Canzano: 'Podunk' city pulls off unthinkable NCAA win

'Wagon-wheel town' wins again.

Moda Center will host the 2030 NCAA Tournament women’s Final Four. (Photo: Naji Saker)

This week’s big fallacy is provided by a few national media members and college athletics industry folks who believe Portland is some kind of podunk, third-rate, difficult-to-access, wagon-wheel town.

“Nothing personal,” they insist.

Some outsiders believe the women’s NCAA Tournament Regional deserves the glow of a bigger American city. They’d tell you Portland and Albany — the two Regional sites in 2024 — are difficult to access.

One industry source wrote on social media: “Terrible places to get to from a logistics standpoint.”

Another penned: “Sport has seemingly outgrown these locations.”

I’m not naming names here because I’m not mean. Also, I like to think they’re mostly talking about Albany, which is half the size of Portland’s metropolitan population of 2.1 million people. But maybe I’m just trying to make myself feel better.

The NCAA moved to a two-site format for the women’s Regional last year. Having eight teams per location (vs. four teams in the men’s bracket) proved to be a big success. But now, television ratings for the women’s tournament are up. And ticket sales are busy setting records.

Something beautiful is happening with women’s college basketball. We’re paying attention to it like never before. The movement is being championed by stars such as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, JuJu Watkins, and others. It’s also giving a place like Portland — little old media market No. 22 — the chance to participate.

I saw droves of people lined up outside Moda Center on Friday and Saturday, waiting to get a look at the NCAA Tournament for themselves. They somehow found their way to the tiny metropolis of Portland, parked their buggies, and buzzed as they came through the doors of the local NBA barn.

The bids for the tournament sites are won years in advance. The women’s NCAA Regional bids for 2027 and 2028 are already in. Decisions are expected in October. The Final Four sites for the women’s tournament are already set through 2031. Portland will host the women’s Final Four in 2030.

The region has a proven record of supporting basketball events with robust ticket sales. Also, the city was willing to lock down more than 3,500 hotel rooms years in advance at the friendly rate of $199 a night. Some bigger cities refused to do that. Also, the Oregon Convention Center and the luxury of two side-by-side basketball arenas provide ample space for basketball games, off-day practices, a coaching convention, and a fan fest.

A difficult place to access?

Portland?!?

PDX Airport is served by 15 airlines and has more than 500 arriving daily flights from 78 domestic cities. As Jim Etzel, CEO of Sport Oregon, told me on Saturday: “It’s pretty easy to get to Portland.”

I forgive those bellyaching about Portland/Albany being the tentpoles of this year’s two-site format. They don’t know what an NCAA Regional means to people in two regions who were showing up for women’s college basketball before it was fashionable. They also forget that the beauty of the tournament is how beloved it is across the country, not just in places such as Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles.

I saw it up close on Saturday.

One of the highlights was seeing so many parents with their children in the Moda Center crowd. Also, talking with women who played college basketball themselves years ago in empty gymnasiums. During Saturday’s game, I looked up and saw Kathy Walker, a Hall of Fame three-sport star at Lewis and Clark College in the stands. Walker will tell you that she looked around the packed arena as UConn vs. Duke tipped off on Saturday night and got choked up.

I did, too.

A few other things:

• The women’s NCAA Regional sites are already booked for the next two years (Birmingham, Ala., and Spokane in 2025; Fort Worth and Sacramento in 2026). Just wait until the big-city snobs hear about that.

• The NCAA’s plan was to use a two-site Regional format for the next two years before re-evaluating. However, a well-placed source told me on Saturday to expect discussion this spring about returning to a four-site regional format for the women’s tournament.

• Lynn Holzman, the NCAA’s vice president of women’s basketball, said in a written statement: “Our championship is again delivering. Record crowds, ratings, incredible performances, and evolving storylines will continue to make the next two weeks a must-see for fans across the world.”

• None of the rise in popularity of the women’s event is bad for Portland. Four Regional sites vs. two? Great. That seems to offer Portland a chance to participate more frequently.

• It’s worth noting that a city has to want the event to get it. Some of the larger cities haven’t traditionally bothered to bid on anything but the men’s NCAA Tournament events. Sad, but true. It’s why Portland, which sold out droves of professional women’s soccer games for years, lined itself up for women’s basketball.

• It’s possible that some larger U.S. cities could decide to bid on the upcoming women’s NCAA Tournament Regionals. But Etzel told me that his group hasn’t yet noted a change in the market size of the cities that prepare bids.

• There have also been whispers about the women’s tournament settling into a recurring site for the Final Four, something akin to college baseball’s annual pilgrimage to Omaha. Could Portland be the forever place for the women’s Final Four? Imagine the outcry.

The Portland region is home to Nike, Adidas, Columbia, Intel, and a number of other well-known companies. It’s woefully underserved as a sports market. In a lot of ways, Portland is the perfect place to hold an event that would not just look special on TV, but be the most important thing going on in the host city.

Portland Regional attendance is up 20 percent from the 2019 event. (Photos: Serena Morones/Naji Saker)

USC secured a spot in the Elite Eight on Saturday by beating Baylor. Then, 45 minutes later, JuJu Watkins emerged from the locker room, looked up at the crowd, and waded into the lower bowl at Moda Center looking for her parents.

UConn was on its way to beating Duke in the bracket’s other semifinal held on Saturday. Watkins wanted to sit for a few minutes with her family and watch the game. But she soon realized two unforeseen issues needed to be dealt with.

One, a pack of fans saw USC’s star freshman coming up the arena stairs and lined up to take photographs with her. They blocked the aisles. And two, there were almost no empty seats in the lower bowl of the NBA arena.

Watkins took care of her fans, particularly the young ones. She stopped every five or six feet, put her arm around a beaming child, and smiled for a photo. Ushers closed in and offered to help run interference but the USC guard waved them off and kept posing and grinning until there were no more pictures to take.

By the time Watkins got to her parents, some alert Trojans fans had already solved her second problem. They stood up, rearranged themselves, and created an empty seat beside her father in Section 101.

It all came together very nicely.

Just like the event in Portland itself.

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