First Four has become a fixture (and a moneymaker) for Dayton

Think of your favorite TV show, favorite podcast, favorite social media follow. How many have been around for two decades? In today’s world, change is not only constant, it is accelerating. Almost nothing is entrenched anymore, certainly not for two decades.

One exception is a mid-March event in Dayton, inside a 53-year-old arena that has hosted more NCAA tournament games (125) than any other venue in the country. It’s here where the single-game, opening-round of the NCAA tournament was played from 2001-10, a matchup between Nos. 64 and 65 that funneled the winner into the traditional bracket. And it’s here where the expanded 68-team field took shape in 2011 for what has become an indelible part of the tournament: the First Four.

It’s an American sporting treasure, a marriage between a committed community and a distinct two-day event that has endured. Call them what you wish, but don’t call them play-in games. If they weren’t relevant, two Final Four teams — VCU in 2011 and UCLA in 2021 (though COVID moved the entire 2021 tournament to Indiana) — wouldn’t have emerged from them. Then-President Barack Obama wouldn’t have attended in 2012. A-list TV talent like Jim Nance wouldn’t have broadcast them. 

“The First Four feels big, yet it’s small enough to really kind of feel like it is special,” David Levy, the former Turner Sports president, told On3. In 2010, Levy helped secure the landmark 14-year, $10.8 billion rights deal that CBS and Turner Broadcasting signed with the NCAA, a pact that spawned the First Four.

After a two-year absence because of the pandemic — the 2020 tournament was canceled — the First Four is back in the familiar confines of 13,407-seat University of Dayton Arena this week on truTV, whetting the appetites of fans’ before the blizzard of games Thursday and Friday. Scott DeBolt, director of UD Arena, once again can call Dayton the “epicenter of college basketball.”

As sites rotate for many conference tournaments and all NCAA tournament regionals, consistency is the hallmark of the First Four. Every few years, there’s another bid process. Other cities have made formal bids, including at least one from the West Coast and others from the Midwest. So far, Dayton is undefeated. It has locked up the event through 2026. Don’t expect it to lose grip on the First Four anytime soon, especially after the arena had a $76 million renovation three years ago.

“I have every intention of supporting them continuing to host the First Four during my tenure here at the NCAA,” Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, told On3. ”But we have other communities that express interest, and so in order to be fair and to have a legitimate and competitive bid process, we do require that [bid process] each cycle. And they are stating their case every single year, they’re committed to it every year, and that’s why they keep winning the business and rightly so.

“It’s kind of like you earn your way into the tournament as a team. They do that from a host perspective.”

A large reason there aren’t a lot of bids, Gavitt said, is because other cities recognize how formidable the competition is. From an operations standpoint, from a community organizing and fan support standpoint, Dayton has been pitch-perfect. 

In a few years when another bid process is under way, DeBolt said, “We will definitely be the first ones in line to put a bid in. It’s a true pride for us and a showcase of not only the arena, but also the city, the Miami Valley and the state of Ohio.”

First Four tickets a hot commodity

Why it thrives in Dayton is a study in community organizing support, fan engagement and operational success. Year-round planning makes the precise, almost round-the-clock execution that is required between Selection Sunday evening and late Wednesday night possible.

“We were actually meeting and discussing 2023 even a month ago,” DeBolt said. “We always have March Madness on our minds. I don’t want to say it’s easy. [But] we are quite comfortable hosting it.”

It starts with fans’ substantial appetite for basketball. The arena opened in 1969, and Dayton has been in the top 35 each of the past 50 seasons and in the top 25 a total of 32 times. Dayton sold out every home game before this season even began for the first time. And for the First Four, fans from everywhere flock to the arena despite not knowing which teams will be there until the 11th hour. UD Arena has either sold out or nearly sold out each game over the years. 

A “conservative estimate” of the annual economic impact for the city —based on direct spending at hotels, restaurants and retail — is $4.6 million, Jacquelyn Powell, president and CEO of Dayton Convention & Visitors Bureau, told On3. She said that doesn’t consider other significant benefits, such as widespread national media coverage that shines a light on the city of some 140,000.

