Host cities prepare for the March Madness crowds
With a ridiculously high four NBA championships in the past decade, the San Antonio Spurs have made their hometown the Southwest’s nexus of basketball fever. Few cities worship their NBA clubs in the manner of San Antonio, but all that fan fanaticism will seem like polite golf applause come April 5th, when the annual March Madness death match delivers a quartet of teams to the Alamodome for the NCAA Final Four.
For two days, Texan oilmen and ranchers will cheer on their teams alongside alumni bankers from New York and L.A. in courtside seats, private boxes and lavish parties held around the city.
See our slideshow of Final Four Deluxe.
“The old money from town will rent out suites in our best hotels,” says Sharon Wong, the editor-in-chief of San Antonio Magazine. “They’ll bring in private chefs, huge televisions and throw very exclusive parties, with debutantes and everything.”
According to Wong, most of the action outside of the Alamodome will take place up and down San Antonio’s famous River Walk. This pedestrian-only promenade snakes along the San Antonio River, and is home to some of the finest hotels, bars and restaurants in the city. While other cities see parades from victorious teams, the River Walk becomes the scene for “River Parades”—flotillas of party barges carrying teams, bands and cheerleaders down the river as tickertape rains from the bridges above.
“Fans [from] all different walks of life will be going crazy down there.” Wong says, “All the sports doctors in town will be down there. That’s where the action will be.”
With thousands of high-end visitors coming into the city on first-class tickets or private jets, many of the five-star hotels and restaurants that overlook the River Walk are preparing for larger, more demanding crowds of customers, though they insist that it won’t be anything they can’t handle.
“We’re definitely a convention city,” says Scott Becker, the general manager at Bohanan’s Prime Steaks & Seafood, one of the top steakhouses in all of Texas. “Downtown San Antonio is very compact and very well-oriented to the traveler. You can walk almost anywhere downtown. The weather's always beautiful, and it's easy for people to abandon their cars and just walk along the river.”
Asked whether his restaurant is making contingency plans for the tournament, especially when it comes to stocking their famous Japanese Akaushi Steaks, Becker didn’t seem flustered, “We go through so much of the Akaushi beef, because we serve 200 guests—our maximum—every night. So there won’t be more guests, because that’s impossible, but The Final Four will just mean a difference of who those 200 are that evening.” During past tournaments, Bohanan’s has been the gathering place for old-line coaches and basketball commentators, such as Bobby Knight.
See our slideshow of Final Four Deluxe.
The best bet for those looking for the ultimate River Walk experience can organize a private dinner on a floating barge. The barges seat up to 30, and can be catered by top-notch kitchens like Bruce Auden’s award winning internationally flavored Biga on the Banks, which will gladly uncork a 1995 Rodney Strong Napa Reserve to set the tone for a gourmet pleasure cruise.
The good news this year is the Alamodome's ample capacity: more than 40,000 seats. This means snagging last-minute tickets to the “sold out” Final Four is a distinct reality for the diehard fan. “There are always tickets out there, they're just going to come at a premium,” says Joseph Rodriguez, concierge at the Valencia Hotel. “If you're willing to pay the right price, you can get ‘good seats’. I've been fortunate enough to go to the last big Spurs finals when there were ‘no tickets’, though as you get closer to game time, they'll shoot up quite a bit.”
After the games, when hooting fans will line the riverbanks, many will take in the action from swish terrace bars attached to hotels like the Valencia, a favorite of celebrities and the demigods of college basketball. Their modern Vbar will be the top spot to hobnob with big names, as the co-eds run rampant on the walkways below. And though many prefer to stay outside of town in more serene resorts like the Westin La Cantera, the action along the River Walk can’t be missed.
“We party on an enormously large and expensively large scale,” says Sharon Wong. “Being a Texan is like having parties in your genes... Things really are bigger here. We love a good party, honey. Y’all should come on down and check it out.”
For more information on what’s happening in the other March Madness cities, click here for our slideshow.