Starting Sunday, the RBC Center and N.C. State will host seven other teams for first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games. And with the television coverage the event will receive, senior associate athletics director and host site tournament director Nora Lynn Finch said it should be a great weekend for the area.
“We’ve got six games — 12 hours of RBC Center, Raleigh, N.C. State on national air,” Finch said. “You can’t buy that.”
She said it’s uncertain whether the University will profit from the event, but she said national media attention and playing at home in the tournament were the main reasons the school applied to host games during the tournament’s first two rounds.
And of those two reasons, she said the potential to play two tournament games in Raleigh was the biggest draw.
“That’s why we’re putting all this time and these resources into hosting,” Finch said.
While it’s the first time the arena has hosted the Wolfpack for NCAA play, it has already played host to two similar events in recent years.
State hosted a women’s NCAA Tournament East Regional, which featured four teams — including Duke — in 2002 at the RBC Center, and it also entertained eight teams for first- and second-round men’s NCAA Tournament action in 2004.
The lady Blue Devils are back this year as a No. 1 seed, also having the chance to reach the Sweet 16 before ever leaving the Triangle.
This season the event involves eight teams, something Finch said is more complicated but also more rewarding than hosting a four-team regional.
“It will wear us out. But we like bringing more teams in,” Finch said. “We think it’s good for the economy.”
The other six teams in Raleigh for at least first-round action include Robert Morris and Holy Cross — the Pack’s and Devil’s respective opponents — as well as Baylor, UT-Chattanooga, Temple and Nebraska.
Dave Olsen, vice president and general manager of the RBC Center, said it’s great to have two local teams in the event.
“Having teams like Duke and N.C. State play here and their fan bases will definitely help fill the seats,” Olsen said.
While State is hosting the event, the arena will still have to meet certain requirements because it is hosting an NCAA event.
Carolina Hurricanes and NHL banners will need to be rolled up and covered, and all advertising will need to be blacked out for the event, according to the host site’s tournament manager, Dick Christy.
Christy said it shouldn’t be a problem for the RBC Center staff, which this year has already handled three days that featured an N.C. State basketball game and a Carolina Hurricanes game within a few hours of each other. It’s just the details of the banners and ads that will be different, he said.
“Our guys at the RBC Center can do an N.C. State game with their eyes shut,” Christy said. “NCAA has a lot of very specific items that they want to handle.”
He noted it’s important to make sure every visiting team feels like it is welcomed and put in a position to win. And the work that goes into addressing those concerns and making the tournament successful is something with which he said the school’s tournament committee is becoming comfortable.
“It’s definitely not something that’s a new profile for our staff,” Christy said. “We’re getting used to this being part of our yearly activities.”
Likewise, Olsen said his staff is well-prepared. Even with a Carolina Hurricanes home game Thursday night and a Josh Groban concert Friday night at the RBC Center, he said setting up for the event will be business as usual.
“We rent the building to generate revenue, and if it means some extra-long hours by the staff to get the building changed around to whatever event follows, that’s what we do for a living, so for us it’s just another weekend,” Olsen said. “Folks who don’t do this for a living think it’s a lot of work and extra things to do, but it’s what we do every day.”
