Shaking off the disappointment of the Falcons’ loss in the NFC Championship game, Atlanta sports boosters officially started the countdown to the city’s next sporting mega-event with a Wednesday news conference to mark 75 days until college basketball’s Final Four here.
“After that football game on (Sunday), I can’t tell you as Atlanta fans how happy we are to be moving on to basketball as quickly as possible,” said William Pate, president of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Pate joined officials from Atlanta’s Final Four committee and the NCAA for the media session, which emphasized the 75th-anniversary-celebration theme of this season’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Final Four will be played in the Dome on April 6 (semifinals) and April 8 (championship game, which was 75 days away Wednesday).
“It’s hard to believe that 75 days from now we’ll be right in the middle of it,” said Dan Gavitt, NCAA vice president of men’s basketball championships. “Who knows who the four teams will be and what stories will be written that weekend?”
Among the topics discussed at Wednesday’s briefing:
- Expect crowds of 74,000 for the semifinals and the championship game, said NCAA Division I men's basketball committee chairman Mike Bobinski. "Which will put this in the top five all-time crowds for Final Four weekend," said Bobinski, currently the athletic director at Xavier but, as of April 1, the AD at Georgia Tech.
- About 100,000 visitors will travel to Atlanta over a four-day period for the Final Four and related events, Pate estimated.
- The seating allocation has been changed from previous Final Fours so that participating teams' fans and family members get more seats near the court — behind and across from the benches. Also, more student tickets will be available in the end-zone areas. "We think the atmosphere around the court … will be that much greater," Gavitt said. Some of those seats previously were allocated to media.
- Admission will be free to the Divisions II and III championship games, which will be played at Philips Arena on April 7, marking the first time the men's basketball champions of all three NCAA divisions are crowned in the same city. The unticketed Divisions II and III games are "going to be very exciting, particularly for youngsters who really want to get up close and see that experience," said John Yates, chairman of Atlanta's host committee. The organizers' goal is to fill the 9,500 seats in Philips' lower bowl.
- In general, with 75 days to go, "we are dotting the i's and crossing the t's on all the events," said Sharon Goldmacher, executive director of Atlanta's local organizing committee. "We are ahead of schedule. We are under budget. And hopefully everything will work like clockwork from here on out."
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