By Steve Bilsky

Steve Bilsky has been the Athletic Director at the University of Pennsylvania for the past 13 years. Before returning to his alma mater in 1994, Bilsky was Director of Athletics at George Washington University. He can be reached at: athdir@pobox.upenn.edu.

There may be no better feeling in college athletics than winning a national championship. On that magical day, years of hard work and sacrifice culminate in the ultimate achievement.

The second greatest feeling in college sports may come from hosting a national championship. While different than the thrill felt by the champions, the host of a successful NCAA national championship event also shares in the sense of accomplishment that comes from seeing hard work pay off.

Here at the University of Pennsylvania, we have been fortunate to host numerous NCAA events, including the 2005 and 2006 men's lacrosse championships, which consisted of the Division I semifinals and final and the Division II and Division III finals over Memorial Day weekend. During their two years in Philadelphia, the championships drew more than 200,000 spectators, including 47,062 for the 2006 Division I final, the largest crowd to watch any NCAA championship game that season. We are proud to have hosted such successful events and hope to host them again in the future.

As we plan for upcoming championships, we know making these events successful requires proper planning, dedicated effort, and teamwork. Not surprisingly, these are the same things that make for successful teams on the field.

BUSINESS OF BIDDING
Although we were no strangers to the men's lacrosse finals, serving as host in 1973 and 1992, the event had changed considerably since we last hosted it. That was the first year the Division III championship game was held at the site of the Division I tournament. In 2003, the Division II championship game became part of the event, joining the Division III title game on the day between the Division I semifinals and final. As a result, hosting the tournament now means scheduling five games over the course of three days.

The scope of the event also changed that year as it was held at a professional sports facility for the first time, with paid attendance exceeding 100,000 in three days at M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens. After previously being held only at campus sites, the 2003 championships set a new standard for what the NCAA would expect from the event.

We decided to submit a bid to host the 2005 and 2006 championships because we wanted to support the sport of lacrosse and put our own lacrosse programs in the national spotlight. We also knew that with the support of the Philadelphia Sports Congress (PSC), the Philadelphia Eagles, and the city of Philadelphia, we could run a first-class event. We had worked with the off-campus professional sporting venues in our city developing bids for other NCAA events, including the 2000 Women's Basketball Final Four, and knew that they shared our desire to produce the most impressive event possible.

As we started putting together our bid in 2003, conventional wisdom held that our chances were remote. After all, the championships had long enjoyed success in Baltimore--a national hotbed of lacrosse--and there would be some risk involved in moving it elsewhere. Fortunately, our existing relationships with the Eagles and the PSC made it easier for us to navigate the bidding process and also made our bid a lot more attractive to the lacrosse committee.

Indeed, we felt the strongest part of our bid was our partnerships in the city. The Eagles run a first-class operation, and their stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, is one of the finest venues in the United States. Because the Eagles would, in fact, be managing the event if our bid succeeded, their skill and experience in field preparation, security, concessions, parking (and tailgating), game management, and other logistics was a critical part of the bid we presented.

Since an event as large as the men's lacrosse championships goes well beyond the games themselves, the PSC also played a key role in forming a successful bid. A division of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, the PSC helps local organizers recruit and manage major events, such as the Army-Navy football game and various Olympic trials. In our case, the PSC worked with agencies throughout Philadelphia to help promote and facilitate our event. It was particularly helpful in working with hotels and other tourist agencies to ensure that guests would be welcomed properly to the City of Brotherly Love. For example, as part of the bid, we had to arrange for approximately 350 rooms across nine different hotels for the competing teams, NCAA committee members, game officials, and members of the media.

We spent about two months gathering information, projecting expenses and revenues, and outlining who would be responsible for the various aspects of the event from the pre-championship banquet to transportation to media relations. Our efforts to put forth an attractive bid were rewarded in the spring of 2004, when we learned we had been selected to host the 2005 and 2006 championships.

MAKING IT WORK
Not everyone at Penn, however, was overjoyed with the prospect of our school hosting an event of this scope. After all, our department has 33 intercollegiate sports to keep us busy. And we host local and regional tournaments in many different sports as well as Big Five basketball games and the Penn Relays. In other words, our staff's plates are always full.

Hosting an event like the men's lacrosse championships has an impact on almost every part of an athletic department. For example, the Sports Information Director serves as Media Coordinator for the championships. With help from the entire department, sports information handles requests for media credentials, moderates press conferences, and supervises press box operations while also coordinating efforts with the NCAA and sports information staffs from the participating schools. They also arrange for people to compile and distribute game statistics and assist the media in their coverage of the event.

Although most sports information directors are quite familiar with these tasks, the scope of an NCAA championship means there's a lot more work. Plus, since we would be holding the event off-campus, our staff would have to spend a lot of time away from their offices, making everything a little more difficult.

