Bring The Entire 2021 NCAA Tournament To Indianapolis, It Makes Too Much Sense
What news to wake up to on a Monday. This would be fucking phenomenal. The greatest tournament in the country's greatest basketball state. Bring it home.
Indy makes too much sense.
It's already in the rotation for the Final Four, and was going to be the host of the 2021 Final Four anyways. In it's off years we host the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 matchups. It's the perfect place for all 68 teams to "bubble" and throw down for an entire two month stretch.
No place hosts a Final Four like Indianapolis. It's literally parted in four different sections absolutely perfect for the Final Four teams and their fanbases. It's in the middle of the country so geographically a lot of the schools in the tournament wouldn't have too crazy of travel. Everything is in walking distance in downtown Indianapolis. With little to no fans I'd assume that the Convention Center would be on display similarly to how we saw it play out in Orlando for the NBA.
They'd host games in there, obviously at Lucas Oil, Hinkle Fieldhouse (home of the Butler Bulldogs) is a 10 minute drive from the heart of downtown, and then of course you have Mackey Arena at Purdue and Assembly Hall at IU that are both just about an hour away from Indianapolis as well.
Not to mention the Indiana State Fairgrounds is 15 minutes northeast of downtown. They host IUPUI every season in the newly renovated Indiana Farmers Coliseum.
Hell let's get even wilder with it and make some of the early round games play at Southport and New Castle, two high schools in the state that have two of the largest gyms in the country. Southport Fieldhouse is 10 minutes south of downtown and holds 7,300 people. And that's tiny compared to the state's largest, New Castle, which holds a max crowd of 9,325. It's about a 45 minute drive east from the city.
I've always thought Indianapolis should be the permanent home or at least bi-annual home of the Final Four. It was literally made to host sporting events but especially the NCAA Final Four. These trying times are the perfect chance to send it all to Indy and watch how to get it done.