March Madness is returning to Sacramento. The NCAA announced today the new downtown arena will be the site for some round-one and round-two games of the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.
It will be the first time since 2007 that Sacramento has hosted the event. Arco Arena hosted the tournament the last time.
Mike Sophia with the Sacramento Sports Commission says organizers expect the games to sell out in the new arena.
"It's around $4 million or $5 million in direct economic impact. That's what the folks coming in visiting would be spending directly without any multipliers or any of that stuff."
Sacramento was one of 36 host cities awarded preliminary rounds in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
Sacramento State will be the host institution partner.
The school, along with the Sacramento Sports Commission, and the Sacramento Kings led the effort to bring the tournament to Sacramento.
The Sacramento Sports Commission says the four days of games will bring in between $4 million and $5 million to the local economy.
The NCAA also announced it has done away with the naming of the play-in games as "round one" games and will now call the teams in those games "The First Four."
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