2021 Big Ten men’s basketball tournament moving to Indy from Chicago
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Lucas Oil Stadium is expected to be the choice venue to host the 2021 men’s Big Ten basketball tournament in March.
News 8 Sports Director Anthony Calhoun was the first to share the news of the move from Chicago to Indianapolis on Thursday morning.
The men are expected to play their games at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament, which is already scheduled for Indy, will happen at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
The men’s tournament is March 10-14, and the women’s tournament is March 9-13. In January, News 8 was the first to report that the entire Men’s NCAA basketball tournament will happen in Indiana. NCAA men’s March Madness games — all of them at venues in Indianapolis, Bloomington and West Lafayette — will start March 18.
It was unclear why the Big Ten has chose to move the tournament, but Chicago’s COVID-19 restrictions currently do not allow fans at games while Indianapolis’ limits do. The Pacers recently expanded the crowds at their home games in Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
The change came as a pleasant surprise to Terry Anthony, the owner of The Block Bistro on Market street, which is scheduled to open for business this weekend.
“That is big for the economy; that is big for Hoosiers everywhere. It lets us know that Indianapolis is back open, that Indianapolis is the convention city that it always has been, even after the coronavirus. When you see tournaments like that make the decision to come back to Indianapolis, that is huge for retailers like myself,” Anthony said Thursday.
For Anthony, whether or not fans are allowed into the games and eventually into his restaurant, there will be a lot of eyeballs on Indianapolis.
“The biggest thing with college is those fans, whether you can get in the game or not, love to come to that city. They love to just experience that. If we think back to when we hosted the men’s football tournament and Maryland Street, and people just flooding into different retailers, that is huge for the city. That is huge for the Big Ten. That is huge for the retailers that have been dying to get back to something pre-COVID,” Anthony said.