Basketball blue bloods Kansas and Michigan, early favorite Villanova, and Cinderella upstart Loyola of Chicago are heading for San Antonio for this coming weekend's Final Four, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Fans of those teams, and the other 80,000 people or so who will descend on San Antonio for what has become the second largest sports event in the nation, second only to the Super Bowl, arrive at the Alamodome for Saturday's semi-finals, Mary Japhet of San Antonio Sports says they will experience some $60 million in improvements to the facility.
"Four new video walls, new lighting, new sound system," Japhet said.
She says a major improvement is to the Alamodom'e wifi system, which had been a concern for fans of the Alamo Bowl and other dome events.
She says the wifi is now among the most robust of any stadium in the country, with plenty of bandwidth inside the dome and outside in the parking lot, for the thousands of fans who will want to post selfies at the same time.
Japhet says there are plenty of new consumer amenities at the dome as well.
"It will allow folks at the Alamodome to move people around more easily," she said. "The experience in the arena will be better."
Since the dome opened in 1992 the world ha changed a lot, with 9/11 and the rise of violent incidents. Officials say security at the Alamodome has improved, and there are facilities to allow the Dome's new bag check programs to move quickly during the Final Four.
City officials will brief the media today on security procedures for the Final Four.
The Final Four also involves numerous road and street closures:
24-Hour closures
Monday, March 26-Tuesday, April 3rd
- Montana Street from Cherry Street to Tower of Americas Way
Wednesday, March 28 7PM – Monday, April 2 1PM
- Alamo Street from Market Street to Cesar Chavez
- Nueva Street from Presa to Alamo Street
Daily Closures
Friday, March 30
Noon – 11PM
- Market Street from St. Mary’s to River Walk Bridge
8AM-7PM
- North I-37 Frontage from Cesar Chavez to Commerce
Saturday, March 31
10AM-11PM
- Market Street from St. Mary’s to River Walk Bridge
Noon-12AM
- North I-37 Frontage from Cesar Chavez to Commerce
- Cherry Street from Iowa to Idaho
Sunday, April 1
11AM-11PM
- Market Street from St. Mary’s to River Walk Bridge
And here is a listing of all of the special events coming up this weekend:
IMAGE; AT&T