‘Big 12 is in our DNA’: Hoops tournaments and their economic impact arrive in KC
It’s what Brett Yormark doesn’t see when he looks around Kansas City and considers the future of Big 12 basketball tournaments here ...
“What I like about coming here to Kansas City is we kind of own the city,” Yormark said. “You look at Las Vegas and there are four other tournaments going on. Here, you don’t have that issue and you guys celebrate it.”
So much so that Yormark found himself on welcoming panel along with Mayor Quinton Lucas Tuesday.
As Kansas City Sports Commission president Kathy Nelson said, “We don’t take this for granted.”
Not with the tournaments generating an economic impact estimated at $21 million, according to Nelson.
And the interest in men’s tournament should be sky high. The 10-team Big 12 is the highest rated conference and at least seven teams could advance to the NCAA Tournament, which will be selected on Sunday.
Kansas is the top-seeded men’s team; Texas is No. 1 in the women’s tournament.
A day before the men’s tournament begins at T-Mobile Center, Grand Avenue was already blocked off as one of two fan festivals was being constructed. The other is going up at Barney Allis Plaza, across from Municipal Auditorium, where the women’s tournament begins on Thursday.
The women are back at Municipal for a third straight — and final — year. The tournament moves to T-Mobile Center in 2024.
This is the 27th year of the Big 12 basketball tournaments with 22 men’s and 15 women’s events contested in Kansas City. Before then, Kansas City was the only home of the Big Eight tournaments, and the city had staged a major college tournament every year, either during the holidays or in March, from 1946 until 2002.
That’s when the Big 12 put the tournament up for bids and gave other cities a taste. Between 2003-2009, the Big 12 spent three years in Dallas, two in Oklahoma City and two in Kansas City.
Then came a game-changer: Sprint Center, now T-Mobile Center, opened in 2007, and once the men’s tournament returned in 2010 it hasn’t left.
Other cities have expressed an interest, and four new members that join the Big 12 next year will have ideas about championship sites.
But Kansas City has been a proven winner for the men’s event with capacity crowds for nearly all sessions. The tournament is under contract to remain in Kansas City through 2027.
“The Big 12 is in our DNA,” Lucas said. “It’s a true Kansas City tradition.”
The tournaments also fall during a busy stretch for the region. The Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade, the NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight) later this month and the NFL Draft next month fill the calendar. And out of town visitors are flying into a brand new airport.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m a little bit tired right now,” Nelson said. “It’s been a fantastic few weeks for us.”