We were also responsible for sports medicine coverage for the event in coordination with the athletic training staffs from the Eagles and competing schools. And our marketing and promotions people were involved with spreading the word about the event and getting local sponsors to help underwrite the cost of the ancillary events that occur around the championships. Basically, everyone in our department was asked to step up and do their part.

The timing of the lacrosse championships certainly worked in our favor. Since they are held over the Memorial Day weekend, the spring semester had already concluded and almost all of our teams had wrapped up competition for the season. This made it a little easier for our staff members to handle their championship duties. But recognizing that we still needed more help, we hired an outside coordinator to serve as our tournament director.

This turned out to be one of the best decisions we made throughout the entire process. We chose Lee Stevens, a local businessman and former coach, who did an excellent job working closely with the Eagles, the local organizing committee, and the NCAA. Having someone in this capacity made a big difference for us especially because the NCAA is very specific about how it expects its championship events to be run.

It would be hard to imagine the championships running as smoothly as they did without Lee's efforts. He organized countless meetings and coordinated clear communication between the various entities involved. He also recruited and oversaw the training of nearly 100 volunteers who assisted with game-day operations, from ball boys to press box attendants. It took a while for Lee to understand the nuances of working for four bosses (Penn, the NCAA, the Eagles, and the PSC), but once this was accomplished, everyone grew more confident that the event would be a success.

As the championship weekend approached, marketing became a pivotal part of our preparation. An NCAA championship truly is an event, not just a series of games, and we knew that getting the word out had to be a top priority. The NCAA provides a wealth of resources and materials to assist in the marketing effort, but it's incumbent on local organizers to lead the way, since they know their market better than anyone.

In addition to making sure that everyone in Philadelphia was aware that we were hosting the championships, we expanded our reach beyond the city limits to help us meet our attendance projections. Fortunately, we are located within driving distance of the many lacrosse fans living in Baltimore, Long Island, and upstate New York. By focusing our publicity efforts on a large audience and casting our net as widely as possible, we were able to exceed our optimistic expectations.

For us, the action began on Friday--a full day before the first face-off was scheduled--when all eight teams arrived for practices and press conferences. That night we had the annual championship banquet, which was open to the public.

Friday was also the day of the YES (Youth Education through Sports) Clinics, which we conducted on campus at Franklin Field. Thanks to scores of volunteer coaching instructors, including many college players and coaches, hundreds of young lacrosse players received hands-on instruction and inspiration that will hopefully produce the next generation of lacrosse players from Philadelphia.

Finally, the games themselves were a wonderful success. The high attendance, boosted by our marketing efforts, created an unforgettable atmosphere for the games, and all our preparation and attention to game-management details paid off. After the 2005 event concluded, we met with our partners for the normal post-event debriefing and decided that there was very little we would have done differently, even with the benefit of hindsight. Thus, the 2006 event was remarkably similar to the first, and we were very proud of our accomplishments in both years.

RIGHT BACK AT IT
Hosting the 2005 and 2006 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championships was a labor of love for Penn athletics, and it would not have been possible without the efforts of the Eagles, PSC, and NCAA. Although the University of Pennsylvania may be listed as the host institution, we understand the teamwork that was required to stage events of this magnitude. And that same team feeling will be called upon again when we host the NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship this year at historic Franklin Field.

When we were announced as host for the women's championship, my staff gave me the same quizzical look I received when I announced we would host the men's games. But I know that although the scope of the event will be smaller, they will put in the same effort to make sure it is as memorable as the last ones were. And we have already begun work with the Eagles to submit a bid to bring the 2009 men's lacrosse championships back to Lincoln Financial Field!

Sidebar: Is It For You?
Hosting an NCAA championship is not for everyone. An event of this size and scope should never be taken on without careful thought and deliberation. I believe several questions must be answered before an institution decides to submit a bid.

First, do you have the support of the entire community? You should consider whether being a championship host would benefit only your institution or if the community would benefit through added tourism dollars and positive publicity. The easiest way to ascertain this is to discuss your ideas with tourism officials and other local agencies. Do not hesitate to ask the mayor or even your state governor for financial support.

Second, can you put on a championship-caliber event? The student-athletes competing are the very best at their sport and deserve a venue worthy of the occasion. If you will not be hosting the event at your own site, make sure the event managers know what they are doing and have a proven record of accomplishment. Nothing spoils an event more than spectators spending an inordinate amount of time parking, waiting in line for tickets, and searching for concessions and rest rooms, or teams arriving and not knowing where to be at what times.

Third, can you make a competitive bid? Make sure facilities are up to snuff and the infrastructure is there to support the event. And be realistic about your customer base--large events like the lacrosse championships are highly sought after, and one of the criteria is whether a venue can offer the right amount of revenue. Our financial guarantee to the NCAA was large, but we did our homework and knew that Philadelphia was perfectly located to cater to the hotbeds of lacrosse and deliver the crowds we needed.