Episode Transcript
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Solentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. Thank you very much for listening. We always appreciate your time. My guest today is Brad Pittman. Brad is the senior associate athletic director for facilities and operations at Wichita State and he joins us to talk big events. Wichita State and there are many other groups. We'll get Brad to tell us about that. They are hosting first and second round NCAA tournament games at Interest Bank arena on March 20th and 22nd. That's the men's tournament in July. The news just came out yesterday. The basketball tournament is back at Kocarina for a sixth time with the aftershocks as the headlining team and the eight team Wichita Regional. So the return of NCAA basketball continues a long history here in Wichita. Wichita State started hosting NCAA Men's Baske Games 1956 on campus hosted eight times in what is now Kocarina in 1994 at the Kansas Coliseum. We've all heard stories about how bad that was. Have you heard the stories about how bad the Kansas Coliseum was in 94?
[00:01:17] Speaker B: I've heard a few stories and yeah, let's just say they left a little bit to be desired.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Yes, we desperately needed Interest bank arena from that standpoint. In 2011, the NCAA tournament returned to Wichita with the women's games at Interest Bank Arena. Wichita State Wichita was scheduled to host men's games in 20, but did not due to Covid. In 2022, women's NCAA regional play came downtown and now the tournament is back this March. They also hosted men's NCAA games in 2018. Big success. Brad is the tournament manager for the NCAA tournament. Brad, can you get me tickets?
[00:01:53] Speaker B: I can if you have some money. Unfortunately I can't give comp tickets out, but there are a handful of tickets left for sale.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: There are tickets available. All right, very good. Where are you on the Planning timeline for March 20?
[00:02:06] Speaker B: We are currently in what I would call the kind of the detail phase. So we're starting to get things in.
The big plans are all done and said and people are lined up. We're now just crossing T's dot and I's making sure that we have a full understanding of all the timelines and the. And the things that will happen on that. That weekend. Weekend. So that's kind of where we're digging in right now.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: So in 2018, one of the big successes was the open practice filled the arena for the University of Kansas fan fest. Great vibe, great atmosphere downtown. I was pouring beers at a brewery during that. It was a lot of Fun. What should fans know about fan activities around the arena and the open practices this year?
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah, so open practice day will be March 19th. First one will start at 11am free and open to the public. So each team will get 40 minutes of open practice. They're required to take 30 of that.
So you'll. I mean, they're not going to do anything too in depth, but you'll see a lot of just shooting around and just guys having a good time. So it's a great opportunity for folks that are either don't have tickets or just big basketball fans to catch some of the best talent in the country.
There will be a lot of activity around the arena. So the city is going to host fan fest at Navsker Park. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, approximately 10am to 10pm There will be games on the big screen down there. They will also have food trucks, beverage trucks, both the fun kind and the not fun kind, and then activities for all ages around it. In addition, there's going to be several private parties west and south of the arena from various groups that are going to be putting those on.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Oh, so in the event venues that have sprung up around the arena, that kind of thing.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Yeah. And there'll be folks that'll be doing stuff in parking lots and kind of just all around wherever they can take advantage of the mass of people that will be downtown.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: It strikes me that downtown, and I'll include Delano, has changed significantly since 2011 and even since 2018. How much is that a part of this success picture?
[00:04:14] Speaker B: I think it's a huge part of it. I think also people learned from 2018 of behaviors. I think there were some estimates from the city that there was 30 to 35,000 people just downtown alone on that weekend for basketball, which obviously the arena holds 15,000, so 20,000 of them had to go somewhere else. So I think people learned that there was an appetite for this and they're trying to capitalize and move forward with that.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Again, it seems like there's at least one significant new hotel downtown since 2018, and we always have new restaurants, new breweries, those kind of things. So I think it turns into a pretty good NCAA tournament site with a lot of walkable places. And it's convenient.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: It does. And having traveled to a few of these, you don't see a lot of fan activations in a lot of places you go to. So I think that's where Wichita is a little unique and where. Where we can kind of set a mark a little bit in terms of what we can do to separate ourselves from our competition.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: When you go to these events, I think time spent in a car is wasted time. You want to be out and about. You want to be at the games, or you want to be eating or walking and meshing with the people.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: Yes, and we're hopeful. I mean, the last time we did this, we had gorgeous weather, 70 degrees, and obviously none of us can control that, but we're hopeful we can get something similar, which would make it really fun to be outside.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: What's the division of labor as far as what is the ncaa? How much help do they give you in the months leading up to the game?
