Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle among men's basketball NCAA tournament regional hosts in 2023-26

The NCAA men's DI basketball tournament will have a bigger presence on the West Coast in coming years as Las Vegas, San Francisco and Seattle have been chosen as host sites.

The NCAA today announced roughly 450 future sites for tournaments across all sports and divisions from 2023 through 2026. First- and second-round games and regionals in the NCAA men's DI basketball tournament are a part of that. Some notable sites to look forward to are (the complete list is below):

• 2023: Las Vegas, regional host
• 2024: Los Angeles, regional host
• 2025: Seattle, first and second round
• 2025: San Francisco, regional host
• 2026: San Jose, regional host

krikya18.com's Andy Katz discussed the selections with NCAA Senior Vice President for Basketball Dan Gavitt, which you can watch in full above.

Here are some of the highlights of their discussion:

• Dan Gavitt on high-profile cities out West being named NCAA tournament sites: "Very exciting to be able to reward three new, or relatively new, places as you mentioned in Seattle, San Francisco and Las Vegas. Of course, we'll be in San Francisco the Chase Center in 2022, it'll be the first time since 1960 we've in San Francisco for the NCAA tournament and Seattle since the Final Four was held in the King Dome way back when, it's been a long time since we've been able to regularly have the tournament in Seattle, a great city. Renovated, new facility there. Looking forward to being in Seattle and of course, very newsworthy to be in Las Vegas for the NCAA tournament for the first time. The 2023 men's regional will be held there."
• Gavitt on the committee's desire to select Las Vegas for the first time: "I think quite a bit (of an appetite). I think they were interested for a number of years now and certainly since the policy changed and made it permissible. So many conference tournaments have had great success in Las Vegas, the number of hotel rooms is enormous as we know. Of course, entertainment options outside of sports are plentiful and transportation in and out of Las Vegas is accessible from all over the country, so many different reasons why it's a favorable place to hold NCAA Championships."
• Gavitt on the committee's decision to award Las Vegas a regional rather than a first/second-round site: "Interestingly, the Basketball Committee decided to award a regional there and not a first- and second-round site. Normally in a new site like that, you would go first and second round first before you consider a regional but I think they took into consideration that there are so many conference tournaments that having a first and second-round site would mean back-to-back, in some cases back-to-back-to-back, weekends of basketball tournaments in Las Vegas and so having a week in between the last conference tournaments that will be held there, then the first and second rounds at another site, back to Las Vegas for the regionals made more sense in their minds."
• Gavitt on the First Four staying in Dayton: "Well, UD Arena has hosted more NCAA tournaments games as one venue than any other in the country. The University of Dayton and the Dayton community take incredible pride in tipping off March Madness every year with the First Four. It's been a very successful place from a fan attendance standpoint, from a team experience standpoint, from a centrality of the location in the country to get teams in and out to start and to go on to the first-round sites after those teams advance. While we did consider other options, Dayton continues to win the day and really excited to be now bring four more years of First Four to Dayton, which will ensure the 25th anniversary of their first time hosting in 2001 will take place during this bid cycle."
• Gavitt on a heavy presence of sites in the great New York area: "It's got a such a rich history in the New York metropolitan history, Newark and the Prudential Center was also awarded during this cycle, as was Albany, the state capital of New York. So really, a lot of incredible venues and communities to host first round, second round and regional play in New York, in the metropolitan area there, New Jersey, so excited to bring those games there."
• Gavitt on 2020 sites being awarded future NCAA tournament games in the next cycle: "Speaking of Final Four sites, the disappointment we all experienced with the 2020 March Madness and Final Four not being able to get to Atlanta to crown a national champion. We were able to – the committee was supportive of during this bid cycle in '23 through '26, every site that was due to host during the 2020 cycle will be hosting during this time period, so we can at least bring the March Madness experience, back to those communities."

Here is the complete list: