March Madness: College basketball takes over Las Vegas

The tourism authority won’t say it, so we’ll say it for them: The madness begins here.

R&R Partners, the advertising agency for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, decided against using that catchy phrase in a campaign to promote the four college basketball conference tournaments held in the valley. The NCAA’s lawyers don’t look kindly on commercial enterprises that use any part of the organization’s trademarked “March Madness” slogan for their own benefit. So the marketing effort took a different approach.

It certainly worked. The success of last week’s Mountain West, Pacific 12 and West Coast conference championships made a statement: There is no place college basketball fans would rather be to see their teams than Las Vegas.

The Mountain West learned the hard way, moving its postseason tournament from Las Vegas to Denver for three years and seeing diminished attendance and interest result. Since returning to Las Vegas in 2007, the tournament has become a signature event for the Thomas & Mack Center. The campus arena might be UNLV’s home court, but it becomes more and more neutral every March. Saturday’s championship game between UNLV and New Mexico had an almost even split in fan representation. It’s one of the best tournament atmospheres in the country.

That’s exactly what the Pacific 12 Conference hoped for when, last year, it decided to move its postseason men’s basketball tournament from the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles to the MGM Grand Garden. Fans had soured on what had become a prohibitively expensive, inconvenient, uninspiring experience. The event needed a major boost.

Did it ever get one. Friday’s semifinals sold out the 13,151-seat arena, and average per-session attendance was up almost 2,000 fans. “I think it’s fair to say year one has exceeded our expectations in many respects,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott told the Review-Journal about his league’s three-year deal with the MGM and Las Vegas Events. “I think there’s a lot of potential for this to go beyond three years.”

The West Coast Conference was a repeat customer at the Orleans Arena, and this year it had national buzz, thanks to Gonzaga’s No. 1 national ranking. Las Vegas is an easy drive for fans from Brigham Young, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine and San Diego. It’s a perfect fit.

Yes, the dying Western Athletic Conference had its postseason tournament here, too, also at the Orleans Arena. The once-stable league has been picked apart by the Mountain West as part of national conference realignment. That has taken a toll on fan enthusiasm and attendance, and the WAC might not return to Las Vegas in 2014 as a result.

But the four tournaments combined featured 13 of the 68 teams selected for the men’s NCAA Tournament, which kicks into high gear today with the start of second-round play.

Now the Las Vegas fan experience shifts to the sports books, where the next four days of basketball are as big as the Super Bowl. If the NCAA would move beyond its unfounded concerns about sports betting — these tournaments prove college championships and wagering can co-exist — the organization could hold one heck of a Final Four here.

Yes, the madness does begin here. Here’s hoping it stays here in the years beyond.