Jernstedt said. "The basketball committee is armed with the best information available, be it about a team's résumé in March, or a prospective city's bid for serving as host for the Final Four. And just as there are always more quality teams than there are at-large bids available for championship selection, there were more quality hosts than there were bids to award for this process. Ultimately though, committee members reached a consensus on which five cities to choose and we believe they did a tremendous job.
"This was the most extensive deliberation in the history of the championship. The seriousness with which the committee approached its work was evident throughout the process, making sure that each proposal was thoroughly considered."
