The “crazy” figures of ‘March Madness’

10,800 million dollars (9,770 million euros). It is what the American network CBS paid to secure the grand final of university basketball until 2024 and added another 8,800 million (8,000 million euros) to extend it until 2023. It is called ‘March Madness’ (March madness) and it is a tradition that moves 3,100 million (2,800 million euros) in bets every year. Even the NBA stops for the men’s final.

In a country totally devoted to sports and entertainment like the United States, few events arouse as much passion as the NCAA’s ‘March Madness’, the head-to-head confrontation between the best college basketball teams and which also draws a large number of business behind.

After three weeks of surprises and emotions on the court, the Final Four of the men’s section will be played in New Orleans by the teams from Duke, North Carolina, Villanova and Kansas, while in the women’s competition the teams from South Carolina, Louisville, Stanford and UConn.

Particularly in the media is the match for the men’s title, which will monopolize the attention of American basketball next Monday, April 4.

So much so that the NBA, an unstoppable machine of games in the regular season from October to April, will take one of its very few days off on Monday so as not to be overshadowed by the NCAA final.

Television rights are an example of the great impact of ‘March Madness’. CBS/Turner reached an agreement in 2010 with the NCAA to broadcast this crazy men’s march until 2024 for a total of 10.8 billion dollars, although they later extended that contract until 2032 for an additional 8.8 billion.

With those figures in mind, the $3.1 billion that, according to a survey by the American Gambling Association (AGA), the Americans plan to gamble on during the men’s tournament may not be so surprising.

That includes a very popular tradition around the ‘March Madness’: bets to guess the winners of all the crosses to nail the “bracket” (the relationship of pairings or table of matches).

THE NUMBERS FOR NEW ORLEANS

The ‘Final Four’ also represents a great economic stimulus for the city in charge of organizing it.

“New Orleans is excited and ready to host the NCAA Men’s Final Four for the sixth time in history,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said this week.

The portal nola.com, a reference for the New Orleans press, assured that up to 100,000 visitors are expected in the cradle of jazz for the Final Four.

For its part, Forbes magazine, citing local authorities, estimated the economic impact on the city hosting this final phase at 170 million dollars.

The Caesars Superdome, the stadium where the New Orleans Saints of the NFL play, will be the venue where these games are played in front of more than 70,000 spectators.

And how much do the tickets cost to live it?

According to StubHub, the most important ticket resale portal in the country, on Wednesday there were still tickets for the entire weekend for $548 (395 of the entry and 153 more of management fees).

The expectation for this ‘Final Four’ may be greater due to some games with a lot of morbidity (the historical rivalry between Duke and North Carolina) and also because in 2020 the ‘March Madness’ was canceled due to the pandemic and in 2021 it was celebrated with attendance limited by the coronavirus.

This year, however, some are willing to do anything to attend the games.

There is the case of Eric Church, a huge country star who this week canceled his concert on Saturday in San Antonio (USA) just to witness the meeting between Duke and North Carolina in person, something that has not pleased his fans.

The men’s Final Four in New Orleans is the culmination of a great NCAA logistics that has involved 68 teams in 14 different cities in the past weeks.

But all this huge business for the NCAA continues – in a very controversial way – leaving aside the players, who continue to be unable to receive salaries and that only after a reform approved last year can they now receive compensation for the sale of their image or through of sponsors.

David Villafranca