Sacramento loses bid for NCAA basketball tournament games

Once again, Sacramento has been passed over by the NCAA.

The city and Sleep Train Arena were denied a bid to host NCAA men's basketball tournament games in 2014 or 2015. That list was released earlier this week.

Sacramento sports officials were surprised earlier this year when the NCAA asked them to apply to host tournament games after being denied a bid in 2009. An NCAA official told The Bee in September that Sacramento and its arena met the standards for host venues, including having an arena seating at least 12,000, a major airport and hotels.

John McCasey, executive director of the Sacramento Sports Commission, said he had not spoken to the NCAA about the decision this year and "unless I know what their thinking was, I don't know what to say."

"Any time we try to bid on something and don't get it, it's disappointing," he said.

An NCAA spokesman did not return a phone call seeking comment.

"It's no surprise that Sacramento has once again missed the cut to host the NCAA tournament and bring more jobs and revenue to our community," Mayor Kevin Johnson said in a statement. "It's the latest reminder of how crucial a new entertainment and sports complex is to reaching our full economic potential as a region, and I remain as committed as ever to making that goal a reality."

While many of the host arenas and cities chosen for tournament games are larger than Sacramento, some are not. The Sacramento region has a population of about 2.5 million and Sleep Train Arena seats 17,317 for basketball.

Spokane, Wash., with a metro population of 609,000, won a bid for 2014. Games will be played in the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, with a seating capacity of 12,210.

Also on the list is the Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., population 1.3 million. The facility seats 15,000. The arena at the University of Dayton (Ohio) will also host games.

KeyArena – the former home of the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics – was chosen to host games in 2015. The Sonics left Seattle in 2008 in part because KeyArena was deemed to be an unworthy NBA venue.

• Read more articles by Ryan Lillis

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