Last year, the direct spending economic impact was estimated at almost $5.8 million, according to Jacquelyn Powell, president and CEO for Destination Dayton.
“Direct spending includes the fact that people are staying in our hotels and they’re dining in our restaurants and going out to our bars and nightlife and perhaps going to see and do other things, buying tickets for things, all of that,” Powell said.
That spending and its resulting economic impact continues to rise incrementally over the years Dayton has hosted the NCAA First Four Tournament, she said.
The University of Dayton Arena has hosted men’s NCAA tournament games since 1970, hosting 137 games, more NCAA games than any arena in the nation. The arena hosted the men’s NCAA March Madness tipoff every year since 2001, with the event becoming the First Four in 2011.
“This is a national event, so the exposure that we get as a community when we host this event is really hard to measure, but it’s very valuable,” Powell said. “I think it’s also something that our residents can be proud of, that we’ve successfully hosted this event for so many years. It’s something to be able to brag about, to say that we’re able to have this national event here in our community that starts off March Madness for the NCAA.”
Economic driver
It helps, she said, that Dayton has a fan base in the areas that’s passionate about basketball to begin with.
“That shows every year when you know the attendance at the NCAA First Four, it significantly sells the arena,” she said. “We’re not looking at empty seats for this event. This is a full-house activity and and that definitely has a lot to do with the fact that we have such ardent basketball fans here in our community.”
The First Four is a powerful economic driver for the region. UD Arena typically sells out for the tournament, attracting approximately 25,000 fans over the two nights of the tournament.
Crowd attendance in 2024 was 24,286, with 12,247 attending the first night and 12,039 attending the second night, according to Doug Hauschild, University of Dayton’s director of media relations/sports information.
UD bids on the right to host the First Four every few years. In 2017, the agreement was extended through 2022. In 2020, it was extended through 2026. Last fall, the NCAA announced the tournament will stay in Dayton through at least 2028.
With two years added to the agreement, the number of NCAA tournament games at UD Arena will grow to 153 games in 2028.
Big Hoopla
Helping generate even more excitement for the First Four each year is the Big Hoopla, an independent nonprofit that donates 2,000 tickets over the two nights of the tournament to allow local Airmen at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, their families, veterans and local students to experience it.
Since it started hosting the event in 2012, the nonprofit has donated more than 137,500 tickets, according to Terry Slaybaugh, chairman of the Big Hoopla’s local organizing committee, who has been involved with its efforts for the past 13 years.
Big Hoopla raises money for those tickets via companies, organizations and individuals. For every $1,000 donated, the non-profit provides around 80 tickets.
It also raises money via two Selection Sunday celebrations: A four-mile race and a STEM competition for about 600 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and their families.
“We started this for two reasons,” Slaybaugh said. “One was to make the tournament a success so that we could keep it in Dayton, but then the other part was to be able to provide tickets to servicemen and their families and in the last few years, it’s gotten more competitive for the tickets.”
Military support
As Dayton has one of the most military supportive communities with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base being Ohio’s largest single-site employer, recognizing military families and veterans on the court during games is a major part of hosting the tournament, he said.
“Many of these airmen and guardians that come to Wright-Patt Air Force Base, they move throughout their career in the U.S. Air Force a number of times and so they get the experience of living in a number of communities throughout their Air Force career,” Slaybaugh said. “We want to make sure that when they come to Dayton, we do things for them that make them part of the community.”
Part of that, he said, is to thank them for their service and another part is to have them consider Ohio, especially Dayton, when they’re considering where to settle down and start a career after they’re done with their military career, he said.
Big Hoopla sponsorships from regional businesses “came together really quickly” this year, Slaybaugh said.
“I think we raised all of the funds we needed for the tournament within about 45 days, which was a lot quicker than in past years,” he said.
‘A point of pride’
Neil Sullivan, UD’s vice president and director of athletics, said the tournament is “bigger than those two days.”
“We think it offers a lot of many intangible benefits, both to the university from a branding perspective, but also Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, our appreciation of the military, the importance of STEM education, and everything that the Big Hoopla does around that,” Sullivan said.
“So it’s for us, it’s not one thing, it’s not about money to the University of Dayton, it’s not about just hotels, it’s about the entire ecosystem and a point of pride for this area ... dating back to 2001.”
UD will continue to deliver capacity crowds and a championship experience for the teams, tournament officials, fans, visitors and broadcast partners, he said.
Preparation for the First Four is built into UD’s daily operation every week of the year and is an extension of their athletic department
“It’s built into people’s job descriptions. It’s built into our meetings, it’s built into our calendar, so it really is a full, 52-week, fully-ingrained process,” he said. “That’s really just an extension of what we do, and I think that’s what our expertise and our ability to provide that turnkey operations on really a short turnaround, so that the NCAA can just focus on basketball.”
IF YOU GO: FIRST FOUR
WHERE: UD Arena, 1801 Edwin C Moses Blvd., Dayton
WHEN: March 18 and March 19. First game at approximately 6:30 p.m.
TICKETS: Available through www.daytonhoopla.com/tickets
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