March Madness: Pittsburgh to host NCAA Tournament games

Even though the Pitt men’s basketball team won’t be taking part, the NCAA Tournament will… Even though the Pitt men’s basketball team won’t be taking part, the NCAA Tournament will return to Pittsburgh this season for the first time since 2002.

The Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh’s multipurpose indoor arena that is less than 2 years old, will host first- and second-round tournament games.

Local fans can see No.-1-seed Syracuse vs. No. 16 UNC-Asheville, No. 8 Kansas State vs. No. 9 Southern Miss, No. 10 Gonzaga vs. No. 7 Virginia and No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 15 Loyola (Md.).

Duquesne University, paired with the Consol Energy Center and tourism promotion agency VisitPittsburgh, will host the games. Duquesne also served as host the two previous times the NCAA Tournament came to Pittsburgh ­— in 1997 and 2002 at the Civic Arena, which was renamed the Mellon Arena in 1999.

Duquesne has had more than two years to prepare for the tournament, as the bid selection took place in September 2009 after members from Duquesne, the Consol Energy Center and VisitPittsburgh drew up a specific plan for the tournament.

“The bid was submitted in spring 2009 and was awarded in September 2009,” Duquesne Associate Athletic Director Phil Racicot said in an email. “The process entails a lot of work regarding building specifications, ticket-sale projections, city amenities and hotel guarantees (number of quality hotels within a certain radius, etc.), proximity to the airport as well as ability of the host to set up and prepare the actual event.”

Racicot and Athletic Director Greg Amodio weren’t at Duquesne for either of the first two tournament rounds that Duquesne hosted, but they do have some members still on their staff and currently working at the Consol Energy Center who have experience hosting NCAA Tournament games.

Despite the experience, the hosts are effectively dealing with a new tournament, as the growth in popularity of college basketball over the past 10 years has turned the NCAA Tournament into a premier sporting event.

“We have several staff members both here and at Consol that have experience with the event,” Racicot said. “With that said, [the competition] has changed or evolved a lot since then, as well, especially regarding technology — enhanced TV coverage. All games are on in their entirety now. The overall management has an even larger scope now. For example, the NCAA now brings in a site-specific court.”

Although no local teams appear headed to Pittsburgh, the region has been extremely supportive of the tournament and sold out the event in the fall — well before fans could even predict who would be playing where.

“The event has been sold out since October,” Racicot said. “Pittsburgh sold the most tickets of all eight sites in the presale last April. Certainly the team selection will have an impact on travel and tourism.”

In 2002, the hosts had the benefit of having the hometown Panthers staying in town. Although a hometown team helps secondary ticket sales and excitement for the host committee, it leads to other businesses not receiving the economic benefits that they would from a traveling fan base.

“Certainly having a local team brings additional excitement to the area and could impact ticket sales in the secondary ticket market,” Racicot said. “On the other hand, businesses like hotels and transportation do not benefit as much from a local team.”

The Consol Energy Center and the Pittsburgh Penguins have become famous for their Student Rush program, which allows students to get open seats to hockey games for a discounted price of only $25. Unfortunately, the NCAA doesn’t allow any variations in ticket prices for the tournament.

For people interested in attending games while the tournament stops in Pittsburgh, a small number of session tickets will be available right before game day.

“Although we are technically sold out, once teams return their unsold allotments, a limited number of session packages will be sold the day before the games for $78 per session,” Racicot said.

And if $78 is too much money for a college student, an open practice session with free parking is planned to take place on the Wednesday before the tournament begins.