PHOENIX — The 2024 Men’s Final Four was much more than three championship basketball games – and we’ve got the numbers to prove it.
The box scores showed UConn’s dominance at State Farm Stadium, where the Huskies won their second consecutive national title, defeating Alabama in the Semifinals and Purdue in the championship game.
But the stats for the week were just as impressive, as more than 14.8M people watched the championship game on broadcast, and more than 149,000 fans attended the three games in Glendale.
The numbers in the infographic at right tell the story of widespread engagement, as thousands of out-of-state visitors and Arizona residents participated in a community celebration of basketball.
The ancillary events offered something for everyone. Music lovers flocked to Hance Park for the free March Madness Music Festival, which featured DJ Zedd, the Jonas Brothers and Mumford & Sons. Sports fans and families turned out in droves to experience a sports wonderland at Men’s Final Four Fan Fest presented by Capital One at the Phoenix Convention Center. And 3,000 kids dribbled basketballs through the streets of downtown Phoenix in the Men’s Final Four Dribble presented by Buick.
That’s not to mention the bleachers full of 3rd grade students who enjoyed the Read to the Final Four celebration, the hundreds of bikes that were built to award the two schools that read the most minutes, or the unveiling of the Men’s Final Four Legacy Project presented by Degree, which saw a complete renovation of the historic Eastlake Park Community Center in Central Phoenix.
All the numbers, all the smiles and all of the action added up to an unforgettable weekend in the desert.
“We felt so welcomed here in the Valley the entire time,” said JoAn Scott, the NCAA’s Vice President of Men’s Basketball. “I hope that we left a little bit more than the lasting legacy of some basketball games.”