Fo(u)r the Love of the Game

By Joey Johnston - Click to read on WFFTampaBay.com

TAMPA, FL - The Tampa Bay area will make hoops history on April 4 and 6 when it becomes the first community to host the NCAA Women’s Final Four for a fourth time. Just imagine the exhilarating scene at Amalie Arena — and all of downtown Tampa — when it’s finally four on the floor and the entire women’s basketball ecosystem accelerates onto center stage.

The landscape: Hard sellouts. Record-setting television ratings. A celebration of teams and athletes who now appeal to millions of mainstream sports fans, not just the loyal hard-core followers. The Women’s Final Four is good for sports — and business.

So how did it happen? How did the land of palm trees, world-class beaches and breathtaking sunsets become an epicenter and preferred destination for the NCAA’s hottest sport?

Four big reasons: 

* Decades of basketball excellence and tradition in Tampa Bay.

* The area’s world-class hospitality.

* It's well-documented precision at staging big-time athletic events.

* And the secret weapon … Tampa’s mayor, Jane Castor, is a Hall of Fame baller.

“Well, I guess I used to be a baller,’’ Castor said with a laugh.

Castor is too modest. It’s true. She has game. At Chamberlain High School and the University of Tampa, she was a legitimate big-time basketball player. How many American cities can make that statement about their top elected official?

Castor knows what it’s like to stop and pop from the baseline. She knows the fury of standing her ground in the lane and grabbing a rebound. She knows the bliss of practicing her favorite shots — all by herself — and dreaming the biggest dreams.

“Basketball is a beautiful game,’’ said Castor, a 6-foot center and an aggressive force down low who had 1,055 points and 508 rebounds during her UT career from 1977-81, when women’s basketball was still finding its footing. “You can play five-on-five full-court or you can just go out there to shoot by yourself. So it’s truly a game for everyone.

“Basketball taught me about discipline, hard work and getting along with all sorts of people. It gave me so many valuable life skills. It taught how to win and lose with grace. It really set the stage for my entire life.’’

What if Castor, a UT Athletic Hall of Famer, came along these days? What if she could’ve experienced something like Tampa Bay’s Women’s Final Four with the sellout crowds, international television exposure and emerging professional basketball opportunities? She laughed out loud.

“With the way the game has advanced, I’m not sure there would even be a place for me now,’’ Castor said. “The level of athleticism and competitiveness is just tremendous. I marvel at it and I marvel at what women’s basketball has become.

“I just think we’re in for a tremendous treat when we get to host another Women’s Final Four. The game has never been more popular and our community is ready to showcase this great event. For the visitors from all over the world who will experience all our area has to offer, it’s going to be spectacular.’’

A History Of Excellence

Tampa Bay’s Women’s Final Four experience reads like an encyclopedia on the game’s history.

Pat Summitt. Geno Auriemma. Tara VanDerveer. Kim Mulkey. Muffet McGraw. Dawn Staley.

The legendary coaches held court.

Candace Parker. Candice Wiggins. Maya Moore. Sylvia Fowles. Breanna Stewart. Jewell Lloyd. A’ja Wilson. Sabrina Ionescu. Arike Ogunbowale.

The iconic players made sensational memories.

Who can forget the 2008 event, when the legendary Summitt captured what would be her eighth and final national title for the Tennessee Lady Vols? It was a stunning display of how far women’s basketball had come. “As good as it gets,’’ ESPN’s Doris Burke said in analyzing the star-studded All-American field of Parker, Wiggins, Moore and Fowles that had gathered in Tampa Bay.

It was also a tipping point in the event’s evolution.

In addition to the basketball, Tampa Bay was the place where “Beyond The Baseline’’ began, a forum for top leaders to gather, network, educate and shine the light on women’s issues. Tampa Bay’s work became a template for the NCAA’s ability to further develop the “Beyond Series’’ and delve into solution-based cultural and social subjects.

“There are certain places where you know you want to come back, and Tampa is one of those places,’’ NCAA president Myles Brand said in the wake of Tennessee’s 64-48 championship victory against Stanford. “The amenities, the arena, the local organizing committee … everything is first class. 

“But the people are the most important part of all. People make the difference in a good event and a great event. The people of Tampa have really embraced it. I feel certain that the Women’s Final Four will return to Tampa.’’

 Brand was correct. Seven months later, Tampa Bay was awarded the 2015 Women’s Final Four.

The NCAA surely noticed the $19-million in direct economic impact the event created in Tampa Bay (the 2007 event in Cleveland was at $10-million). As Tampa Bay Sports Commission executive director Rob Higgins noted, the out-of-town fans came early and stayed late, making it a coveted destination.

Not resting on its laurels, the TBSC aggressively courted the NCAA and impressed the group with its enthusiasm. Instead of the customary binder, the bid proposal was sent as a “Postcard From Tampa.’’ It included postcards from the Florida Aquarium, Ybor City, Busch Gardens, Channelside and Amalie Arena.

When the NCAA women’s basketball committee had its site inspection at the Tampa Convention Center, its members played a round of golf inside the building, had an encounter with penguins from the Florida Aquarium, were serenaded by the Busch Gardens Sheikhs and witnessed a massive balloon drop.

Instead of being taken to a restaurant, the group was escorted for a meal at the Davis Islands home of Sandy MacKinnon, the chairman of Tampa Bay & Company. Then a pirate showed up — posing as Jose Gaspar — and everyone was “kidnapped’’ and taken for dessert at Bern’s Steak House.

“Once again, their innovation, creativity and passion came through loud and clear,’’ said Sue Donohoe, the NCAA’s vice president of women's basketball in 2008.

