San Antonio will learn today whether the Alamodome will host an NCAA Men's Final Four in the middle of the next decade, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The NCAA Site Selection Committee will announce this afternoon the location of four Final Fours, between 2023 and 2026.
A dozen major cities are in the running, including Houston and Dallas, along with San Antonio. Sources say only one Texas city is likely to get the nod.
"By all accounts, people inside and outside of San Antonio regard the 2018 Final Four as the best ever, in its eighty years of history," Mayor Nirenberg, who traveled to Boston last week to lead the city's pitch, told News Radio 1200 WOAI.
San Antonio has hosted three Final Fours since the Alamodome opened in the early 1990s, all, interestingly in '8' years. The Final Four for 2028 will not be awarded today.
In 1998, Kentucky beat Utah to win the Men's Basketball Championship at the Alamodome. In 2008 it was the Jayhawks of Kansas over Memphis, and in 2018, Villanova bested Michigan in the dome.
So is the Alamodome, which will be more than thirty years old by the time the 2023 Final Four is held, up to the challenge?
Nirenberg pointed out that $60 million in improvements were made to the Dome before this year's event.
"It is a wonderful facility, which has only improved over time, and we feel it is among the premire sports facilities in the United States," he said.
And he said the committee that is considering the location of the four Final Fours in the next decade still have San Antonio ringing in their ears.
"The spotlight was on San Antonio and we shined, so I am hopeful," he said. "Of course, it is a decision the committee will have to make, but I am confident that we put out best foot forward."
The Final Four isn't just basketball. The April 2018 event meant $135 million for the local economy, and sporting events, the Final Four is second only to the Super Bowl, are generally considered to be premiere opportunities for business leaders to scout communities for expansion opportunities.