Also credit the First Four’s success in Dayton with how teams are welcomed as soon as they touch down on the tarmac. They are greeted by banners at the airport and welcome billboards around town. Their fight song blares.

“When they leave here, a lot of them say, ‘What we experienced in Dayton is better or to the level of the Final Four,’ ” DeBolt said. “We treat them like a Final Four team.”

Dayton’s geography also helps make it an ideal location. Half of the country’s population is no more than 600 miles away, Gavitt said, which helps tremendously because games tip off just 48 hours after the Sunday selection show on CBS.

When the names of the eight First Four participants — four automatic qualifiers earning No. 16 seeds and the four final at-large teams seeded 11 or 12 — are revealed, the true scramble begins. From that moment until midnight Wednesday, organizers go long on caffeine and short on sleep.

They confirm team hotels, assign team hosts, collect contact information for point people with each team. They quickly tell each program, “We’ll be your eyes and ears on the ground here in Dayton. Just let us know anything you need.” Then they conduct a call with all eight teams and NCAA staff regarding logistics. Their famous last words: “We’ll see you at the airport.”

Sometimes teams arrive in town sooner than expected. Everyone still talks about the one team that anticipated being slotted in the opening-round game. So much so, DeBolt said, that it revved up the team bus immediately after the selection show, tossed the team’s luggage on board and hit the open highway, arriving in Dayton’s city limits around midnight.

“Dayton has embraced it,” Dan Butterly, the Big West Conference commissioner who has served on the Division I Men’s Basketball Issues Committee, told On3. “They have made it their own. It’s an unbelievably great college basketball venue and college basketball market.”

Because this is the first First Four since 2019, it’s the first one since significant renovations of the arena. When that process started in 2016, DeBolt and staff conferred with the NCAA and asked, “If we are going to continue to host the First Four, what are some renovations that you’d be looking for in the future?” He said the NCAA provided a list of about nine items, which included adding premium seating and club seats, updating locker rooms and installing an elevator at floor level. Lighting also has been enhanced, food offerings expanded, Wi-Fi improved and a video board upgraded.

“We included everyone in our renovations,” he said. “It’s that type of relationship and communication with the NCAA in trying to make sure we put our best foot forward to make it stay here in Dayton.”

An easy sell because of results

When the opening-round game was expanded to the First Four starting in 2011, a priority was made from a broadcast standpoint to ensure that the event was perceived among fans as relevant and consequential. 

Levy remembers discussions with Sean McManus, now chairman of CBS Sports, in which he said, “Let’s make sure these games aren’t treated like nobody cares. We have to send our big talent.” In the beginning, Levy said, some talent scoffed at the assignment of the First Four, saying, “Really? Can’t you have someone else do it?” The answer: No, these are important to kick off the tournament.

It soon became an easier sell, in part because of the play on the court. When 11th-seeded VCU roared out of the First Four and made its improbable run to the 2011 Final Four, Levy smiled.

“If we don’t get that first kind of opportunity, maybe nobody cares about the First Four,” he said. “If they all lose their first games, then it looks more like play-ins. … We were able to coin ‘First Four to the Final Four.’ That legitimized the whole thing. Remember, this was a new 14-year deal. We’re trying to sell this First Four as something special. And what better way to sell the next year, knowing that these games actually mean something.” 

After the two-year absence, the First Four is back: same time, same site, same station. It may once again propel teams deep into the tournament. For the organizing staff, after another mad dash to pull off another successful installment, satisfaction stems from watching teams that made the brief pit stop in Dayton continue on. It’s rewarding for a community that has become synonymous with a two-day event, one that’s now ingrained in March Madness lore. 

“Just sit back Thursday, take a deep breath, watch the first- and second-round games and see some of the teams that came here and advanced,” DeBolt said, “It takes a true team effort. Very satisfying.”