The NCAA believed in the area’s abilities so much that it awarded the 2019 Women’s Final Four to Tampa Bay before the 2015 event was staged. Then the 2015 promptly brought more history.

For only the third time in event history, all four teams were No. 1 seeds. The UConn Huskies pulled off a three-peat, defeating Notre Dame 63-53 for the program’s third straight national title and 10th overall. UConn’s Stewart captured her third consecutive Most Outstanding Player Award at the Final Four, joining UCLA’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only basketball players with that distinction (and she would earn a record fourth MOP in 2016).

“I loved Tampa, loved it,’’ Stewart said. “We just had the best time. I’m not going to forget this place.’’

“It’s hard to beat Tampa, where the weather is so nice,’’ UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “This is definitely one of the nicest arenas we’ve ever played in. The people embraced us and there was so much going on downtown, along the river, around the hotels. The whole thing could not have been more organized. It wouldn’t bother me one iota if we came back here soon — and often.’’

In 2019, it was one of the most dramatic title-game finishes ever, when Mulkey’s Baylor Bears completed a 37-1 season by defeating Notre Dame 82-81 on Chloe Jackson’s layup with 3.9 seconds remaining. There was a sellout crowd of 20,127, meaning Tampa Bay had drawn a record 123,039 fans to its three Final Fours over 11 years.

“Tampa Bay did a phenomenal job,’’ said Lynn Holzman, the NCAA’s vice president of women's basketball in 2019. “There’s history here.’’

Indeed, there is. With women’s basketball popularity at an all-time high, there’s the opportunity for even more history in April when Tampa Bay hosts its fourth Women’s Final Four. 

The Sport Is Red-Hot

Last season’s NCAA women’s championship game between South Carolina and Iowa drew 18.9-million viewers, a record for the sport. It outdrew the men’s title game (UConn-Purdue, 14.8-million) for the first time and was the most watched basketball game of any sort since 2019.

Meanwhile, last season’s WNBA attendance increased by 48-percent year-on-year to its highest level in more than two decades and the league’s merchandise sales increased by a whopping 601-percent. 

Is it the “Caitlin Clark Effect?’’ That can’t be denied, but there are other factors, too.

Clark, the former University of Iowa All-American, captured legions of new fans with her deep-shooting charisma and straight-from-the-heartland style. Women’s basketball seemed to enjoy its Magic-Bird moment in 2023, when LSU’s Angel Reese tangled with Clark in that season’s title game.

Clark and Reese met again during the 2024 region final, when Iowa gained revenge. And when South Carolina won last season’s national championship, Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley praised the vanquished Clark for helping to boost the sport to new levels of popularity.

The WNBA has a new media rights deal worth approximately $200-million per year, which was three times greater than its previous package (but still significantly behind the NBA’s new 11-year deal worth about $76-billion).

Such things couldn’t have been imagined back in the 1990s, when women’s basketball first discovered an upward trajectory. The Women’s Final Four enjoyed its first sellout in 1993 at Atlanta’s Omni. At a time when there was still free admission to women’s games on many campuses, Final Four tickets were being scalped.

But Texas Tech star Sheryl Swoopes said women’s basketball remained “starved for publicity’’ compared to the men’s game and “things have got to change for our sport to thrive.’’ Swoopes joked that maybe women’s players should wear bikinis to gain attention. She was joking, but the quote was widely circulated.

Swoopes found a better solution.

She scored 47 points in a seminal championship-game performance against Ohio State, prompting the legendary Nancy Lieberman-Cline to dub Swoopes as “a pioneer, even though she doesn’t know it yet.’’ She revealed that the NBA had a task force on hand in Atlanta to study women’s basketball and the possibility of backing a women’s professional league that became the WNBA.

Women’s basketball was lifted into the modern era by Tennessee’s enduring power, UConn’s emergence (Rebecca Lobo, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, and the like), and the 1996 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team, plus the creation of depth and parity throughout the sport.

“We have a great product,’’ said USF women’s basketball coach Jose Fernandez, president-elect of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. “If you continue to invest in our sport and give it television exposure, it’s going to keep growing.’’

Who’s headed to Tampa Bay for the 2025 Women’s Final Four? At this point, who knows? But it’s going to be fun watching the story unfold.

With players such as USC’s JuJu Watkins, UConn’s Paige Bueckers, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, USC’s Kiki Iriafen, Texas’ Madison Booker, UCLA’s Lauren Betts, South Carolina’s MiLaysia Fulwiley, LSU’s Aneesah Morrow and Iowa State’s Audi Crooks, there’s a constellation of new stars on the horizon.

Jane Castor, Tampa’s 59th mayor, was one of the city’s biggest stars when girls' basketball was introduced to the Hillsborough County School District in the mid-1970s. The game was fun, and it was even more fun to be accepted as a female athlete. Her primary goal was to earn a college scholarship.

A sold-out Women’s Final Four? National television? The opportunity to make a living as a professional basketball player? Those concepts were beyond Castor’s imagination.

“When I see a little boy wearing the jersey of a women’s basketball player that he looks at with awe, it just warms my heart,’’ Castor said. “When I see how basketball can help build confidence in young women, it becomes more than just a game for me.

“I’m so proud of our city and its ability to help stage an event like this. Showing off our incredible community is such an honor and pleasure for me. I happen to think that nobody does it better than we do because of the leadership of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission. I absolutely cannot wait to be part of another Women’s Final Four.’’

As the suspense builds over which teams will qualify for women’s basketball’s big show, it’s again Tampa Bay’s time to shine. The economic impact, international exposure and quality of play all seem like an obvious winning formula. You might even call it a four-gone conclusion.