CINCINNATI — The first round of the men's NCAA Tournament starts Thursday. Already, Dayton is hosting the "First Four" games on Tuesday and Wednesday night.
Once again, college basketball fans in the Greater Cincinnati area won't be able to watch any March Madness games in person as Cincinnati will not be a host site.
Senator Sherrod Brown (D) posted on X, formerly Twitter, a letter to the NCAA requesting the city of Dayton host more NCAA games in the future. The letter is also signed by Senator J.D. Vance (R) Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Troy) and Rep. Michael Turner (R-Dayton).
Tonight, March Madness kicks off at @univofdayton.
— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) March 19, 2024
While I put the finishing touches on my brackets, I’m urging the @NCAA to host more tournament games in Dayton in the future. There’s no better place than Ohio. https://t.co/KLMXJNvEm2
Will Cincinnati ever be able to host any games in the future?
The NCAA selected Cincinnati in 2017 as a host city for rounds one and two of the 2022 NCAA Tournament. To host games, the NCAA told the owners of the then-U.S. Bank Arena they had to meet certain standards, requiring about $200 million in renovations.
By December 2019, the NCAA decided to change course and move the games Cincinnati would have hosted to Indianapolis after the arena missed the deadline to complete renovations.
"We're really going to need to have a serious conversation as a region about having a modern state-of-the-art arena," said Brendon Cull, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Regional Chamber.
Cull told WCPO his organization, along with Visit Cincy, the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, will embark on a study to discuss the possibilities of a brand new arena in the city. WCPO asked Cull if money is a big obstacle.
"No ... we're embarking on this process, with our partners like Visit Cincy and 3CDC and other organizations — the city and the county — to take a look at what would it take to upgrade, or build a modern arena here in Cincinnati," Cull said. "We'll be engaged in conversations with the current owners there and facility there to find out what's possible potentially with that site but everybody agrees that we don't have a modern arena right now."
On the Heritage Bank Center website, there's a section called "new vision," which admits the arena is losing out on events like March Madness. However, when it comes to paying for upgrades or a new arena, it appears to be hinting at public financing as the way to go.
"As far as I know, the Heritage Bank Arena group has not reached out to the City of Cincinnati, or begun any of those conversations," said Seth Walsh, Cincinnati City Council member. "Ultimately, it's a private enterprise that owns the Heritage Bank Arena and we can hope that they do the right thing but as things are showing now we're still not getting the March Madness."
If you ask Cincinnati residents like West End Community Council member Nick Johnson, the city should own the new arena and build it somewhere else.
"The arena should be in Cincinnati, and it should be in the West End on Central Parkway," Johnson said.
He said he's in the process of building a brand new sports bar in the West End and feels this is exactly what his neighborhood needs.
"As we're building our city back up and bringing our city on the world stage it's time to be creative and figure out how to finance a stadium here," Johnson said. "Taxpayers paying for Paul Brown, they're paying for the Reds and they go to every Bengals game, they go to the Reds game, we just have to build it. As citizens, we have to bet on ourselves all the cities around us are going to take all the revenue dollars and we're going to continue to be left behind."
WCPO 9 News reached out to the Heritage Bank Center ownership group, Nederlander Entertainment for comment, but we haven't heard back.
