Indiana Sports Corp proposes NCAA basketball bubble at Convention Center
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — With more than $100 million on the line, sports leaders have laid out plans for life in a basketball bubble in downtown Indianapolis during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re the host of the 2021 (NCAA) Men’s Final Four,” said Indiana Sports Corp President Ryan Vaughn. “It’s really important to us, it’s really important to this community that college basketball get started off on the right foot.”
The Indiana Sports Corp has been talking for months with conferences including the Big Ten about their needs.
In many ways, the proposal is modeled like the NBA bubble in Orlando. In this case, it’s about the 4,700 hotel rooms connected to the Indiana Convention Center, which could hold more than 20 basketball courts inside.
“It’s the perfect place for a bubble-type operation or a controlled environment,” Vaughn said.
With the announcement the NCAA season will begin Nov. 25, decisions for teams at all levels across the country need to be made like will they play at all, will they play teams outside the conference, where will they play and if it will be in front of fans.
“As with everything in this pandemic, all options are on the table,” Vaughn said.
The bubble is one of them.
It’s an attempt to add an extra layer of safety with testing before and again as teams arrive, with 24/7 security to keep it protected from the outside world.
“You never need to leave,” Vaughn said. “We’ve got all your food. We’ll take care of the medical. You’ve got a place to practice. You’ve got a place to play, all within a very secured environment.”
Vaughn said the model is scalable, meaning it can getting bigger or smaller as the need arises. Four windows for games are already listed, including a 38-day window the day the season begins.
“We feel very good we can host large-scale tournaments or just 4-8 team, round play,” Vaughn said.
For a city which has lost so many big events because of coronavirus already, it’s too early to talk about the Final Four. Vaughn said discussions are going on as if it will happen like every other year.
“We hope that’s the case but certainly testing out these protocols along the way would only be helpful should we arrive at some circumstance like that in the future.”
The cost per team is estimated at $90,000, which is basically all-inclusive price. But the figure could shrink for colleges and universities who want to provide their own meals or testing.
Vaughn said the goal for the Indiana Sports Corp is just to break even on this venture.
He believes it will still take a few more weeks before any announcement of teams or conferences moving forward with this bubble.