It’s been nine years since the NCAA Basketball Tournament has been in Providence, but the capital city will once again host eight of the top men’s basketball teams in the country next week.
Providence College will be the host school after winning a bid to host games in the first and second rounds this year. Providence was set to host the tournament in 2021, as well, but that event was cancelled because of the COVID pandemic.
Providence College Athletic Director Steve Napolillo and Associate Athletic Director Dave Longo, who also serves as the local tournament manager, are excited about the games returning to Rhode Island.
“We have such a passionate fan base for basketball that anytime you can bring a premier event like this to our home building, it just magnifies what basketball means to Providence, what Providence College means to the NCAA and to the Big East,” Napolillo said.
“It’s obviously a great event for the city and state, it’s going to bring thousands of people to this great state and city and it’s going to generate millions of dollars of revenue.”
Which schools will be coming won’t be revealed until Selection Sunday this weekend, but regardless of the teams heading to Rhode Island, the demands won’t change. Providence College has a lot to do to ensure a smooth and successful tournament.
“We have about 125 positions that we have to staff. It’s a combination of volunteer and paid staff,” explained Longo, who noted that other area schools such as Brown and Bryant universities are helping to staff the event, as well.
The host school must coordinate transportation for each visiting school, making sure each team has transportation from the airport to their team hotel, to practices, to the games at the Amica Mutual Pavilion and anywhere else. That also requires working with state and local police forces — depending on where the team’s hotel is — for police escorts.
“Anywhere they want to go, if they want to go the movies, they get a police escort,” Longo said.
PC works with the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau to also line up hotels for each team, which can bring three busloads of people — players, coaches, team staff, spirit squads, school administrators and fans. Those hotels are part of the bidding process, and the NCAA conducts site visits in November to examine the hotel facilities, deeming some team hotels and others as hotels for the media, referees, fans, etc.
Providence College must also designate practice facilities for each team. There will be a practice on Wednesday (March 19) at The AMP that will be open to the public, but the teams will also have their own gyms in which to practice, Longo said, including the courts at Johnson & Wales, Bryant, Brown, CCRI, RIC and Providence College.
Initial indications are that there will be lots of fans attending the games at The AMP. The tickets that have been released have already sold out and more will become available ahead of the first games, set for Thursday, March 20.
Despite the work and logistics that it requires, Napolillo said the NCAA Tournament is an event that Providence hopes to continue to host for years to come.
Longo noted that a look at the other sites of the first round — Lexington, Seattle, Wichita, Cleveland, Denver, Milwaukee, Raleigh — reveals that many of those cities have NBA or NBA-caliber arenas.
“We’ve got to really put our best foot forward here and execute and manage a top-notch event, so we can keep getting this thing,” said Longo.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence College is a NCAA Tournament host. Here’s what that means
