March Madness: Orlando draws record crowds, $5.9 million in publicity from NCAA tourney

Furman’s stunning upset of Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament last Thursday sent shock waves through everyone’s March Madness bracket and put Orlando front and center in the eyes of the basketball world.

Millions of viewers nationwide tuned in to see JP Pegues’ game-winning 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left, advancing the Paladins to the Round of 32. Those tuning in or in attendance at the Amway Center were treated to one of the tournament’s highlights, repeatedly shared on highlight reels and social media.

It was the perfect start to what would turn out to be a fantastic weekend for the Central Florida community.

“We were very pleased,” said Jason Siegel, president and CEO of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission, which works to bring events like the NCAA tournament to the area. “When you have that kind of an exciting finish and a big upset, it drives all this additional attention to the destination and certainly did that.”

Furman’s win aside, the group of schools taking part in games brought an exciting brand of basketball and fan bases willing to make the trip to Orlando.

“We had some great regional big-brand powerhouse schools because we know how well they travel,” Siegel said of a lineup that included Duke, Tennessee, Louisiana, College of Charleston, Oral Roberts and San Diego State. “Usually, you have an incremental economic impact when they’re traveling from out of state as they stay longer.

“They’ll use the time in town for basketball to extend their stay into Sunday or Monday or come a day early and go to the theme parks or our restaurants and attractions.”

Furman’s win opened the door for another wave of fans to make the seven-and-a-half hour drive from Greenville, S.C., to Orlando to take in the Paladins’ second-round game against San Diego State Saturday.

“It wasn’t lost on us that you had two drive markets in Greenville and Charleston and there would be potential if the lower seed won to get an extra bump, so that was great,” said Siegel.

Total attendance for the Thursday and Saturday games was 49,824, the highest total of any of the previous six times Orlando has hosted the event, whether at the old Amway Arena or the current Amway Center. The Saturday games featuring Furman-San Diego State and Duke-Tennessee drew 17,298, 96% capacity for the 18,018-seat venue.

The television viewership also was high, with the six games averaging 2.83 million viewers on CBS and TruTV. Tennessee’s 65-52 win over Duke on Saturday afternoon drew 4.81 million viewers on CBS; the fourth-most watched NCAA tournament game behind Michigan State-Marquette (5.86), Kentucky-Kansas State (5.07) and Arkansas-Kansas (4.93).

While the full economic impact of the week-long event won’t be available for some time, Siegel said the tournament coverage drew 5,558 media mentions, with an overall audience reach of 6.4 billion people. The coverage also generated $5.9 million worth of publicity for Orlando and Amway Center according to Critical Mention, a media monitoring service.

“Our investment is minimal and there’s an investment the NCAA makes, but to have a return of almost $6 million in value for the Amway Center and Orlando is wonderful,” said Siegel.

“That’s what we’re here for, and our mission is to drive economic impact through the recruiting of sporting events. But part two to that is marketing and publicity of the destination and to do these events on a major national network with international viewership and a following on social media that we’re able to accomplish with these types of events.”

Even before the games tipped off, Siegel hoped a good showing last week would go a long way into helping Orlando make its case to host future tournament games.

The NCAA already announced its host sites for the basketball tournament through 2026, but members of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission expect to participate in a symposium in Indianapolis this fall. During this forum, communities find out the roster of events up for bid. Last time out, roughly 500 NCAA events were available, and Orlando bid on 68 of them. This time around, the community has until the spring of 2024 to make their official bids with a decision coming in the fall as to which cities host events from 2026-30.

There’s no doubt Orlando plans to bid on future NCAA tournament games, according to Siegel, with community leaders preferring to host first-and second-round games rather than the Sweet 16 or Elite 8.

“We’ve traditionally only bid on the first and second round,” he said. “You get eight teams, eight schools or universities as opposed to the Sweet 16 or Elite 8, where you only get to four. So it drives more revenue.”

This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Matt Murschel at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osmattmurschel.