HUNTSVILLE — The Rocket City will be a major player in March Madness over the next two years.
Mayor Tommy Battle scored some points himself today when he announced Huntsville will be hosting the Conference USA men’s and women’s basketball championships in 2024 and 2025.
“There is an opportunity to make it an even longer partnership,” he said. “Huntsville has a long tradition with basketball, we have some legendary high school championships, and a number of players who’ve gone on to play at the next level.
“Today we’re going to add a new chapter to that history as a partner with Conference USA and all the storied teams to come out of there.
“C-USA helped develop Florida Atlantic into a Cinderella run to the Final Four this year, and we look forward to seeing who the next star of the NCAA tournament will be – they will be booking their tickets right here in the Rocket City.”
Battle then introduced Huntsville’s “new best friend,” Judy McLeod, commissioner of C-USA.
“Conference USA starts our new media deals with CBS and ESPN while we welcome in Jacksonville State, Liberty, New Mexico State and Sam Houston State and, the year following that, we welcome Kennesaw State,” she said. “All these schools have a great tradition and have found great success recently in basketball, so we’re thrilled to have them join our strong core that includes Florida International, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee State, and Western Kentucky.”
McLeod complimented Battle, the Huntsville Sports Commission, the Von Braun Center and the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau for how well the group worked together.
“Everybody was on the same page,” she said. “We also want to develop other partnerships within the community.
“That’s really important to us that we’re not just coming here for a one-off event. We really want to invest and get involved in Huntsville.”
The event in the VBC’s Propst Arena will bring an estimated economic impact of around $3.2 million each year.
And, when the opportunity arose for Huntsville to host the tourney, the city launched a full-court press to bring it home.
“We started this process a year ago, really focused on bringing a major college basketball tournament to Huntsville,” said Joe Lamp, Convention sales manager at the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “When the opportunity came up with Conference USA, we didn’t just run, we sprinted to get in the mix and now they are here.”
Huntsville is a centralized location for the league with two teams within driving distance and the rest a short flight.
“Come to Huntsville and fill our hotels and restaurants and see what we have to offer,” Lamp said.
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