March Madness has officially arrived in St. Louis and the city is psyched for this weekend’s Final Four. But the tournament will not be your only chance to get in on the action. If you’ve missed out on the brackets or have bet away all of your savings, there are plenty of free events and activities in the St. Louis area that are sure to entertain. Even if you choose to experience the Madness from the comfort of your couch, the showdown is set. This Saturday Illinois will face Louisville and UNC will duel it out with Michigan State in downtown St. Louis.

This year’s Final Four will be the fourth hosted by the city of St. Louis. The city has previously welcomed three men’s Final Fours and one women’s. However, this year’s tournament is the first to be held in the Edward Jones Dome, which was completed in 1995. St. Louis, which has been called an ideal location for this kind of event because of its size and compact downtown area, was selected to host the tournament back in 1998 and has spend the past seven years preparing for this weekend.

Although tickets may be nearly impossible to obtain and all of the hotel rooms in the city are booked, there is really a lot more going on this weekend than just the tournament itself. In fact, there is so much going on in the next few days that the games seem like an afterthought… well, almost.

“There are so many things for everyone,” said Frank Viverito, the president of the St. Louis Sports Commission and one of the forces behind bringing this weekend’s events to St. Louis. “Practices are all open and free to the public, so anyone can come down and watch the teams practice.”

For Viverito and the rest of the St. Louis Sports Commission, this weekend has been a long time in the making and one that they are eager to see become reality.

“Our bid [for the Final Four] was prepared in 1997. The event was awarded to St. Louis in June of 1998. It’s wonderful that this building [the Edward Jones Dome] can produce so well for the region,” said Viverito.

Along with the honor of receiving the bid, St. Louis will profit from the immense economic benefits of the weekend.

“The economic impact… ranges from $50-62 million in that one weekend and that almost pales in comparison to the visibility [and] the excitement [and] the understanding that St. Louis is on a national stage and that we are capable of producing an event of this magnitude, its just really exciting,” said Viverito.

Doug Elgin, commissioner of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), the conference sponsoring the tournament, pointed out that this weekend will be a great financial opportunity for local businesses.

“[There will be] a lot more emphasis on staying open late if you’re bars or restaurants [...] It’s a great opportunity to make money for the restaurateurs and bar owners.”

Furthermore, with two of the Final Four teams based within 300 miles of St. Louis, the number of visitors could be even larger than expected, as the city swells with Illinois and Louisville fans.

Elgin is anticipating larger numbers than were initially predicted.

“Conservatively [we predicted] 50,000, but I think that with Illinois and Louisville coming we’re going to see more like 75 to 100 [thousand],” said Elgin. “The influx of visitors here is going to be like nothing we’ve seen before.”

Viverito also noted that the Edward Jones Dome is one of the few stadiums in the region with the capacity to house an event like the Final Four.

“[Receiving the bid for the tournament] is not as complicated a situation as some might expect because there are only ten or so buildings across the country that can host the Final Four. It’s a rigorous procedure because it’s very specific… a lot of pieces have to come together,” said Viverito.

While the venue is ideal for the event, the seating capacity has been cut down significantly from its oval football-field shape to accommodate the smaller basketball court.

Mary Hendron, director of Public Relations for the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission (CVC), which owns and operates the Edward Jones Dome, said that the total capacity for the Dome is 70,000 people. However, the transformation for the tournament has downsized the number to around 46,700.

“The planning is mostly done, and now it’s just executing those plans,” said Elgin.

As this weekend nears, the local organizing committee for the tournament (comprised of the MVC, the St. Louis Sports Commission, Saint Louis University and the CVC) is adding the final touches and preparing for any foreseeable problems.

“The dome itself is pretty much set up, other than the technical aspects,” said Elgin, who has planned for “scoreboard problems, power outages, or major things that can go wrong.”

“The one thing that we can’t do anything about [is the weather],” joked Carole Moody, president of the CVC. “But everything else that we can control I think is well in hand.”

When asked about other opportunities and events that the ticketless fan can take advantage of, Viverito said there is a “whole series of special events, from Hoop City, which is an interactive event in the Convention Center, to Dasani Fest, which is a musical event that runs most of the day Sunday. They have artists like Kelly Clarkson and Gavin DeGraw and Joss Stone that will be performing.”

Other events include Taste of St. Louis, which includes 25 area restaurants in the city and will take place all weekend in Kiener Plaza. The March to the Arch, an event where an estimated 3,000 children will be dribbling basketballs down Market Street to the Arch, is scheduled for Sunday afternoon. According to Viverito, there is also a Nelly concert scheduled for Sunday night.

Freshman Troy Ruths, a forward on the Washington University basketball team, is excited about the Final Four being in St. Louis this year.

“I would say that it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be in the same city as the Final Four,” said Ruths. “The Final Four is more than just three games. You can see the whole city come alive.”

In a stroke of luck, Ruths got a ticket to the game from an old basketball coach.

“[The seat's] not bad-about halfway up,” said Ruths. “Usually the good seats go to the coaches and the players’ families.”

Sophomore Sally Preminger, a diehard UNC fan from Chapel Hill, found another means of getting tickets to the Final Four.

“[My brother and I] got tickets this summer through the NCAA lottery,” said Preminger. “I knew this summer that we were going [to the tournament], and I just prayed that UNC would get there.”

Preminger also said that she is planning on checking out Hoops Village and that she has tickets to the Slam Dunk Contest at the Fieldhouse on Thursday.

The weekend wouldn’t be complete without the after-hours parties. The marketing group Synergy is throwing several parties, some of which will feature the St. Lunatics and Chingy while another will be hosted by a Playboy Bunny.

“It made sense, having one of the largest sporting events in the country in St. Louis, to put together a series of events that would successfully reflect the diversity of St. Louis nightlife,” said Andrew Mullins, one of the managing partners of Synergy. “This town has no idea what it’s about to be hit with.”

Overall, this is not a weekend to be missed, and Viverito summed it up by saying, “it’s a little bit of Mardi Gras, and it’s a little bit of basketball and it’s a whole lot of fun. There are so many people in town and there are so many special events that occur that there’s something going on all weekend long.”

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