Article Courtesy of the San Antonio Business Journal

San Antonio to host 2011 NCAA Men’s Southwest Regional

by W. Scott Bailey

The NCAA’s Division I Men’s Basketball Committee has selected San Antonio to host its 2011 Men’s Southwest Regional basketball tournament.

The two-day tournament is tentatively slated for Friday, March 25, and Sunday, March 27 at the Alamodome.

The winner of the Southwest Regional will advance to the Final Four Men’s Basketball championship tournament, which will be played in Houston in 2011.

“We’re very excited and proud to have this opportunity to host another great NCAA basketball event,” says UTSA Athletics Director Lynn Hickey, who is in her third year as a member of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee.

Hickey has been instrumental in pushing forward a plan to add a Division I football program. The Roadrunners will kick off their inaugural season in September 2011.

“It will be a busy two-year span with the 2010 Women’s Final Four, the 2011 Women’s Volleyball Championship and the first year of UTSA football, but we’re looking forward to having an NCAA men’s basketball championship event back in the Alamo City,” Hickey says.

San Antonio last hosted an NCAA Men’s Basketball regional tournament in 2007. The city has hosted three Men’s Final Four tournaments.

Anaheim, Calif.; New Orleans and Newark, N.J., will also host 2011 Men’s Basketball regional tournaments.

Article Courtesy of the San Antonio Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2009/09/07/daily22.html

The University of Texas at San Antonio is a step closer to breaking ground on the first phase of planned $84 million UTSA Competitive Athletics Complex.

The University of Texas System has awarded a design team made up of HKS Inc. and Overland Partners Architects a contract to design and engineer the $22 million Phase I portion of the venue village.

HKS Inc. is a Dallas-based architectural firm. It helped design the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Overland Partners Architects is a San Antonio firm. It has extensive experience with UT System building projects — including design projects with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

UTSA officials say HKS/Overland Partners will design and develop the building plans for a soccer stadium, a track and field stadium and the initial utilities, road and parking infrastructure needed for the 60-acre planned athletic complex as part of the Phase I work.

The complex is slated to be built at UTSA Park West, a 125-acre site located at Kyle Seale Parkway and Loop 1604. That site is part of the UTSA Main Campus.

“The architectural planning and approval phase should take nine to 12 months,” says UTSA Athletic Director Lynn Hickey. “We hope to begin construction soon after the plans are approved and (host) events in the complex by 2012.”

UTSA’s plan is to construct a 1,000-seat soccer venue and a 5,000-seat track and field stadium with locker rooms, meeting space, restrooms, a press box and space for ticketing, concessions and merchandise.

These stadiums will be partially funded by revenue generated by a venue tax approved by Bexar County voters in May of 2008. UTSA was allotted $15 million from that tax toward its athletic complex.

UTSA will use another $1.5 million approved by Bexar County voters in a 2003 bond election and $5.5 million from a municipal bond election approved by San Antonio voters in 2007 to help pay for the construction of the complex.

Ultimately, UTSA expects that the athletic complex will also include new baseball, softball and tennis venues and practice facilities for a new Roadrunners football program scheduled to kick off in 2011.

“These eventually will be top-notch collegiate facilities capable of hosting NCAA playoffs and other large-scale tourist-destination events,” Hickey says.

UTSA is one of the fastest-growing higher-education institutions in Texas. It is the second-largest of nine academic universities and six health institutions in the UT System.