NCAA Final Four a Valley success story

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Saturday dawned over the Valley like a tourism dream. Blue skies, a gentle breeze and temperatures in the mid-70s set a perfect scene for the NCAA Final Four.

Across the street from gussied up University of Phoenix Stadium, a carnival entertained kids, big and small, and downtown at the bustling Phoenix Convention Center, home of FanFest, music blared, autographs were signed and youth clinics instructed the next generation of stars.

Somewhere in that chaos, Dawn Rogers exhaled a combination of relief and satisfaction. She had finally flipped the switch on the colossal machine she helped build over the last 20 months, and the parts were humming in unison.

“This really is the greatest sporting event and it’s just surreal that it’s finally here in Phoenix,” said Rogers, the Executive Director of the 2017 Phoenix Final Four. “It’s kind of like when your kids are growing up and you never want to say ‘I can’t wait until…’ but it was great to wake up today and finally have it be game day.”

Rogers couldn’t control the teams that made it to Glendale or the competitiveness of their games, but over the past two years she, her staff and a community of partners that she thanked like a drawn-out Oscar acceptance speech have tried to control everything else.

“The greatest benefit we had was we started early,” said. “For example, when we were fund raising for the budget we did it over two fiscal years so that made it easier for companies to spread out the gifts they were giving us and deal with things earlier when there were hiccups.

“There have been days where you were frustrated. Early in the process, you’re not sure if you’ll have the resources and folks would say ‘what happens if you don’t raise the money?’ We’d just say that’s not an option, but sometimes those nights were sleepless.”

There were potholes along the way, like the construction along the I-10, but once the New Year arrived, Rogers said it was more about trying to “prevent the rock from rolling downhill.

“Once you know the teams and you’re focused on these four groups of student-athletes, it’s a major shift and you appreciate so much the people that are on your team,” she said. “The Tip-off Tailgate went up and I literally did not have to deal with a single issue.”

The Final Four teams weren’t exactly a who’s who of college basketball. Aside from North Carolina, there were no blue bloods, but the newness of this experience for Gonzaga, Oregon and South Carolina created its own storylines, as did Oregon’s ability to overcome the loss of forward Chris Boucher to get here, and Gonzaga’s ability to withstand South Carolina’s furious second-half rally on Saturday to reach the championship game.

“Sometimes when you have a baby you’re like ‘I don’t even want to think about doing that again,'” Rogers said. “We’re all running on four hours of sleep and in the first half [of Gonzaga-South Carolina] I had to get up and walk around a little bit because if I sat still too long I started to nod, but if you told me ‘we’ve just been given the games for next year, would you guys jump back in it?’ I’d do it in a second.

“I’ve lived here for 10 years, but I fell even more in love with the state through this process. We worked so hard to promote this that I learned so much about the state and the folks who live here. We’ve had two Super Bowls in those 10 years, three national championship games, we’ve even had Copa America and WrestleMania come through. It was time for this and it was a fantastic experience.”

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