Final Four Stadium Showcase: The Alamodome In San Antonio

This weekend, the Alamodome in San Antonio will play host to the 2018 NCAA Men’s Final Four, featuring college basketball heavyweights Kansas and Villanova, the long powerful Michigan Wolverines and the upstart and out of nowhere squad from Loyola-Chicago.   

Entering the weekend, odds makers are predicting a Villanova versus Michigan final, with the betting odds to win the National Championship favoring the Wildcats, who are seeking the school’s second title in three years.

2018 marks the fourth time the Alamodome has hosted the men’s Final Four (1998, 2004, 2008, 2018), with the women’s Final Four taking place inside the building on two occasions (2002, 2010).

Located in downtown San Antonio, immediately east of Interstate 37, the stadium sits on the opposite side of the freeway from the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and one mile southeast of both The Alamo and the heart of San Antonio’s famed River Walk.

The facility is found two miles southwest of the AT&T Center, the home arena of the San Antonio Spurs. The club called the Alamodome home from 1993 through 2002, with the franchise’s first of five NBA championships taking place during the 1998-1999 season, when the Spurs used the dome as its home venue. The 1996 NBA All-Star Game also took place within its walls.

Originally opening its doors in 1993, at a cost of $186 million, the Alamodome holds an interesting distinction in that it is one of the very few major metropolitan sports venues that does not stand as the home venue for either a professional sports team or major college sports program. In fact, the complex’s only current regular tenant is the University of Texas at San Antonio football squad, who uses the space just six times per year.

These days, the Alamodome operates as a dual sports and convention center, rented out for football, basketball, baseball and hockey games, along with tradeshows, concerts, dirt racing and a bevy of other events, about 150 times per year. With the building’s close proximity to many of San Antonio’s signature tourist attractions, the structure serves as an integral part of one of America’s most frequently visited destination cities.

In addition to housing the Spurs for nearly a decade, the Alamodome is the current home of the annual Valero Alamo Bowl and US Army All-American Bowl.

The NFL has used the dome for several preseason games, multiple Dallas Cowboys training camps, and New Orleans Saints home games, when the team was displaced after Hurricane Katrina.

The Alamodome normally seats 40,000 for basketball and 64,000 for football. Interestingly, the 2018 Final Four involves an expansion of seating capacity all the way up to a whopping 70,000.

During all sports and non sporting events, including corporate meetings and events, the Alamodome provides use of the 4,000-square-foot Hall of Fame Club, 6,000-square-foot South Club Eyebrow, 3,500-square-foot Top of the Dome Club and a newly enhanced 23,000-square-foot multi-purpose room, which also comes with its own loading dock.

The Alamodome can also be transformed into the Illusions Theater, a 4,000 to 11,000-seat viewing space, which is configured within the dome’s seating bowl.

Simply stated, San Antonio’s Alamodome is one of the most uniquely used venues in the United States, with the 25-year-old structure’s greatest asset being its incredible versatility.