Wednesday, the NCAA announced the city will host the Division I Men’s Final Four in 2015.
 
Just last Friday, Indy was awarded the Women’s Final Four in 2016.
Both events will take place in Lucas Oil Stadium, which already has the 2010 Men’s Final Four and the 2011 Women’s Final Four on the docket.

I blogged last week and reiterate now that this is the continuing harvest from a field sewn long ago. The decision to invest in sports as a means to redefine and reshape our city qualifies as nothing short of genius. The visionaries from more than 30 years ago should be doing cartwheels over these kinds of announcements, except now, they’re all too old.

Part of that sports strategy was to invest $50 million in privately raised funds to convince the NCAA to relocate its national headquarters to Indianapolis in 1999. Not long thereafter, the NCAA entered into an agreement with the Indiana Sports Corporation and the City of Indianapolis in which it agreed to bring future Final Fours to Indy as long as Indy meant certain conditions as well as the minimum bid requirements.

In the meantime, Indianapolis has made the kind of effort to show that it doesn’t want or expect a hand-out, but would aggressively compete to maintain its Final Four status. The construction and design of Lucas Oil Stadium, the expansion of the Indiana Convention Center, the opening of the new Weir Cook Terminal at Indianapolis International Airport and the new JW Marriott hotel complex all demonstrate a commitment to not just give the NCAA what it desires, but to exceed it.

And at the core of it all is the demonstrated volunteer base – people power at its best.

As Division I men’s basketball committee chairman Mike Slive said, “Indianapolis will be a fixture for hosting future Final Fours and those behind the bid took nothing for granted.”