Final Four recap
I was able to go to Dallas this past weekend for the Final Four. This year’s Final Four was the ninth I’ve attended (1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014) and despite Kansas not being there, the games were quite enjoyable.
As you all know, UConn won their fourth national championship in their program’s history. In case you didn’t know, I’m actually from Connecticut (and I grew up about 15 minutes away from Storrs, where the University of Connecticut’s campus resides). I also happened to see each of these four championships (1999, 2004, 2011 and 2014). I’ve also been lucky enough to see John Calipari lose out on three championships (2008, 2011 and 2014).
I figured I’d offer my thoughts on Dallas as a Final Four site. The next two Final Four sites are Indianapolis (2015) and Houston (2016) and then in November, the locations for 2017-2020 will be decided between Atlanta, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, North Texas, Phoenix/Glendale, San Antonio and St. Louis. In my opinion, San Antonio and New Orleans are locks for two of those championship locations as the constantly get praise from the media and NCAA for being great host sites. Considering the praise Jerry World got by Mark Emmert, I can only imagine Dallas will get it again very soon. If not in this next round of locations, it’ll be included in the next round.
Anyways, here are my thoughts.
City
Dallas was great… for what I experienced. Unfortunately, the weather kinda dampened things (literally). The only days with decent weather were Monday and Tuesday.
On Tuesday, I went to Lockhart Smokehouse BBQ and it was the best barbecue I’ve ever had that didn’t need barbecue sauce. I didn’t even enjoy their sauce because I think it actually took away from the meat. It’s not Oklahoma Joe’s or Jack Stack but it was great.
I wish there were some other things planned in the city for Final Four weekend other than the music festival. I like cities that have MLB teams and you’re able to go to a baseball game on the off day. I did this in Atlanta back in 2002.
Venue
AT&T Stadium, aka Jerry World, is an amazing stadium. As far as venues go, AT&T Stadium is probably the best stadium I’ve ever been in. Once you get to the stadium, access into it is very easy. The areas I walked in were very similar to the Sprint Center in the way it is very wide open and spacious. There were lots of food options in the small area I was in and it was easy to access the level I was on (the 300’s).
Getting to the stadium is the difficult part. From downtown Dallas, it is about 15 miles to the stadium. Depending on the traffic, this can be a 30 to an hour drive. This is definitely the worst part about the entire experience.
I would have liked the venue to be closer to the downtown area. Dallas is the fourth biggest metro in the United States and the venue being so far away definitely reiterated this fact.
Games
The most important part of the Final Four are the games. While AT&T Stadium was a great stadium, it wasn’t the best place to watch a game. Many times, I ended up just watching the huge screen.
There were times when watching the screen was great because of a replay of an awesome play.
And there were quite a few awesome plays.
All three games were great. The first game (UConn vs. Florida) had the largest margin (63-53) and it didn’t even seem that close. UConn couldn’t get anything going in the first 10 minutes and went down 16-4. UConn then outscored Florida 59-37 for the rest of the game.
Kentucky and Wisconsin was a classic Final Four game, topped off by Aaron Harrison’s incredible three pointer.
The final game was probably the second best game of the three but it was still incredible. Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright were outstanding.
These three games probably held my interest the most of any Final Four I attended outside of 2008.
Social Media
I relied a lot on social media this year to get my news at the Final Four. Unfortunately, my laptop wasn’t working throughout my trip and I used a lot of social media apps on my phone and tablet to get by.
Specially, I used Twitter and Fanzo as my top apps to get info. If you missed my app review of Fanzo, check it out here. Also, I wrote a blog about my favorite apps to use during the NCAA tournament.
These two apps helped me get up to date, not just on Final Four news, but news about the Royals and Red Sox (the baseball teams I pay close attention to). There really wasn’t much KU basketball news going on over the weekend (which I’m thankful for because again, my computer was dead). Download the Fanzo app here if you haven’t already. It’s becoming one of my favorite apps.
The Final Four has great social media and during the game, they posted photos of fans in Jerry World showing off team pride. It definitely provided extra entertainment value.
Final Overview
Despite the bad weather and even a power outage at my hotel on Sunday, I had a great time in Dallas. If you’re going to Dallas for your first Final Four, I’m not sure I would recommend it but if you’re a Final Four veteran like myself, it is a place that can be a great host city and depending on what you do, you’ll have a great time.
I’ll give this year’s Final Four a B.
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