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Really, the NCAA's charge on this is they're just giving you direction. You are responsible as the host to put this on. So they're telling you how they want this run. They're giving you kind of the blueprint how to run it. They're sending you all the materials that you need to run it. But at the end of the day, executing it is basically the host's responsibility.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: So it takes a lot of groups to pull off something like this.
Who are the other groups that are really involved in helping?
[00:06:02] Speaker B: Yeah, we're really blessed to have really good working relationships with Visit Wichita and Interest Bank Arena. We've been partnering with them since the arena was built to bring these events here. The city's done a really good job this year. They're helping us with Napster park and they help us with some other items. Those are the main core groups of folks that get involved with these events. And we've been really fortunate to have some great relationships with them.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: I'm going to throw you off guard here. I've got a trivia question for you. Who is the one school that won the national title after playing an NCAA tournament game in Wichita? This goes back throughout the entire history of games in Wichita.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, had a lot of Final.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Four teams advance out of here. Who's the one that won it all?
[00:06:42] Speaker B: I was going to say we had two Final Four teams. The last time we did it. The Fab Fi was here in 94, but they didn't win.
I don't know.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: UTEP Really? I think they then they would have been Texas Western. Don Haskins, the famous coach, 1966. They just played one game here. They defeated Oklahoma city in the first round and then moved on. Selection show, March 16. People will of course be watching that. When you learn which schools are coming to Wichita, what happens next? What's the first action item?
[00:07:09] Speaker B: The first action item then is I will Reach out to each director of operations. Just kind of introducing myself, setting up a communication line. It's really at that point it's controlling communication because they're going to want to figure out where's my hotel, where do I practice, you know, how do I get here, those sorts of logistics. Because reality is less than 48 hours after they're announced they're going to be in Wichita. So it's controlling the communication. I'll have a group of folks that will be working through some other items such as credentials and parking passes and that sort of thing. But it's really for me it'll be just managing the communication flow.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Yeah. What's your, how would you describe the size of your staff?
[00:07:54] Speaker B: I mean it's, it's. I'm fortunate with a good staff obviously on the immediate side. Mike Ross manages that aspect and Mike does a phenomenal job and you know, he's somebody I don't have to check on him. He does a great job with that. So he'll have his team of folks and then I'll have from my end I'll have our full time staff which is three or four people that'll be dove into kind of the details on what we're doing that night.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: So you have the previous tournament experiences here going back to 2011. I know you routinely will travel to other cities, see what they're doing as part of the preparation. What have you learned from previous tournaments that people may see this time that will be helpful?
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Really the big takeaway from a lot of tournaments is just expect the unexpected. There's going to be a lot of questions, a lot of last minute things that come up. Be prepared for it and as much as you can get done in advance to allow you to put out those little fires is really, really helpful. And I always have talked about and look at Wichita's how could Wichita make their mark? And for me and how I feel about it, it's service. You know, we, we can't control the size of our city or the how big the airport is, but we can control what we do and how we treat people. People. So that's really where we try to make our mark. It's just the first class service aspect to teams and officials and administrators as they come to our city.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: What's been your favorite memory, your highlight from hosting these tournaments?
[00:09:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I think two of them stick out for me. The last time we hosted the men in 2018, if you watch that game, Michigan versus Houston, Jordan Poole nails a three pointer at the buzzer to win and advance them to the sweet 16, which really epitomizes what the tournament's all about. It's that finality, win or go home. And you see the jubilation from the one side, you see the heartbreak on the other side, and, you know, you feel for the guys that lost. But that's why we watch these games. It's really, really. It's about that. So that was cool to actually see that in person. There is a rumor that basketball may be in my basement, but I can't confirm or deny that. The other one that comes out is the Women's Regional in 22.
It was the last day, and Louisville had just finished their practice, and we were getting ready to come out and rehearse kind of the regional ceremony, because after that, you know, you cut down the nets and the confetti, all that stuff. So as we were coming out on the court, their entire team comes over to us and just says, thank you for everything that you guys have done. And I've never experienced that in all my time doing this, which I thought was a really cool gesture.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: That is nice. University of Louisville.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: Very good. So when you get together on March 24, I'm guessing the Monday, what will you talk about to judge the success of this event?
[00:10:36] Speaker B: I think the success is going to be judged on a number of things.
You know, what issues did you have?
Hopefully, and there's going to be something that comes up. How did you deal with it?
Were the issues major or were they minor?
Why were the issues there?
