NCAA Final Four basketball in Atlanta

Article posted by Coliseum, September 3^rd, 2024

Image: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Gatorfan252525, CC BY-SA 4.0

Atlanta will stage one of the world’s premier sporting events after the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee selected the city to host the 2031 Men’s Final Four.

The NCAA said It will mark the fifth time Atlanta has hosted the event, which will take place between April 5 and 7 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men’s college basketball national champion of the Division I level in the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The 71,000-capacity Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a multipurpose stadium located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

Opened in August 2017 as a replacement for the Georgia Dome, it serves as the home stadium of the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) and Atlanta United FC of Major League Soccer (MLS).

The opportunity to host the 2031 Men’s Final Four comes nearly 4½ years after Atlanta lost out on the chance to host the 2020 Men’s Final Four due to the global pandemic.

The Final Four first took place there in 1977, when Al McGuire’s Marquette team beat North Carolina in the championship game in front of just over 16,000 fans at the Omni Coliseum.

A quarter of a century later, Maryland won its lone national title, beating Indiana in front of more than 52,000 fans at the Georgia Dome.

That same facility hosted the 2007 Final Four, which featured Florida winning the second of its back-to-back titles, and the 2013 event, which saw Louisville edge Michigan in front of a then-record crowd of 74,326.

An even larger crowd is expected seven years from now, when Atlanta joins Kansas City, Indianapolis, New York, Louisville, New Orleans, Seattle and San Antonio as the only cities to host at least five Final Fours.

Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball said, “The cancellation of the 2020 tournament, including the Men’s Final Four in Atlanta, was a necessary yet devastating decision for student-athletes, coaches and fans. It significantly impacted the Association and its membership, as well as the city of Atlanta, which has repeatedly been a terrific host to the event.

“The committee has been empathetic in its consideration of replacing the 2020 Men’s Final Four for Atlanta, and ultimately the city competed favorably and won the opportunity to host again at long last in 2031. We are looking forward to working with the Atlanta team to provide another memorable Men’s Final Four experience.”

This will not be the final site selection announcement of the year, as the preliminary round sites for the 2027 and 2028 Division I Men’s Basketball Championships will be revealed in early October as part of the NCAA’s multi-championships announcement for dozens of men’s and women’s sports across all three divisions.

Previously announced Men’s Final Four hosts include San Antonio in 2025, Indianapolis in 2026 and 2029, Detroit in 2027, Las Vegas in 2028 and North Texas in 2030.

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