San Antonio lands 2025 NCAA Men's Final Four over North Texas, Los Angeles, Detroit

SAN ANTONIO – The NCAA Men’s Final Four is coming back to San Antonio for a fifth time.

The Alamo City was awarded the 2025 NCAA Men’s Final Four on Tuesday months after it hosted a highly successful Final Four in April. 

“San Antonio continues to raise the bar for the tournament,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said.

Other sites that were awarded Final Fours were Houston (2023), Phoenix (2024) and Indianapolis (2026). San Antonio beat out bids from North Texas, Los Angeles and Detroit.

"Every city wants a Final Four and we were one of seven to come down to the end with the best pitch so we were glad to be one of the last standing, one of the four that got selected," Nirenberg said.

Nirenberg and the San Antonio Local Organizing Committee presented a formal proposal in Boston on Tuesday.

The group was comprised of officials with San Antonio Sports, the City of San Antonio, UTSA and for the first time, the University of the Incarnate Word. 

The Alamodome, which has hosted the previous four events in San Antonio, will once again be the site of the 2025 event, but changes are expected to be made to the venue before then. That includes possibly adding more permanent suites. 

The Alamodome only has 52 permanent suites, but added 14 temporary suites in April to get to a total of 66.

"That is a part of the conversation, the bid specifications require a minimum of 70 suites to host the Final Four and it's something we will have to do," said Jenny Carnes, associate executive director at San Antonio Sports. 

The timing of the NCAA's decision worked in San Antonio's favor. Reaction and feedback from the 2018 event was overwhelmingly positive.

The organizing committee once again touted the downtown footprint, the city's hospitality and access to every Final Four event.

"We felt 2018 was the greatest site visit we could give the NCAA and there's risk that things go wrong, but it went extremely well," said Russ Bookbinder, president/CEO of San Antonio Sports. 

Nationally, there were doubts San Antonio could get another Men's Final Four due to the Alamodome's age, but locally, officials were confident heading in and felt the event would once again call San Antonio home.

Other stadiums in this bidding cycle included AT&T Stadium in Arlington and the under construction Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park.

"We just hosted the best Final Four in tournament history and we had to go to Boston to put on a show about why it will be even bigger and better than we just did," Nirenberg said. "And you know what? They agreed with us and the Final Four is coming back to where it belongs in San Antonio, Texas."