The NCAA minimum requirement for hosting regional and sub regional games is 10,000 seats.
This part is true, but there are other factors (from the NCAA):
For Division I men’s basketball, the minimum seating capacity to host tournament games (excluding the Final Four) is 10,000 saleable seats.
The NCAA will bring in a court, which measures 60-feet wide by 116-feet long. We would prefer not to have to cut the court in any way, as he points out we did the last time men’s basketball was in Albuquerque in 2012. Since we store and reuse these courts from year to year, it is best if we don’t have to cut any of the wooden panels.
As for other arena requirements, I have attached a space assignment document that is part of our bid specifications, which might assist in identifying other requirements at the competition venue. A centerhung scoreboard is a plus, but it is not mandatory.
In addition, yes, we do require at least six, and preferably more, full-service hotels to host first-/second-round sessions of the tournament. Each of the eight participating teams require 75 hotel rooms on peak nights, and three meeting rooms (minimum 1,200 square feet each). If there were a need for two teams to be placed in one hotel, those requirements are doubled at that hotel.
The media will also need a full-service hotel as will the game officials. The teams, game officials and the media all stay at different hotels. Ideally, that’s 10 hotels – one for each of the eight teams, one for the media, and one for the game officials. Again, if some of the full-service hotels are large enough to handle two teams, it is possible to reduce the number of required hotels by placing two teams in one hotel. In addition, it is a plus if these hotels are near the competition venue. As part of the bid process, the NCAA will want to know the distance of each hotel from the venue.
The airport being 40 miles away is not ideal, but not a deal-breaker on its own. When the NCAA evaluates bid entries, it takes everything into consideration (competition venue size and quality, back-of-house space, hosting history, ticket sales history, quality and proximity to the venue of the hotels, and size and location of the airport, just to name a few).
This was part of an e- mail I sent to Mario Moccia, the Athletic Director at New Mexico State of why or why not put in a bid for the Pan American Center. The thing that hurts NMSU is that the city has one full service hotel.
Remember the floor at the Haskins Center is permanent hardwood and cannot be taken out.
Since El Paso successfully hosted both the CUSA Tournament and US Bowling Congress Open event, they had been approached by the NCAA to bid on a first and second round regional tournament. I know that for a fact since one of my sources was the individual approached by the NCAA. From the story I was told, UTEP did not want to join the bid on the NCAAs (which they would need to since it has to come from a member institution). With UTEP out, the opportunity for El Paso to host an NCAA regional never came to fruition. I would bet that the NCAA was upset at our city's inability to try and offer up a competitive bid. It's another example of a missed opportunity.
kappy600,
Apr 14, 2016
http://www.robbinsfloor.com/2014/04/utep-don-haskins-center-stout-hardwood/
http://www.robbinsfloor.com/products/portable-floors-2/