Has women's NCAA Tournament outgrown two-site regional format?

Yahoo

28-03-2025

As the Sweet 16 tips off Friday, the women's NCAA Tournament will take place at two sites in different corners of the country separated by more than 2,000 miles for the third straight season.
Fans from across the nation have flocked to Birmingham, Ala., and Spokane, Wash., to watch teams compete in Friday and Saturday's Sweet 16 and Sunday and Monday's Elite Eight.
The super regional concept was developed in response to the declining attendance at tournament regional sites in the late 2010s, as the average crowd size fell below 5,000 in 2017. The NCAA felt a responsibility to make a change to increase attendance and boost ticket sales, and it found a potential solution by consolidating four sites to two, streamlining operations in the process.
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The switch created its immediate desired results. The average attendance topped 10,000 in 2023, then a record-high, with a total of 85,000 fans. That average rose to more than 12,000 in 2024. The proof of women's basketball's growth continues to bear out with a variety of indicators.
The question now arises, three years into the system, if the tournament has already outgrown this format.
'There's pros and cons, but the more I'm hearing from colleagues, I think people like the two sites less,' USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said.
Certain logistical difficulties come with the two-site model. Each team stays at its own hotel, which requires the availability of extra high-quality accommodations, and that hasn't always been the case. In Albany in 2024, LSU was in a hotel with particularly slow Wi-Fi, and coaches had to go to the arena to download game film. Eight teams have to get onto one court compared to four in the prior regionals, which requires some practice and shoot-around times to be early in the morning.
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UConn's Geno Auriemma has been one of the most vocal critics of the current system, last year calling it the 'dumbest thing ever.' He didn't hold back this year either as he discussed the difficulty fans could have traveling to see their teams compete. No. 2 seed UConn is playing in Spokane.
'The men (NCAA Tournament) are not very bright. They have something called regionals, which means they're in the four regions of the country, North, South, East and West. The women's (tournament) is so smart. They have two,' Auriemma said, sarcastically, according to CT Insider, 'which means 90 percent of the country can't go to any of those games.
'There aren't even eight hotels within 500 miles of Spokane. We're gonna have to stay in Idaho. And you think I'm funny, that's the honest-to-God truth.'
The vast geographic spread also introduces extra travel for teams and fans. A wide swath of middle America hasn't had a regional site within hundreds of miles over the last three seasons.
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Still, it's hard to argue against the initial success of the approach, particularly economically, even though the tournament has yet to sell out its two super regional sites. The current model of two sites rather than four, like in the men's NCAA Tournament, reduces overhead costs, and the increase in gate revenue is an additional boon.
'Fiscal responsibility relative to operational expenses and revenue are very much an important component of this,' NCAA vice president of women's basketball Lynn Holzman said, 'along with fan accessibility, the experiences of the teams, our broadcasters, how it works for them, game time windows, all of those things.'
The NCAA had originally lined up four years of super regional sites through 2026, but the bid process for the next set of sites opened up after the 2023 tournament, with one year of data in the new format. Since the tournament achieved its initial goals, the NCAA decided the experiment would continue.
Host cities started submitting applications for 2027-28 before the 2024 tournament, which was a watershed event for the sport. Even so, the 2023 success spurred a record number of bids. The NCAA selected NBA-sized arenas for all four of its super regionals in those two seasons in Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland and Washington, D.C.
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The size of those markets — larger than past regional super sites — points to the draw of these super regionals as a profitable endeavor.
'I actually like the two regions,' South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. 'I like having seven other teams trying to advance to the Elite Eight and advance to the Final Four right in one place. I do think it allows our fans, fans of women's basketball, to gravitate to one spot. I know the attendance will be up because of it. So bottom line, we need to drive revenue as much as possible.'
But because of the planning required for the NCAA championships, women's basketball was forced to make decisions about its rapidly growing tournament property four years out in the future without the ability to adjust in present time.
What the tournament looked like in 2023 was a massive change from 2017 when the super regional concept initially came to fruition. On the current trajectory, the 2028 iteration of the tournament could be unrecognizable compared to this season, thus requiring different considerations.
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It brings to mind the NCAA championships TV deal, which was signed before the 2024 tournament. The value of women's basketball has already exploded in the intervening months, but the NCAA is locked into a contract that doesn't reflect the sport's current status and relevance.
Holzman says the NCAA isn't shortchanging what is possible for the tournament. The goal is to constantly innovate and provide the best possible experience for all of its stakeholders, including teams, fans and TV partners.
'My goal long-term is to get to four sites that we are selling out,' Holzman said. 'With the first and second rounds and First Fours, (it) is to hopefully get to a point of neutral predetermined sites.'
The NCAA is experiencing a stress test to react fast enough to the changes in the sporting landscape. Its hope is that as women's basketball experiences its explosive rise in popularity, it isn't outpacing the mechanisms in place to guide its growth.
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Sports Business, Women's College Basketball, Women's NCAA Tournament
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