NCAA Moves 2028 Women's Final Four to Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium from Pacers' Arena

The NCAA announced Tuesday it's shifting the Final Four of the 2028 NCAA women's basketball tournament from Gainbridge Fieldhouse to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

"Moving the 2028 Women's Final Four to Lucas Oil Stadium will allow for more access for our fans, and it represents the continued growth of the sport," said Amanda Braun, chairperson of the Division I Women's Basketball Committee. "With the interest we have seen, holding the Women's Final Four in a larger venue in Indianapolis is a natural next step."

The NCAA said the venue change will result in having around 13,000 more seats per game.

The move reflects how much women's basketball has grown over the past five years. UConn's victory over South Carolina in the national championship last season averaged 8.6 million viewers, a 76 percent rise from when the Gamecocks bested the Huskies in the 2022 final.

Thanks to those trends, staging Final Four games in a football stadium over a traditional basketball arena was inevitable. Men's basketball has operated that way for decades.

Before Tuesday's decision, the 2029 women's Final Four was already slated for San Antonio's Alamodome.

Some fans and even players may push back on the general idea, though.

While Lucas Oil Stadium's higher capacity means having more tickets available, fans seated in the upper levels will be further from the court than they would've been in Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

While the data is inconclusive, there's also the idea that players shoot worse in spacious domes over more intimate arenas. Football stadiums weren't built with basketball specifically in mind, so it can create different sight lines.

Alas, the NCAA would've left a lot of money on the table by keeping the 2028 Final Four at Gainbridge Fieldhouse if it felt confident it could sell out Lucas Oil Stadium just the same.