It’s been 3½ years since Detroit won the bid to host the 2027 Final Four. It was a day of celebration, back in November 2022, after years of the city trying — and failing — to convince the NCAA to bring college basketball’s marquee event back to the city.
Not long ago, the 2027 Final Four seemed so far away. But now, make no mistake, the clock is very much ticking. Following Michigan’s win in the national-championship game last week, it’s less than a year until the Final Four returns to Detroit for the first time since 2009.
Ford Field will host the Final Four on April 3 and 5, 2027. It’s the latest major sporting event to set up shop in downtown Detroit, coming on the heels of Detroit’s wildly successful turn hosting the 2024 NFL Draft.
“By and large for us, just like the NFL Draft, it’s an opportunity to showcase and put the spotlight on Detroit and continue to change the narrative,” Dave Beachnau, CEO of the Detroit local organizing committee for the 2027 Final Four, recently told The News. “We really knocked it out of the park with the draft.
“And we’re expecting to do the same with the Final Four.
“There’s just a lot of momentum.”
More than 100,000 visitors are expected to flock to Detroit and the Metro Detroit areas for the 2027 Final Four, spurring nine figures in estimated economic impact.
Dozens of leaders from the city of Detroit and the 2027 Final Four local organizing committee recently returned from several days in Indianapolis, site of the 2026 Final Four, where they participated in a variety of roundtables, behind-the-scenes city and Lucas Oil Stadium walkthroughs and conversations with NCAA leadership in the leadup to the Motor City’s star turn.
Beachnau, formerly executive director of the Detroit Sports Commission, which played a pivotal role in landing the 2027 Final Four, said he was struck by how much bigger an event the Final Four is than it was even 17 years ago.
“It’s bigger and better,” said Beachnau, “than it was in 2009.”
The last time the Final Four was in Detroit
Beachnau was in Indianapolis for nearly a week, from Wednesday, April 1, through Tuesday, April 6, the morning after Michigan beat UConn, 69-63, to win its second national championship in men’s basketball. Others who made the trip included Detroit mayor Mary Sheffield, as well as Detroit police chief Todd Bettison, who is serving as co-chair of the Detroit local organizing committee for the 2027 Final Four along with Nancy Tellem, the CEO and founder of BasBlue and wife of Pistons executive Arn Tellem.
Also making the trip to Indianapolis were representatives from Ford Field; Michigan State, the host university for the 2027 Final Four; and leadership and staff from the Detroit Sports Commission and Visit Detroit.
Beachnau came away very impressed with Indianapolis’ hospitality — the city is a seasoned pro when it comes to hosting big sporting events, particularly at the college level — but also with plenty of ideas for how Detroit can and will make the event uniquely its own.
It won’t just be “One Shining Moment.” There should be lots and lots of shining moments.
“We’re in a much better position than we were in, in 2009,” said Beachnau, specifically noting the number of downtown Detroit hotel rooms, which has grown to about 6,000, from about 2,000 in 2009. “For us, we try to raise the bar every time we host an event. We’ll be talking internally and looking very closely at what Indianapolis did, and where we might be able to improve the experience.
“Their hospitality (Indianapolis’) really was strong, folks were extremely friendly everywhere we went, and that’s something that we’ll certainly want to replicate. And I’m confident that we will.”
As uniquely as Detroit plans to make the 2027 Final Four, the NCAA still largely runs the show, and oversees most of the production, including several days of fan festivals and concerts, which in Indianapolis included the likes of Zac Brown Band, Post Malone, Twenty One Pilots and Megan Moroney. Detroit leaders will push for a Motown flavor. Beachanu also is racking his brain for a place to showcase a massive NCAA Tournament bracket, like the one the size of 12 basketball courts that adorned the side of the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.
Future Final Four sites
The NCAA has made several site visits to Detroit in the last several months, including last May, for a Ford Field walkthrough, and in September, for tipoff meetings. In December, leaders unveiled the 2027 Final Four logo, which features a basketball that could double as a record, a nod to Hitsville.
The NCAA, Beachnau said, will begin in June visiting Detroit every month, for two or three days at a time.
“It’ll come fast,” said Beachnau, whose committee got a taste of hosting the NCAA Tournament in 2024, when the Midwest Region was held at Little Caesars Arena. (LCA also will host a marquee Michigan State-Arkansas game this Thanksgiving, right after the Lions game at Ford Field.) “It’s not crunch time, but the excitement’s there.”
Last week, local leaders unveiled the Fan Jam mobile promotional tour, starting at the Spirit of Detroit statue. Fan Jam is expected to visit each of Michigan’s counties in the buildup to the 2027 Final Four. A bracket-style school reading competition is being launched. Applications for Final Four tickets (there will be two semifinals April 3 and the national-championship game April 5) opened in March and close at the end of May, with winners of the lottery being notified this fall. City leaders are actively working to sign up 2,500 volunteers, or more.
Michigan and Michigan State both are among the early favorites to get to the 2027 Final Four. So, while there’s a lot of work on the plate of Beachnau and many others these days, with the countdown click ticking, he does occasionally allow himself fleeting moments to daydream about all the possibilities. He’s not alone. Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo has talked about it. Even Michigan head coach Dusty May mentioned it, amid the Wolverines’ postgame celebration in Indy.
It’s not quite the production that was the 2024 NFL Draft, when more than 700,000 visitors attended the three-day spectacle at Campus Martius and beyond. But it’s a much bigger production than the last time the Final Four was here, even though the 2009 event’s buzz was significantly boosted by the presence of Michigan State in the championship game.
“It’s hard to imagine right now,” Beachnau said last week. “It’d be unbelievable if both were there.”
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit is now on the clock: Local leaders gearing up for 2027 Final Four
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
