This NCAA women’s super regional is a blockbuster playing off-off-off-off Broadway

ALBANY, N.Y. — This city is 150 miles from New York, but the Big Apple, it isn’t.

I have no bones to pick with Albany. Who wouldn’t want to be within 20 miles of Schenectady? But you’re showcasing women’s college basketball here this weekend?

You’ve got unbeaten South Carolina, defending national-champion LSU and box office magnet Iowa in this city of 100,000 people. Those are the three top drawing cards in the women’s game, with the Hawkeyes’ Caitlin Clark headlining.

You could probably sell out this super regional of eight Sweet 16 teams in most major American metropolises.

Albany has the Empire State Plaza, elevation 250 feet above sea level. New York has the Empire State Building, 1,454 feet above the ground.

New York’s Madison Avenue has the most fashionable fashion, great dining, great art. Albany’s Madison Avenue has a Ben & Jerry’s.

New York has Madison Square Garden. Albany has MVP Arena, which used to be Times Union Center, which used to be Pepsi Arena, which used to be Knickerbocker Arena.

The actual New York Knickerbockers, of course, are in New York. Albany has the Firebirds, of Arena Football League. Season tickets are available.

I’m not knocking the minor leagues. I live in a minor-league baseball city. I’m 25 miles from minor-league pro hockey in Coralville. The minors are fine. But this event isn’t minor-league.

Here is the situation in Albany: The teams are seeded. For hotels.

“The higher seeds get the nicer hotels,” LSU Coach Kim Mulkey said Friday, “but maybe we’ll reach a place one day where we can give the bids to people who can say here are our eight hotels and they’re all great.”

Iowa, as a No. 1 seed, presumably has a nice place to stay leading into its Saturday Sweet 16 game against Colorado.-It certainly had a larger MVP Arena locker room than the Buffaloes, at least for Friday’s practices there.

Where the Buffaloes are roaming here, I don’t know. I’m in a place where I have yet to spot mold, but also haven’t wanted to look closely enough to find it.

Things won’t soon get any more glamorous than this year’s women’s super regionals in Albany and Portland, Ore. The 2025 super regionals are in Birmingham, Ala., and Spokane, Wash. In 2026, it’s Fort Worth, Texas, and Sacramento, Calif.

“Unfortunately,” Mulkey said, “the bids go out I don’t know how many years ahead of time. Are we getting enough people bidding on the women’s game, and maybe that’s why one is where it is and one is where it is.

“I know with the personalities and the ratings and how good the game is right now, maybe we will get more bids to host.”

Iowa’s 2023 super regional was Seattle, a truly major city. Albany isn’t Seattle.

"Albany,“ Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said, ”obviously the hotels aren't as plentiful and maybe as nice, and obviously we're talking about every time we're on extreme coasts. We play some pretty good basketball in the Midwest, too, and we'd love to have the opportunity to showcase women's basketball at its finest in the Midwest, as well.

“Can't there be something in the middle that helps a little bit? I don't know. I would think so.

“I think women's basketball has grown so quickly, we haven't been able to keep up with it. It has, it's exploded, and we do these bids so far out that I don't think people knew what to expect three or four years ago when they bid on these sites.

I’ve heard Des Moines will try to again get a men’s first-week basketball hosting gig in 2027, and also will take a shot at landing a women’s super regional.

If Albany, Spokane and Sacramento are the templates for some odd reason, Des Moines would fit just as well.

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Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com